Russia '43

It's looking pretty good, Muzzleflash. I like, in particular, the pretty good postures of the crew, reloading the Marder.

I'll make two comments, however. First, next time, trim your decals closer to the actual design. The way you have them, straight off the decal sheet, they show some silvering, which is common when you put decals onto a flat paint. If you still have a few spares, you could easily remove the crosses with some masking tape and re-apply new, better trimmed ones. It would improve the look of your model. For the other markings, you could try to paint over the 'silvered' areas..

Second, a building that is destroyed leaves a lot, I mean a very large amount of rubble... Your ruin looks too clean. There should be a lot of stuff at the bottom of the walls, both sides, and possibly a fairly large amount of dust everywhere else (unless it's an old ruin. The rubble is easy to do. Just glue some irregular bits of expanded polystyrene at the base of your walls (with wood glue!) then apply yet more wood glue over those bits and cover the lot with (clean) cat litter. Bits of broken up basla wood would add another touch of realism. You could airbrush that rubble with red brick tones and some black, or again just cover it with a rusty-coloured pastel dust. This dust will also cover some other areas of your base, grass and all and will make it look more realistic. You could dust the soldier boots and lower part of their uniforms with this dust too, as well as the lower parts of the vehicle (or at least the tracks).

looks good muzzle, i really like the dotted camo on the marder. and is that a dragon sniper team? i really like it. im thinkin about building a bombed out stalingad dio with a russian sniper team inside if i could find one. but i will settle for german.

Thanks guys.

DJ: I swear that decal is only visible on camera, its naked to the eye . I think the camera picks it up when the flash/lights hit the decal on that shear angle.
I will add more rubble, but the figures are often moved from dio to dio so they are not permanent. There is dust on the cuffs and legs but not very visible in the pictures. I use them like "playsets" so I know they are missing some of the ultra-detail as seen in more permanent displays.

Junior:
Thanks. The riflemen in the building are actually Tamiya figures from an unknown box. The marder was painted to match the box, I painted it green, then put on dots and painted it yellow (same technique i used on my demag tractor). The kits were a lot of fun.

The crew inside the building is the Tamiya 20mm flak crew, and they are sitting on a brittish 6pdr gun

looks very nice, except that it needs some rubble

QUOTE: Originally posted by M1abramsRules looks very nice, except that it needs some rubble

I agree with Chris over all it looks good, but some rubble will make it look even better. Thanks for posting the pictures.
mark956

here are some ref pics to help you get an idea of some destruction.


rgp, mortars and a whole slew of goodies (that what the locals said anyway?)

this one is bombed out from a mortar round

this ones shows the bullets effects on the stucko sides or what ever that stuff is?

I think it looks great as is. Good job. The rubble isn't the subject the vehicle and men are.

Indeed they may be, Dave, but if you decide to put your models/figures in a 'scene', then you are asking for people to see the whole thing.. not just the vehicles and the figures. You are asking them to accept a 'picture', not to imagine it like when reading a book. Therefore all elements of the picture should be consistent with each others. Dioramas should tell a story, and the story is not complete if all the elements of the story are not 'there' and 'making sense' with the other elements.

In fact in a diorama, you are trying to give less importance to the vehicle. The figures often are the focal point because they are 'alive' and therefore telling a story. Doiramas can introduce many other elements, such as animals, buildings, foliage, water, fire,... that may be or may become the focal point. If you want to keep the vehicle as the focal point, then you need to display it on a minimalistic base (just a bit of the ground and grass, or even without any groundwork).

Nice job, Muzzleflash. The guys suggestions will I think make it better, too.

Keep sharing them good works.

Fantastic muzzleflash. I think the guys are right, the dio needs rubbles. Thanks for sharing.

I like the pictures you posted Jesse. Thanks.
mark956

I know that destruction.. Thats somewhere in the former Yugoslavia..