Diorama "U.S. Army, Italy 1944"

Thanks for all kind comments and suggestions, I really appreciate them!. Iagree that this diorama still has much to be desired. "AI" hadn't built dioramas for quite some time, building only armors of late.  This evening he delivered 6 new pieces, most of which are new kits. Expect to see these in the Armor Forum tomorrow:

- Hobby Boss's IDF Merkava Mk.IIID

- AFV Club's M42A1 "Duster" Late Type

- Italeri's Opel Blitz 1:24

- Tasca's Zundapp KS-750 1:24

- Italeri's S.Kfz.140/1

- Hobby Boss's German Panther Ausf.D Flak Bergepanther

And now he's working on another 6 armors - all new:

- Hobby Boss's RSOV w/ MG

- Trumpeter's JGSDF Type 87 AW

- AFV Club's LVT-4 Late

- Meng Model's British Heavy Assault Tank A39 Tortoise

- Hobby Boss's Sd.Kfz.254

- Trumpeter's German 8.8 cm Flak18 Selfstfahrlafette

Have fun!

I like the overall layout, but the divisions caught my eye also. Did not know about the deployment, it struck me odd as having three different divisions in one area. Also the street seems to be a little to clean. Haven't been on the forum in a little while but it's good to see something from art instructor again.

I like the setting and the general feel of this scenario, but he building just seems to be sitting loosely on top of the foundation. It isn't rooted into the ground, if you see what I mean. Maybe some filler around the bases of the columns would solve that.  

Nice work!! superb painting on all!!

It might be me, but the uniforms don't seem to have had washes applied. The details aren't popping out. A burnt umber oils wash would have helped to show the details of the uniforms and also add some wear areas. Other than that and the errors already noted above, construction wize it's well done.

Mike T.

There is another problem.  The Bantam BRC-40 jeep was not used by US forces.  It was an early version of the jeep, before the Willys MB and Ford GPW.  It was sent to Russia and Britain under the Lend-Lease program.  By the time the US entered the war, 8 NOV 42 with the invasion of N. Africa in Operation Torch, the Willys MB and Ford GPW were the standard US jeeps.  Bantam couldn't keep up with the production level needed by the War Department, so contracts were let to Willys and Ford to build their version.

Overall pretty good, but one small glitch. None of the divisions that those guys are in set foot in to Italy in WWII. 4th Infantry (Ivy patch), 29th Infantry (Blue/Gray Yin/Yang Patch), and 3rd Armored (tri color triangle patch) Divisions were all formed in the United States, sent to the United Kingdom, and then into Northern Europe via Normandy. 4th and 29th Infantry Division being two of the three US Seaborne assault Divisions on June 6th.

Of US Armored Divisions, only 1st Armored fought in Italy, while Infantry Divisions included 3rd, 10th Mountain, 34th, 36th, 45th, 82nd Airborne, 85th, 88th, 91st, and 92nd. These do not include Divisions that fought in Sicily but not Italy.