Ryan...Excellent job!!  What a great dio and I will echo everyone's comments on really making a dio that tells a story.

Keep up the great work.

Thank you for your kind words rtfoe.

Kudos to you Ryan for finishing such a challenging diorama. I like it being that it tells two stories and the challenge of capturing dark and gloomy verses bright daylight.

Looking forward to see more work from you.

Cheers,

Richard

I'd like to thank everyone for their support, I really appreciate it. And also a special thanks to Indy who helped me get better pics up.

Excellent work on a very original theme.  Like the way you connected all the different elements to tell the story.  Congrats! 

                                                                                          Pat

Ryan,

you built a very nice but also very original diorama. By the way you have shown us this great challenge of modelling - is a bit like telling a story, sometimes about things you don't know so well. For example modelling a sewer, when you haven't seen one. Neither did I so how do we work it out if you want to show me a dio showing a sewer? That's the challenge I'm talking about.

Then there's the newspaper thing. I know you wanted a newspaper with "Hitler dead!" in the headlines. The thing is I doubt if there was such a newspaper somwhere near from Berlin. I mean imagine this - bullets flying everywhere, hordes of commies running around, no electricity, no paper and you want to print a nice German newspaper? Doesn't sound like it, I'd say.

The paper you got in German is very interesting for me - it's Posener Tagesblatt - in english Poznan's Daily - and it happens Poznan is my home town. It's like 300 klicks east from Berlin, and was a Polish city before and after WWII. We had some heavy fighting in January/February 1945 and heavy fortifications too.

To avoid Indy having to "dig me out" I'd like to make a disclaimer, that I don't mean no harm, have a lot of respect for the work of my honourable colleagues on this and also other forums and I also like this diorama a lot. Ryan, good luck with your next projects (what would they be?), hope to hear from you soon and wish you a nice day

Pawel

Ryan

Great fix!  I think you are right - having the 'Hitler Dead' headline does add to the context.  It would have been great if you could have found it in German, but at least you have the other to 'mask' the other headline.

One thing you can take heart about - if the 'worst' observation someone has about your dio is the language of the newspaper headline, that is an indication that you've done a really, REALLY nice job on your project!  from me!

It looks good. I never noticed this before, with the english headlines. Amazing how I can let stuff get by me

Ryan, I think you did an excellent job here, both in using your own creativity as well as incorporating the suggestions of others. I love the multi-dimensional nature of this diorama. You have several down-trodden, war weary soldiers below the street which I think express a certain level of gloom and despair but some what relaxed. Then you have the gentleman climbing out of sewer, sort of back into the war, which injects a little bit of drama and suspense into the diorama as the viewer doesn't exactly know whats going on above the sewer.

I wish you luck if you put this in a contest in the future!

bbrowniii

Hey Ryan

Judging by recent activity in my 'Conversations' folder, apparently my comment about your newspaper was seen by some as being hyper-critical.  It was not intended that way.

So, I hope you understand that I made my comment not to be malicious, but because it was something that jumped out at me.  Given the great effort you've put into the dio thus far, I thought you would want to know what I saw.

Keep up the good work.  I'll look forward to your next project.

Hey don't worry about it bbrowniii, I didn't take it that way. And I could easily fix the problem. Here is a pic

I just covered it up with another newspaper (acctually in German this time). The reason I wanted the Hitler dead newspaper on the dio is because it was supposed to support the time I said earlier. I wanted one in German but I couldn't find one so I just used that one.

Hey Ryan

Judging by recent activity in my 'Conversations' folder, apparently my comment about your newspaper was seen by some as being hyper-critical.  It was not intended that way.

Let me be clear, I think, as I said, that your dio looks great.  I pointed out the newspaper because it jumped out at me,  In the discussions we've had about your dios, one point I made is how the story of a dio should be obvious and that anything that does not fit the story should do so for a reason, lest it detract for the overall composition of the dio.  That is what I saw with the newspaper.  I'm left to wonder - 'Hmmm, now why did he put that there... am I missing something?'

I also made that comment because you mentioned you intend to enter this in a competition soon.  I figured if I noticed it, a judge might notice it as well, and I'd rather tell you now and give you a chance to fix it (if you so choose) rather than have you come back after your competition and post a comment along the lines of, 'They liked my dio but gigged me points for the newspaper and that dropped me out of medal contention.'

So, I hope you understand that I made my comment not to be malicious, but because it was something that jumped out at me.  Given the great effort you've put into the dio thus far, I thought you would want to know what I saw.

Keep up the good work.  I'll look forward to your next project.

I just noticed that. I guess what you see every day (i.e. a newspaper headline) is likely to go un-noticed, untill an eagle-eyed viewer (in this case, you bbrowniii) notices that detail.

At least there's still time to correct this, since this is not the IMPS (or any other) contest.

Exelent work.

Ryan

I think you did a heck of a nice job with this dio.  I especially admire how you listened to people's advice, incorporating some, discarding other, but not getting bent out of shape when people pointed out stuff that didn't seem to 'work'.

One question for you, though.  This dio is set in Berlin?  In 1945?  So why is the newspaper under the manhole cover in English??

SUPERB end result Buddy!  Great work ironing out the details and great photos too!  Of course someone will always come along and find one more thing to improve--nothings perfect right? I say great job.

Looks great. I like the redo on the rat.

Really cool! Like the idea, the debris, the figures, the water, even the rats.

Here is the finished product. It turned out even better than I thought it would thanks to everyones tips. I added some green streaks to the wall, and I added a puddle in the middle of the walk way. So bring on the pics!

 I added some paper to the water which can be seen here.

 The green streaks on the wall

 The puddle of water is in the middle of the walkway, but is a little hard to see.

 I am going to enter this diorama in the IPMS National show this August. Thanks for all of your tips and comments that really made this diorama come to life.

Yeah it would be crazy, but I never think of logic untill after the fact. Then again, it is easy to go in with a putty knife, and scrape it off

Take off the water! That would be crazy.

101stAirborne

I masked it with masking tape because I sprayed the dull cote and never got around to taking it off.

Phew. I thought you took it off the diorama. O.K., that was my main question, I can't think of any more from me.

I also agree with every one. The rat looks a lot better, and I like where you placed him. I also concur about the moisture. I'm sure there would be a lot of steamy condensation along the walls and floor, making every thing quite damp and gooey.

Keep up the good work.

Hey thanks guys I am glad it looks better. I will add the puddle and some green streaks on the wall. Thank you guys for all of the wonderful suggestions that made this diorama come to life.

tonka

since its a sewer,,and you have some water in there,,maybe consider running some water streaks down the wall,,and a puddle or splash on the walkway..

Ryan

I agree with Tonka - your new rat is a significant improvement on the original - well done.

I think he also kind of hit the 'nail on the head' for me regarding the look of your sewer.  I think what is missing is the sense that it is a wet, dank, musty environment.  I think the idea of a puddle on the walkway, maybe some water streaks on the wall, and some greenish mildew/mold streaks would give that sense of moisture to reinforce the idea that this is a sewer.

Ryan..wow!! what a difference! You made a good dio even better!

since its a sewer,,and you have some water in there,,maybe consider running some water streaks down the wall,,and a puddle or splash on the walkway..

Rat looks like,,,well a rat! 

GREAT JOB!!

I masked it with masking tape because I sprayed the dull cote and never got around to taking it off.

It looks more like a sewer now.

One question, though: what happened to the water in the sewer? It was there before, but it's gone now.

Here are the new pics. Now I made the sewer dirty, but I think it is hard to tell from the pics buif you think it should be even more dirty don't hesitate to tell me (I'm sure you won't!) The rat was completely remade, I made it smaller and I think it looks much better and I want to use this one.

Look forward to the new pics!

If you continue to build dios and with your talent,,look 'outside the box' for materials,, I am sure its been mentioned before on here but railroad accessories are great for dios,, they have 1/160, 1/87, 1/48/ 1/32 and 1/22,, but many items can be used in different scales,, as an example a 1/87 barrel becomes a 1/35 pop or beer can,,,a poster becomes a photo,,, etc.

Aslo craft stores with doll house and scrapbook sections can yield great finds...

Even around the house,, I once made a light house for a HO railroad scene from discarded scotch tape rolls,,, have fun with it!

Keep up the great work and sharing the pics!

101stAirborne

I made the sewer much more dirty and I will take the poster down, I re-made the rat and I think it looks much better. I will take some pics and post them soon.

Great!  Can't wait to see them!