First Dio - 1st Armored Division, Italy 1944

Looks Great! You got a good layout and positioning of Figs.You also did a superb job on the tank. Good job.

Very nicely done. Looks like the crewman in the last pic is trying to push-start your Sherman

Very nicely done. There is a strong sense of balance in the dio.
Thanks for the pics.

Very simple,but a very good dio,the quality is great.

Pedro

I think it is excellent. Any items of possible improvement fall into the quibbling points category and certainly cannot be categorized as butchery.

The balance on the dio is very good. It seems like you followed all the rules of thumb that I know about: odd numbers of figures, angling the vehicle, not exactly centering it, etc. The melted snow on the ground is effectively done. You included tracks in the mud which is a nice detail so we know that the Sherman did not levitate itself into position. The tank itself looks quite good, and I believe that the camo scheme used is correct for the Italian campaign. I like that the crew's uniforms are different shades of khaki and green.

For the nit-picking...

The brush is good but seems maybe a bit stiff. I'm not familar at all with Italian scrub, but I would thing that the distribution of stems withing each clump would be more uniform.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the two crewmembers on the left side of the tank. Since a spare roadwheel is over there, I assume that they are getting ready to change one out, or are relaxing after having done so. As such, either the rubber of either the roadwheel on the ground or the one about to be changed should be worn and damaged.

It makes perfect sense for all the spare stowage that had been piled on the engine deck to be piled on the ground. However, there should be some loose rope on the pile, since the stowage items would have been roped to the tank.

I would have also added some additional unit markings, serial numbers, and stars to the tank. I'm mentally drawing a blank on what would be an appropriate army and division/battalion for Italy. With the name Eileen, it would have been part of Easy company, thus having a vehicle number of E??.

Sometimes, tankers painted over the starts on the sides of the hull because the white star on the green background made a good target for the enemy gunners. When that was done the overpainting was usually pretty sloppy and obvious.

I'm not real sure when the Italian Shermans got camo'd. If done in the field, the serial numbers on the aft sides of the hull possibly could have been painted over by the brown where it overlapped them.

Nit-picking aside, I think that is a mighty fine diorama. The positives far outweigh the quibbling.

Andy

Very nice Garth, that engine detail looks great. I agree with Andy on the roadwheel thing. The last thing that I would want to do would be to change a roadwheel in the mud. Usually tankers will find a "high and dry" place to do that kind of maintenance. I really liked the figures and how they are posed. You've done a great job here. Thanks for sharing your excellent work.

Steve

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I think I'm going to take you up on your suggeestions and do a little damage to one of the wheels and fix some problems with the one that is leaning up on the tracks.

That's a good point about the markings, and I wondered if someone could clarify this for me. In the New Vanguard 'Sherman Medium Tank' book they had that there shouldn't be stars on the side of the hull or turret, just a 20 inch on the top and a 60 inch on the engine deck. Doesn't that seem weird? Is that true? It's plate A1 if you get a chance to check the book out. I just wondered if this has been seen anywhere else to verify it.

The stripes on the barrel and the rear of the turret would make it from second platoon, A company, so I totally hosed the name. My fiance's name is Eileen... I didn't know that the vehicle name should start with the letter of the company, but, in retrospect, that makes total sense... darnit! well, i guess i can find consolation in the fact that she has a 'tank' of a personality (ok, no one tell her i said that)

there is a bundle of rope sitting on the tarp, but i should have made it laying around more. hell, when you are trying to fix something while being shot at, i think the last thing on your mind would be coiling rope.

i'll get started on this stuff sometime this week. how bad should the road wheel look do you think? if it was just ripped apart a little by a small anti-personel mine, would that do it?

~ thanks again
~ garth

Well, with all the good points that have been said so far, all I can say is that...Great Job on your first diorama.

Great dio... I like the camo on the tank. Very unusual. I wish the tanker pushing the sherman good luck. Heehee. Great job.

I say job well done. I like the touches like the wet tread marks and the snow. Fine job on the crew as well as the tank itself. Thanks for sharing.

I wouldn't fret excessively about the name. Even with the tank being part of Abel company, the convention of naming the tank with a word that begins with a letter to match that of the company was occaisionally violated.

As far as the placement and sizes of stars, regardless of any Army directives, there certainly was considerable variety to be found, even when looking at tanks from the same unit at the same time. The reference specifying no side stars is still surprising. I wonder if there was some sort of directive that came about as a result of combat experience? Most Shermans that I have seen have stars on either the side of the hull or the side of the turret. Because tankers found that enemy anti-tank gunners ofter zeroed in on the stars, the crews would often paint over them, or even simply smear them with mud.

The 60" star on the rear deck is non standard as well. Most Shermans will had a considerablably smaller star there. I did, however, see a photo of a Sherman in France that had a very large star on its engine deck. I'm not absolutely sure how big it was, but it seemed to be as large as could be painted in the area which may well be about five foot. I'm assuming that I you did paint such a star on your deck. If so, I wouldn't offer any criticism because I have seen photographic evidence that a large star like that was used. In fact, I actually thought it seemed so unusual, that I painted a large star like that on the engine deck of my Sherman.

Garth,

I think it is agreat diorama, particularly for a first. Nicely done!

Gart,

A nice compact diorama that tells a big story. Super job,

Richard

Very nice thanks for the pics Garth.

:) Hello Garth:

Nice work!, you have caught faithfully to a Sherman in problems, congratulations!!

Regards,
Rodolfo

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all of the compliments. If not for the tips in these forums, it would be a piece of plywood with a few stick figures and a matchbox car glued to it.

I posted much better pics on my website last night. The old ones weren't very good. Check 'em out:
http://www.craniometrics.com/docs/sherman/index.html

Thanks Again
Garth

Very nice work

Thad

Looks fantastic.
I like the camo and the engine detail !!

Thanks! The engine was a total pain... Is it just me, or do most of the AM kits totally stink.
The entire time I was doing the engine and the interior I ket thinking that they were for a 1/32 instead of a 1/35 kit. Everything was just a hair too big to fit and needed to be trimmed. That's my biggest complaint about Verlinden. I've noticed that everything they make seems too be bigger than it should be, except the instructions, which always come up short.

Speaking of which, I am working on the Monogram P-47 Razorback and the Eduard PE kit is totally lacking... detail, instructions and parts. I almost feel like I am making the kit worse by using it. The wheel wells are super flimsy, the cockpit is barely detailed and is missing parts/instructions on how to fasten in the seat and really, just about everything else. So far, I've had to scratch build more parts to make up for the PE than came with the PE. Disappointing to say the least.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me vent

~ Garth

great job! whats next on the dio list?

Nice dio. Very well done.

What's next? Well, right now I am working on the old Monogram P-47 Razorback. It's tedious and I'm really having a hard time getting into it. The kit isn't the greatest and the AM for it stinks. I may set it down for a while and just do something OOB, like this 1/28 Focker my sister got me for xmas last year.

I'm trying to work out the specifics of my next armored dio and could use some help. What I want to do is show a Tiger disabled with a track knocked off and unable to turn its turret more than 90 degrees. I was thinking about it being ambushed in an alley or something of that sort, but I wasn't sure it there would be a better scenario. Any ideas?

~ Thanks
~ Garth

This was the second dio I looked at (I'm new) today and I'm already jealous. Good work on the diorama.

It`s an excellent start kid,ya can only get better! Love the setting and the idea,keep em coming!