Dioramas "Union Infantry" & "Lost in Italy"

PJ's work is as fine as ever but dear lord... those italiari union figures have to be some of the WORST sculpted heads I have ever seen

I still have a problem with your titles otherwise your artists are giving you very good work.. The second one with the Pz III (E or F) should be re-titled as lost in Greece. By the time of the operations in Italy (1943), the Pz III's were upgunned to the 50mm (Pz III G standard). Even so, the Pz III was less likely to be seen being considered virtually obsolete by the time of operations in Italy. The E/F's with the 37mm gun was still used in Greece during that operation (1941). Even in North Africa most of the E/F's were upgraded.

Mike T.

Amazing work!  I really envy you guys that can paint figures like that.  Nice job on the Panzer too.

smeagol, thanks for your kind words. I agree with you about Italeri figures' quality. I think their worst one is "Mongols - The Golden Hord" in the same scale.

Mike, I think you're right. I named the diorama randomly, trying not to repeat the old one. But was there a possibilty that one of them survived until 1943?

Buckeye, thanks for your kind compliments. At that time "pj" just started painting 1:35 figures (he formerly painted 1:72 ones) and he's getting better with later kits.

MM, by 1943, the PZ III was basically an obsolete machine. A training unit may still have one laying around, but the others were either re-armed with 50MM guns or scrapped. "Lost in Greece" or "Athens is over here?" would be the more appropriate name to change it to.

Mike T.

How about, "Which way to Sarajevo?"

That's a goo0d one too Stik

Mike T.

Looks like you got some New York Zoauves in there... The guys in the red pantaloons..

I won't pick apart the work, because, overall it's pretty...fair.. Except those eyes! I already taked about this in "28th Infantry" thread though... Suffice to say that the eyes are killing them boys, rather than the Confederates.. Well, there's also that ONE guy in the rear that doesn't appear to know that he's being shot at... I'd lose him.. You don't have your rifle up across your shoulder during battle...

The "shot guy" could stand to be a bit more "animated" (as in arms up and rifle about to be flying through the air) and off-balance as well.. Would be more dramatic, IMHO... And his face doesn't reflect him being hit...  I'd have removed his lower jaw and drilled out his upper a bit, then reattatched the lower to an "open" position, as he "cries out in pain"... But that level of figure-modification isn't everyone's gig.. So no foul there..

I'll give it a "5" out of "10"... Average...

BTW, I dunno about "worst-scuplted heads" because I never depend on a manufacturer for anything like that... I think they'd benefit greatly from a little more work on the eyes, and the afore-mentioned expression of the "shot guy".. Nope, there ain't really anything wrong with the heads... I've seen far worse, with flat spots, pin-heads, flat skulls, you name it...  One figure I had had a head that was fine from the front and rear, but from the side, it looked like he'd been squashed by a tank rolling over it...

Speaking of tanks...On the Panzer...  Well... It's a really good one... And the road is excellent... I've never seen a better scale-gravel hard-ball... Too bad the tank was dropped on it by helicopter...

You'd think that the tracks would show more bright silver after going down a gravel road, since the "polishing action" of the gravel would remove most all the crud and rust from the steel pads.  The other thing is that there are no tank-tracks (that I can see) behind the tank, hence my "helicopter" remark.. There's also a problem with the left track at the front, between the drive sprocket and first road-wheel.. It's curved in the wrong direction..

One other thing about the tank though... The mufflers look like they're painted red, rather than rusty... While heat certainly does rust the exhausts, it doesn't rust them to that color... Go look at the muffler and exhaust pipes on your car... Same thing (if it's been on it a while)... If it was intentional, then... I dunno why...

Last, the figures are great! THAT'S what I was talking about with eyes!  Only one thing, is that it looks like he's got all privates running that tank (No wonder they're lost!), since there are no NCOs around that I can see... If there is one, he forgot to paint the NCO's silver "tresse" around the shoulder marks and collar... That's a really, really minor nit though...

But it's a nit that can cost you in competion if over-looked... (I know this isn't competion, I'm just sayin'...) Just a "Heads-Up"..

I'll give it an "8" out of "10"

I like the Pazer dio a lot, except the title. Lost in Italy? Or Greece? Or somewhere in Bosnian mountains in summer? There is nothing to indicate where this sceene acctualy is. Maybe add something that makes it more clear like a Greek colonade (I think that's what those Greek columns are called), or something that is specific to the country or region.

Cheers...

stikpusher

How about, "Which way to Sarajevo?"

I like that.. "Welcher Wag Sarajevo ist?"  Or maybe, "Where is Sarajevo? ( "Wo ist Sarejavo?") That'd be easier for the viewer to translate, even if they don't seak German...

Could make a nice little title card, in a good Germanic Font...

There is nothing to indicate where this sceene acctualy is.

Good call.. But it's rather a small dio for much more than maybe a broken roadsign lying on the ground...  'Course, if you put the sign in Greek, that'd be pretty good...  The different alphabets would likely make life even more difficult for the Germans there when it came to land navigation...  I had a helluva time finding a particular town or village a couple of times, with everything in Pashtu...  Same thing in Iraq, once you got offa the MSRs...

Yeah it's real fun to do it in Cyrillic too.... That's how international incidents happen...

Heh, yeah... That they do..

They also start when a Saw-OO-Di truck driver decides to ignor my signals to stop... And minutes later, gets told to "Go eat a friggin' pork-chop"...

Thanks for more comments and suggestions since my previous reply. I enjoy reading them all.