Thomas Valle
Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Making massive dioramas on demand apparently is no problem for Thomas: When a friend awaiting Russian guests asked him to demonstrate his modeling by depicting the fall of Berlin for them, Thomas took four months and built several city blocks in 1/35 scale. On a 50" x 30" plywood/plastic foam base, he laid out cobblestone streets and sidewalks made from MiniArt sections. Buildings are kits from MiniArt and Verlinden, with interiors scratchbuilt from basswood and foamcore. The cityscape is populated with resin and plastic figures from Verlinden, Warrior, Masterbox, Dragon, Stalingrad, Warrior, Mig, and Evolution; they were painted with Vallejo acrylics and Abteilung and AK Interactive oils. Throughout there are armor kits from Dragon and Tamiya. The tram is by MiniArt. Thomas says, “My friend absolutely loved it, and he said his Russian friends were amazed by it. I love building World War II dioramas and model kits, and I look forward to every FSM so I can see what everyone else around the world is building.” Looks like turnabout is fair play, Thomas.