Wohin gehen wir?

Thanks for the complements guys!

This scene loosely represents a Sturmpanzer of Sturmpanzer Abteilung 216 during the fighting around Nettuno and Anzio, Italy, 1944. I replaced the first shot with a better exposed one, which doesn't have as much glare and a bit tamer shadows.

Here is a shot of the factory interior;

And a close-up of the 50mm mortar team;

I know that the 50mm mortar was phased-out of front line service by this date, but it filled the space nicely so I threw it in anyways...

A close-up of the commander and the left side of the bear;

Overhead of the "Stupa";

That scene is just sweet! I like it alot!  I saw already at the first post the mortarteam and some people inside..

If I had to point out anything, I'd say you overexagerated the pink of the Stupa's kommandant.

But as said, great job!  

-Lasse

VERY NICE!  I haven't seen any better job on the masonary in the forums especially the grey cement between the bricks.  I haven't built a model for more than 20 years and I am in process of returning to my old hobby so I am catching up here and learning great tricks from you experts.  I hope you don't mind telling me how you had the masonary painted!  I hope I can do it as good as you... thanks!

Two things regarding the casualty.. It's not clear how he got hit... Is there a sniper nearby? If so, there's a sense of urgency and reaction of the others missing, although the unseen infantry squad could have already dealt with him... Or maybe the nemy got lucky with a mortar or artillery round earlier.. Guess it's not important.. Also, the guy applying pressure to his buddy's wound has a pretty clean hand for holding his hand on the guy's wound... I'd add a skoshi-bit of blood between his fingers and on his hand.. NOT dripping, slimy, gory-wet, but enough to suggest a bleeder... Same with the casualty's left hand... Oh, in case you ever wondered, the Germans kept their personal bandage (every soldier carries one) in a pocket on the inside of the uniform jacket, at the bottom-left, as opposed to the US practice of carrying it in a pouch on the pistol/cartridge belt...

As it stands, it's a great little scene-within-a-scene though, and a great idea...

Huxy; You're right, the pink piping is a bit wide, corrective measures will be taken, the officer is being reprimanded for non-regulation uniform. I knew I didn't like something about him, thanks for pointing that out. The old eyes just aren't what they used to be. I finally had to break down and buy some reading glasses to see what I'm doing. I think I'll try some strips of painted decal film instead of trying to paint them. The smallest brush I have is an 18/0, but it still isn't as fine as I'd like...and I need.

Deafpanzer; There really isn't anything too special about how I do the masonry, other than it takes a lot of time. First I spray the bare plaster with some automotive primer, just to fill in the pores so that it doesn't suck up as much paint. I paint the bricks an overall orange-brown to brick red color, then go back and pick out individual bricks to paint various shades of yellow, pink, purple-brown, orange and red. After that, I give the whole thing a wash of black/burnt sienna. Then I carefully paint in the mortar with thinned Polly Scale Old Concrete. This takes a lot of time to do, but I think it looks pretty good. Another little wash to break up the mortar a bit, then finish it up with random scrubbing of various colored pencils for the highlights.

H von H; I don't know how I could depict how or where the guy was hit? My story is that he was hit off camera somewhere and brought back to the relative safety of the factory where the medic would take care of him. I purposely left the gore to a minimum,... the words of Sheperd Paine still ringing in my ears...There is some blood, (a minor wound, but in a bad location), but I'll agree there should be some on his hand and that of his buddy, I just didn't want to go overboard, as this usually draws fire from the show judges. We'll see if a bit more won't hurt.

I will continue to tweak this for some time to come. A bit more wood debris, maybe something funky like a beat-up toilet in the background, some more wire, pipes, ...my son tells me to put a rat in somewhere...some bottles, cans and other litter. I'll vary the tint on the cobblestones a bit more...whatever else I can think of...and you folks suggest!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Glad I can help. I might add; When I go back to add the secondary colors, I don't really cover each brick in a single color, but I stipple on the secondary colors with a short-bristle brush, using several shades on the individual bricks. This gives a mottled look to bricks, which looks more realistic, IMHO.

The rubble is made from real bricks, here again of various colors, broken into small pieces and sieved through a couple of different sized screens to weed-out pieces that are too big and saving the dust for the final application. I mix in bits of concrete chips, sand, tinted cat litter (fresh stuff, not stinky ) and whatever else looks good. I top it off with a few actual cast bricks, (Custom Dioramics, Hudson & Allen, etc.) so one can pick out the individual bricks in the rubble too. Bits of wood, wire, metal, broken microscope cover slips for window glass and all sorts of junk finish it off.

I was planning on posting a WIP blog of this diorama, but I lost the photos in a recent computer crash, so much for that idea.

H von H; I don't know how I could depict how or where the guy was hit? My story is that he was hit off camera somewhere and brought back to the relative safety of the factory where the medic would take care of him. I purposely left the gore to a minimum,... the words of Sheperd Paine still ringing in my ears...There is some blood, (a minor wound, but in a bad location), but I'll agree there should be some on his hand and that of his buddy, I just didn't want to go overboard, as this usually draws fire from the show judges. We'll see if a bit more won't hurt.

Oh I agree about the judges and gore... I just meant a bit more on the hands, just enough to show that both guys have tried to staunch the blood-flow... Keep it to the bare minimum, absolutely.. It was just that that wound looks to me to be through the pancreas area which would cause of lot of bleeding, but then again, much would be internal, unless it's a through & through with a bad exit wound...

As for where & how, I was just curious as to what your thoughts were, in order to keep it tied to the story... Obviously he was able to walk rather than getting dragged in, and it could even be a non-combat injury... Accidental weapon discharges happen in every war in every army...

   Man some people really know how to make those old Tamiya kits shine!

   Great dio Kykeon!

Two things:

1)  GREAT dio. 

2)  I agree with your son - add a rat!!!