When push comes to shove 1942-43

looks interesting!

Thanks everyone for the support and great comments.

This diorama has to be one of my most ambitious build to date and my first time at doing an urban setting. Therefore, this is going to be a new learning curve for me, as I will be trying some new things along the way. Well so far I have, manage to repaint the initial paint on the panzer turret, as I do not plan to do a winter scene. Here I have done some basic color modulation to the simple panzer grey. In addition, I began to assemble some crew trying to escape out of the turret to help add some action to a disabled tank. I know in reality the two side hatches would be used, but I plan to have some rubble blocking the doors adding to the sense of urgency to get out of the tank quickly. The crew is nothing more than dragon’s panzer crew survivors. The assisting crew is built straight from the box, but the other is a combination of two figures. I still need to fill in the seems and plan to adjust the arm on the assisting figure a bit. The only question I have about the figures is the uniforms, the artwork shows all black, but this is correct for 42-43 period. I do not know much about German uniforms, so this area is somewhat iffy to me.

Well just a simple update for today, I have the basic layout started. I am changing things around just a bit thanks to an idea from a fellow modeler Nige from Scotland. Here is the new plan those yet, panzer on the move not aware that road way is not strong enough to support the weight of the tank from previous bombardments and falls into a basement or storage area of a building. Now the crew has to beat feet and get out of the area fast or be over run by advancing soviet forces. Here I have sculpted out of star foam the basic layout of the basement and destroyed pavement. I still need shape the ceiling of the basement and build up the walls. I plan to have up piece of foam not attached now to ease in the construction of the basement, and then glue everything in place once complete.

Well I have started the construction on one of the walls for the basement / boiler room. For this, I started out with a sheet of plastic cut to shape of the basic wall to easy in construction. Next, I used some cork bricks I had on hand for a few years now and built up the lower half of the wall. I grouted the bricks with some drydex spackling and some of the damaged areas of the wall. After that, I moved to doing the tiling on the upper portion of the wall. Again, for this I used sheet plastic cut to shape and used strip plastic cut into tiles. I hand laid each tile just as if a real wall would of and varied each tiles thickness to give the effect of an uneven wall. The plumbing and electrical conduits were made from scrap plastic, cooper wire and spare parts from the bins. So far, I am pleased with the results so far and plan to start the rest of the wall and stair well leading to the upper level. Again, I am open to suggestions and comments on how things are looking so far. I still have much more plumbing and equipment to add to this portion of the build.

Here are the latest installments on the updates for the diorama I am constructing. The other day I receive two packages in the mail I have been waiting for, one had the figures I needed, and the other had my valentine tank. Now I can really begin the construction and finalize the layout I am looking for.

The Masterbox figures I am surprisingly pleased with. Their not quite on the level as dragon or miniart figures, but the detail in the clothing and facial expression are very nice. The gear on the other hand could use some room for improvement and for this I will use some left over from dragon’s Gen 2 sets. I did however replace the knife and e-tool on two of the figures as they were just a bit over scaled. I just wish that dragon or miniart would do more figures like those that master box has created as I am little bored with seeing guys standing around with their hands in their pants or point off in the distance at something.

Miniart’s Valentine is a real gem of a kit and falls together very quickly. I built up a lot of the kit last night while watching TV with my wife. The only thing is my upper hull is wrapped just a little but nothing too serious. My only real complaint with the kit is the directions suck. The page layout makes no sense, one page with have steps 1-10, the next will have 30-35, and then the next will have 50- through what ever. It is a real pain to flip through the pages just to check out latter steps to see if a part will fit right. Oh well, the kit is still much better than what was offered back in the late 90’s.

Here is the boiler I made for the lower level of the basement area. Unbelievably, it began life as a medicine bottle for my kids. I just cut the neck, cap off, and filled the ends with plastic sheet. From there I used plastic tubing; strips, spare parts, and photo etch to make what you see now. I also added soldier wire, spackle, bricks, and sand to it to make rubble and debris from the collapsing ceiling.

So far, here is my basic layout of what I am looking at so far. Figures were built up to give me an idea of placement along with the valentine. I am plan to have the upper half of the base elevated with rubble and debris along with a partial building and the figure fighting it out in this area. Delaying the advancing Russians to give the escaping crew time to get to safety.

Excellent work on that boiler! I'll be following along with ya on this one, interested in seeing how you work out the composition. This one's gonna be big...

Steve

Well here is another installment on my progress so far. I completed the painting of the boiler for the basement area. For this I used an Adam Wilder techniques I saw he used on a Czech Hetzer I thought would work just right heavy machinery. For this a base painted the boiler in rust color paint, then fallowed by random applications of rust color paint with a sponge for that chipped effect. Next up I sealed everything thing in with a semi-gloss goat to protect the paint and then I hit it with hair spray. After allowing the spray to dry for about 10 minutes, I airbrushed on a grayish-green color to represent a factory finish. The fun began with an old toothbrush, toothpick, and some water to remove some of the paint for the flaked worn out paint look. From there I added a rusty oil wash to tie things in more. To finalize the weathering I added some spackle, sand, brick, and balsa wood to make the debris on top of the boiler.

Here is the general Idea of the layout I am looking at so far. I still need to make a partial wall to add to the base. I wanted to elevated the rubble area of the base and show the soldiers climbing over it to fight one another. Still one aspect I am not happy with the diorama so far is my figure painting skills. I am no pro at it, but still years ahead of where I used to be, just one area I wish I could improve on.