My grandfather on my fathers side fought at the Battle for Iwo Jima in WW2. Using his eyewitness account I'm going to build a diorama based on his experience during the battle.
It's going to be of a corner of the airfield, he used to help out at the airfield when he wasn't driving landng craft. He was in the Coast Guard. The scene I'm recreating is of 2 planes and a road. About midway through the battle Army Air Corps planes started using the airstrip to make emergency landings after sustaining battle damage or mechanical problems during missions over Japan.
One day my grandpa was at the airfield. He was helping bring wounded back to the beach to be evacuated to hospital ships when he saw a B-17 come in for landing with 3 engines and most of the rear stabilizer shot out. It landed on 1 engine and was towed over to a remote corner of the airfield to be parked and worked on. It was parked next to a B-29 that had the #4 engine and nose cone completely shot away by AAA fire.
The scene I want to recreate is that corner of the airfield. So far I have 2 Revell kits of the planes and a 4X8 sheet of plywood.
What I really need is some custom decals. The B-17 was from a photo reconaissance squadron in the 5th Air Force and the name of the plane was "Looking At You" with a scantily clad girl holding a camera as nose art. Where can I get the appropriate decals for this? Also the bomb bay of the B-17 didn't hold bombs, it had cameras. Apparently the crew would open the doors, fly over a target, and take pictures. Athough it won't be visible I'd like to try my hand at recreating this bomb bay, if for nothing more than the experience. I'm currently poring over WW2 books to try and get an idea of what was used and available. I tell ya, modeling WW2 would be a lot easier if the kits were in black and white.
For the B-29 I need WW2 markings from the 5th Air Force. Looks like te kit came with Korean War markings. My grandpa doesn't remember the name of the plane. However the crew of both planes knew each other and were based on the same airfield. So I think it's safe to assume it's a 5th AF B-29.
I wasn't able to find Marines in 1:48 scale but I think with a little paint, some putty, and some sanding I can pass off Tamiyas army men as Marines. They'll be marching along the road next to the 2 planes. I could also use some vehicles to fill in that space. So far I've found a Sherman, a 6x6 truck, a Jeep, and a WC-54 ambulance I can paint up in Navy and Marine markings. I'd really like to find a 1:48 DUKW though. Anybody know who makes a kit? Plastic or resin.
Also any sort of a 1:48 scale WW2 crane truck would be helpful. My grandpa remembers a Sea Bee crane truck lifting a new engine into the B-29 wing. If I can't find anything I may get some styrene and fashion a crane onto the back of a Tamiya 6x6, assuming I can find enough pictures of WW2 Sea Bee equipment. A 1:48 Sea Bee bulldozer is also on my need to find list. It was used to tow the B-17 next to the B-29. Help?
Another thing I'd really, really like to find is a 1:48 Coastie, that way I can model my grandfather talking to the B-17 pilot. Any ideas? A navy figure in dungarees and a helmet might work. They're tiny figures so I can fudge a little.
The terrain on Iwo Jima consisted of a lot of volcanic rock, my grandpa said it was almost black and there was very little grass. The road was dirt and there was virtually no vegetation anywhere near the airfield. So I think my diorama base will consist of black, green, and brown flocking.
Using my grandpas eyewitness testimony, a lot of picures to fill in the gaps, and some imagination and ingenuity I think this is going to turn out nicely. What I like is that I'm incorporating my own family history into one of the most important battles of WW2. Also it's going to have representation of a good cross section of the armed servces at that time. Marines, Army Air Corps, Navy, and hopefully Coast Guard will be represented in my diorama.
Conservatively I think doing a diorama of this size with this many figures, detail, and damage will be a year long endeavour. Probably a little longer since I'll get burned out and take a break halfway through it. I can already see that one coming once I start painting the men.
My grandpa is really excited that I'm doing this and I will send him pictures and link him to this thread when I start posting progress pics.
Opinions, questions, suggestions, dialogue welcome.