New Diorama: Pacific Theatre

-----Or any suggestions for a good scene to model?

I always had plans (still do) about one set on Tarawa.  The Marines were pinned down behind a seawall that looks like it was constructed of poles/tree trunks sunk into the beach.  One of those tracked amphibious thingies and you're away.

IIRC, the seawall at Tarawa was made from Coconut palm logs, as were many of the fortifications.

The topography of the Marines in the Pacific varied widely from the coral sand atolls such as the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, to larger more varied terrain such as Okinawa and Saipan, and the Heavy jungled islands of  the South pacific such as Guadalcanal and Bouganville. Pick your island setting first, and then get an idea of the topography and vegetation for the island.

For $5 at Target you can get the compete series of Victory at Sea that has actual footage of combat in these locations so you can see what the areas where like.

E...

Ok-sounds like I should decide what island I want to set it on first, and then ill come back with more questions

Found this site that has lots of pix from the Pacific Theater.

E...

Wow that link is incredible! Great pictures and great material. Thank you for posting it.

Rob

These may be in the line of what you are looking for,I dont have part 4 .

  Good find Division 6 ! Interesting pic in there showing a black unit that fought in the Pacific theatre. The caption says it may be the 52nd Defense Battalion. One of two black units in the Pacific theatre. I never knew there was black frontline infantry in WW2. Would make for a different approach for a pacific dio or viginette.

Justin...

So I've looked at all of the islands that were part of the Pacific campaign and I decided that I want to do a diorama of a Marine Squad in the Pelelui Hills.  This picture is a very rough sketch of what the diorama might look like. (I know, the Marines look like a kindergartener drew them)The squad will have been walking up a ravine and a Japanese sniper above the cave at the end shot one of the men.  The diorama will be the other men in the squad trying to spot the sniper.  What are your thoughts?   (Sorry about the weird lighting on the picture, the exposure turned out red, probably because of poor lighting)

One thing jumps out in your sketch... It's pretty unlikey that anyone will drag the casualty from where he fell until AFTER the sniper's brain-matter is sprayed around & about his nest in a loud and grotesque military manner...  Sounds cold, but it's the reality of war...

Doing that will likely result in more than one squaddie getting his jacket popped and consequently another wife or set of parents getting a War Department Telegram "regretting to inform" them & 10,000 dollars...

Having the casualty lying dead or wounded in between the sniper and the Marines will make it much more apparent to the viewer as to what's going on, too...

I take that the  Marine on the left has a highly polished E-tool?  *wink*

Just thought of something else... That sketch makes for an IDEAL forced-perspective shadow-box diorama... Using the 1/35th Marines in the foreground and say, a 1/72 Jap sniper in the background would really work well...

Hans von Hammer

Just thought of something else... That sketch makes for an IDEAL forced-perspective shadow-box diorama... Using the 1/35th Marines in the foreground and say, a 1/72 Jap sniper in the background would really work well...

I think Hans makes an excellent point.  If you intend to show both the Marine squad AND the sniper, and they are all in 1/35th scale, your dio is going to be too big - too much empty space between the sniper and the grunts.  That leaves you with two options: only show the Marine squad and have the action (and the title) indicate the existence of the sniper or, two, do the forced perspective idea that Hans mentions.

You guys make a good point.  I was contemplating doing a forced perspective and I think you have made up my mind.  Also, the idea about leaving the guy who got shot where it happened seems more realistic.  I have never built a forced perspective diorama/ shadowbox before though....what is the approximate distance the diorama must have between figure scales?

I've done some searching and it seems that Dragon's 1/35 Marines on Iwo Jima and Airfix's 1/72 Japanese Infantry will do the trick for my dio.  Now its onto building supplies.  I want to wait before I purchase any building materials though because I'm not sure how to construct/cast the coral ridges that are a significant part of the diorama. Anyone have an Idea? I was thinking something with celluclay or a material of the sort and texturing it with a sponge.

Take a look on Model railroader site, 2 things can help you there. Model RRs used forced perspective all the time,,a HO scale layout will use N scale buildings in the background as an example..

second you will find many ideas on doing scenery..using foam insulation that you can shave, shape and carve will work good,,just do not get the 'beaded' type,,use the pink or blue. Cover it with spackle or celluclay and use the sponge.

good luck should be interesting dio,,,,

I'm not gonna do a buch of math for ya, but I'd give you a SWAG of about 10-14 inches for the total depth of the dio and about 8-12 inches of separation from the Marines to the sniper...  In your mock-up, keep playing with the distances until you get what looks about right for both vertical and horizontal separation.. One thing that helps with forced perspective to have another easily recognizable object, like another figure approximately half the size of the foreground objects splitting the difference between the two areas... Your casualty could actually be the one to do that, say with a 1/48th scale figure...