"Death in the Courtyard" *finished, more pics, page 15*

WOW, Manny! You've done it again! Another fabulous dio, with fabulous figures front-and-center!

I do believe this is one of my favorites from you! I really just LOVE the tension, the urgency, and most;ly, the mystery of this scene!! LIke, where is the next threat coming from? 

The water effects are superb! I love the water on the ground, and the flowing water out of the barrel! S-O C-O-O-L!!!

You know what would be awesome? A "bookends"-type next dio, where you portray the other side of the wall and gate there! Get the same kit that you used for the little house and gate, and do an "opposite side" with the Germans preparing something nasty for the Gi's! 

A truly supreme dio, Manny! YOU DA MANNY!

 Congrats Manstein's Revenge,

 A well done job. Looks great from all the angles. I think you've done an excellent job in bringing the WWII pics into a 3 dimensional form, capturing the urgency of squad level combat. A cool "Real Time" look to the dio. A fine job on the Tamiya figures too.

 Mobious

Thanks Manny! Been following since jump street.........the interaction and your willingness to take advice........truly a great, dramatic dio!

Manny, I can't help but repeat what doog said.  WOW.  Your dio is simple but great. The figures are superb and the water effects show the time of the scene perfectly.  And the dead German is excellent.  Not to much gore and very realistic, I think. 

Top notch build and look forward to your next build.

As a few have said, WOW!  I hope your connection allows more pictures soon, as I am EAGERLY waiting for them!

This is a very nice build, and words fail me.  I only wish I could express how nice I think this is.

Michael 

Mixael wrote:

This is a very nice build, and words fail me.  I only wish I could express how nice I think this is.

It's called

You Da Manny! Awesome dio. I absolutely love it!!!!!!

airtrans Crash wrote:

beautiful! have you considered doing a How To: article on your method of figure painting?

PLEASE!!!!!

Manny - Words as usual cannot describe the beauty, art, workmanship, detail, craftsmanship, and style you bring to a dio.

Your figures as usual are beyound reproach.

Rounds Complete!!

     Manny, another exceptional piece of work. You've done a fantastic job on those Tamiya figures. And that wagon.... WOW!

    Thanks also for including the period photos. The third one with the GI in the cammo has gotten my wheels turning.

Here's the rest of the pics !!! 

SteveM wrote:

Awesome work, Manny. Looking great. You gonna add some tracks and ground contour? You may have already, and I missed it. Figures are looking superb, and the leaky barrel has turned out perfectly. Steve

I hate dial-up. I can only ever load about the first three or four pictures in a thread and that takes quite a while. It's worth it though, this is a really nice dio. I'll put in another vote for a figure how-to.
----------Kevin

Over the top, Manny... I can hear the narrator, "COMBAT! Staring Vic Morrow, and Rick Jason!"...

Thanks, sfcmac, bbrownii, Rick, mg.mikael, doog, mobious, wbill, subfixer, namrednef, RBaer, moose, Mixael, Boba, airtrans, samreichart, redleg, panzerguy, smeagol, Steve, kevleerey and Hammer...

...glad that everyone seemed to like the tension I was trying to recreate in a firefight...also was pleased with the water-barrel effect and feel I did a fairly good job with that, as well as with the casualty and wagon...

...doog, that is a cool idea about doing another scene from the German perspective...I actually had a flash of that thought when I painted my last two SS figs, as they seemed to be lurking on the other side of that green fence...

...I appreciate the feedback I got while I was in the build...I actually took many suggestions and incorpirated them into the dio, one of which was actual final figgie placement.  Thanks again to everyone who took an interest--this was truly a group effort!!!

WOW GREAT job Manny!

One gets a tense feeling looking at the diorama, very powerful feeling.  Very, very well done.

It really has come together nicely Manny. You must feel pleased with the final result.I think the watre from the barrel came out very nicely and the mixing with the spilled blood is rich with metaphor.

There are only a couple of small points I would suggest you consider. The first is to bring a bit of the ground colour up onto the wagon. Its not quite there yet. THe second suggestion is to sift some gravel and spread fine to medium bits around. You have some large pices already present, but a little messiness in less trafficked areas would add to the overall impression. I just think it looks slightly bare. These are very small details.

Well done. You pushed yourself beyoind your usual comfort zone and it really paid off.

First let me say that this is amazing. I can not think of enough superlatives to describe how good I think this is. This is an example of what I would consider as work by a master modeler.  

Besides the effect of the bullet holes in the barrel, I find the last soldier looking off the base and signaling to no one visible to be extremely effective in adding to the story.  You don't know if he's signaling to one person or ten...

very well done.

panzerguy wrote:

Manny, another exceptional piece of work. You've done a fantastic job on those Tamiya figures. And that wagon.... WOW!     Thanks also for including the period photos. The third one with the GI in the cammo has gotten my wheels turning.

The GI in the camo is most likely a soldier from the 2nd (I believe it was the 2nd) US armored division, which briefly experimented w/ camo uniforms about the time of operation "Cobra"...they didn't last long as they resembled too much the German SS in the area who also wore camo (primarily from Das Reich and GvB)...by this stage of the war camo was too much associated w/ SS soldiers... 

vespa boy wrote:

It really has come together nicely Manny. You must feel pleased with the final result.I think the watre from the barrel came out very nicely and the mixing with the spilled blood is rich with metaphor. There are only a couple of small points I would suggest you consider. The first is to bring a bit of the ground colour up onto the wagon. Its not quite there yet. THe second suggestion is to sift some gravel and spread fine to medium bits around. You have some large pices already present, but a little messiness in less trafficked areas would add to the overall impression. I just think it looks slightly bare. These are very small details.   Well done. You pushed yourself beyoind your usual comfort zone and it really paid off.

I might just do as you suggested before carting this off for competition. Been a while since I entered something and would like to see how this fares against the dozen or so Dragon Wagon dios on 4 X 4 feet bases in the dio category I'll run into...lol.

After looking at the close-up pics, I also think I should add some loose hay/straw debris underneath and around the wagon as well, and maybe some brass casings. Thanks for looking in!