the battle of the bugle (the start )

Links don't work for me.

I ben working on it for 1 year now  it s 4' x 6'   and still not done I will be adding 2' more on the town  I have 12 models about 100 figures  3 guns. ? did u see the pics???

Holy moly, fantastic.would love to see an overall pic. Mike

thanks mike I just put more pics. on  its some thing I want to do for along time

I went to your Photbucket page and looked at all the photos you have up there, and the first thing I"ll say is that it's a massive, ambitious project, and the detail is impressive and the scope of the build is certainly noteworthy. It looks like you did a nice job on the figures and the models themselves, and the base work certainly looks like Belgium forest. All in all, a fine effort.

Large dioramas are a tricky affair, however. I've seen guys haul them into contests and get really bent out of shape when they didn't win.The problem is that a lot of modelers seem to try to fit as much detail as they can into the large spaces, but wind up with a lot of what could be called "contextual errors"-- for instance, scenarios where a couple soldiers just look like they were just placed in the scene as "extras", or who are out-of-touch with the action around them. Also, builders tend to compact into a diorama action and scale that would, in reality, be as big as the room if placed in true scale. Vehicles following too close to each other, too many different type of vehicles, improper support vehicles or troops. Indeed, to execute a diorama of this scale properly, you almost need a team of research directors. If not, it can come off as rather chaotic and un-organized. A diorama should have a clear focal point, which grabs the audience's eye--and everything around the focal point needs to support the main locus.

There are a number of such errors in your diorama, but I won't get into that; I honestly don't intend to rain on your parade and your commendable effort here, but now that you've got the "Magnum Opus Diorama" out of your system, I would recommend to focus on smaller, more succint diorama scene, where you can make a really hard-hitting portrait that locks the viewer into the scene that you're trying to create. I hope we see more from you in the future. :)

thanks  the doog  it took me 1 yr. to build I am still working on it I am adding 2 ft more to the town I spent a lot of time researching  the battle on day 1 / 2  I  would like your input  I did add a lot to the  diorama I want it to look like a massive attack as it was on day 1/ 2   ( maybe over kill ?? )  from what I can tell  all the vehicles were there > but  were there all they all the same time and the same place ???  so as you can see it not out of my system I been wanting to build this for a long time I was all ways interested in the  battle of the bugle  would love to hear more from you thanks bob

Did the bugle win the battle or did the drum?

Any time there are multiple objects the space becomes part of the composition. I've often seen this in dogfight dioramas. Several hundred yards at 1/48 scale is still 4 or 5 yards. A little selective compression is OK, model railroads live by it.

Bob, I can't argue with you doing YOUR diorama the way you see it--that's your artistic choice and right, just as it is for you to not use punctuation and capitals in your posts, (grrrr!). ;)

I'll just say that if I wanted to capture a large-scale attack in the Ardennes battle area, I would probably have focused on a company of say, King Tigers over-running a town in which a company of Shermans were getting the stuffing shot out of them. I'd have several KT's and several shot-up Shermans, and a definite, direct line of attack from one side of the did to the other.

Or, maybe better yet, I would have done it in 1/72 scale in order to be able to separate the elements a bit more and to give more of a sense of the breadth and depth to the scale of the attack and the overall scene?

Personally, I wouldn't have thrown in so many diverse vehicles and scenes within the whole. Maybe a German sdkfz half track with grenadiers supporting the Tigers, and perhaps a jeep on the American side too, but that would be about it.  While it's true that many different vehicles and guns took part in the German attack, they would not likely have been so interspersed. Germans had a pretty strict order of battle, and every element had its place and mission to do, and to mass them all together like that isn't something you would normally see except in a situation like the Falaise Gap massacre, where they all had to flee through a small breach.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just pointing out the great difficulties in trying to comprise a huge diorama like this. In the end though, it doesn't matter if you are happy with it and it's completion brings you joy. That is, after all, what this hobby is really all about. :)

I've had the same idea floating in my head for about 6 months of doing a huge diorama of a battle for my basement.  I'm thinking either Operation Cobra or Market Garden.  My friends built H.O. scale train layouts in their basements, so I'm just gonna build something better.

hi daddydan  I would go for it I am still not done  mine was 4 ft by 6 ft but I am  adding 2 more ft it will be 4 x8 when done and mine is in the basement