101stAirborne

Thanks for the info on how to build the trees. I'll have to try that in the future.

Glad to have shared it with you Ryan.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks Gamera, I know how that burnt out feeling is like but some how I draw inspiration from forums like this to stoke up fires to build again. Another way out is to build out of the ordinay stuff. I built a Tug Boat to break the monotony.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks for the info on how to build the trees. I'll have to try that in the future.

Great stuff as always Richard. Thanks for posting some of your older stuff so we can see how you've honed your modeling skills though the years. It makes me feel bad since I've started on dozens of dioramas and only finished one or two. Somehow I end up getting burnt out long before I'm finished.

Really like the guys standing around the fire, I think it really gets across the point they're freezing their Aryan butts off.

Bodge

A really nice bit of modelling. I love the composition on this its really well laid out.

Thanks Bodge, this was one of my first attempts at a snow dio. The offset angle of the composition and drain was an inspiration I got from one of Shep Paines dios.

Cheers,

Richard

A really nice bit of modelling. I love the composition on this its really well laid out.

Richard;

The closest I have seen in nature to that spacing was in Puerto Rico with a Caribbean Pine grove. Nearly a pure stand with an undergrowth of primarily tree fern, very pretty and uniform.

Mike T.

Thanks Heiner107 and Mike, glad you liked it.

telsono

Beautiful work, the trees are excellent! Looking at it wants me to put a sweater on and stay warm.

If someone was doing a scene in the forests of the Ardennes the spacing of the trees would be very regular. the European forestry work has been going on for centuries with these trees replanted in plantations. Once in college we took a field trip to Harvard's Black Rock Forest outside Hastings on Hudson, NY. Just below West Point. there is a fir plantation set up in the European fashion (our prof was the former director there). That day fog was still drifitng through the trees and the lines of trees with the fog gave an eerie effect of going on forever. I also expected from watching the war films like Battle Ground to see soldiers making their way through the rows of trees. It was a beautiful but eerie effect at the same time.

Mike T.

I remember one of the veterans speaking of the neat rows of pine trees on Band of Brothers. The same just like our rubber tree plantations along our trunk roads. There's a standing joke that a foreign visitor had remarked at how neat our jungle was. I'd probably have said the same if I'd visited the Ardennes and not knowing its agricultural history.

Cheers,

Richard

Beautiful work, the trees are excellent! Looking at it wants me to put a sweater on and stay warm.

If someone was doing a scene in the forests of the Ardennes the spacing of the trees would be very regular. the European forestry work has been going on for centuries with these trees replanted in plantations. Once in college we took a field trip to Harvard's Black Rock Forest outside Hastings on Hudson, NY. Just below West Point. there is a fir plantation set up in the European fashion (our prof was the former director there). That day fog was still drifitng through the trees and the lines of trees with the fog gave an eerie effect of going on forever. I also expected from watching the war films like Battle Ground to see soldiers making their way through the rows of trees. It was a beautiful but eerie effect at the same time.

Mike T.

Fantastic job! especially like the excellent job on the figures, the face detail is incredible.

                                                                                                                      Well Done!

Adam , you're right about the greatcoat. I've not seen one in white either. I don't know what posessed me to paint it that way and I've regretted it as I've been question a lot along the way about it.

At the time I thought of the Germans painting their helmets white and thought they might do the same to their great coats for camoflage. Weired...now come to think.

The little creek was inspired by Sheperd Paines dio on the Elephant running out of petrol found in his "How to build Dioramas" book.

Would like to see your Panther someday and thank you once again for the compliments.

Cheers,

Richard 

~Richard~ Another one from the collection!  It's a very good Dio. Sure there are some details missing,and one can easily see the vast progression in your work--but man the groundwork is still top-rate--and I also really like those scratched trees(thanks for the details about those) I think the Panther looks quite good, reminding me I have to build one someday--it's such a sleek, beautiful tank. The figures of course are no where up to your current skills, but are still really good and above average(the one thing I'd maybe point at is the white greatcoat--I don't believe I've seen that item in white anyplace, although it does look smashing!)

Thanks for posting--I have a mind to dig up some older builds for a reviewlikely you haven't seen them

Thanks Ryan, Scorpiomickey and OttoVonStapleNuber for the nice comments. Very nice when they come from guys from cooler climates.

Ryan, I made the pine trees from the following elements in the picture I just shot. The only thing missing is the trunk whish I made from a branch of a particular shrub with straight limbs. I wittle the till it's sharp and at intervals of 1 cm I drill holes with a 0.5 drill bit starting with 4 and gradually increasing the number of holes as I progress down. I spray it dark brown.

Next I cut different lengths of the dried fern which I got from the flower shop and super glued it to the holes. I don't know what's it called, it comes either dried or fresh with little purple flowers.

After it dries I spray the the tips with 3M  spray mount and sprinkle artificial grass flock to simulate the needle pines. Then I spray the ends with a can of dark green.

To simulate snow on the branches, I moisten the leaves with water from a hand pump and sifting plaster/polyfilla or spackle on it gradually building up repeatedly moistening and sifting until satisfied with the look of the amount of snow.

The bottom end of the trunk is wittled sharp so it can be pocked into the base and secured with white glue.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Richard

A BEAUTY   Richard.....enough to make me start posting

really looks cold     I love the snow FX

looks amazing man. better than i can do

what did you make the trees with?

Stern0

More Great work Richard!...love all the detail...Great job!

Thanks Stern0,

I think that this is one of my weekest of the lot. I didn't know how to use decal setting solution then so there's lots of silvering. The Panther Ausf A probably is not the right version for the period. The old and only kit besides Nitto from Tamiya didn't provide for side armored shields and the tracks were only detailed on one side.

The only consolation was that I managed to bury the tracks deep into the "snow".

Cheers,

Richard.

More Great work Richard!...love all the detail...Great job!