omaha beach

Welcome rosenberg. Good luck with you Diorama.

I am planning making af d-day dio too. I have done some research, here you can find a lot of useful information abouth the normandee invasion. You can see the entire invasionplan, all the landingcraft, a map which show how the german strongholds where armed and much more. The web page is in french and english.

http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/index.html

here is another link to maps

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/dday.html

1/72, dude. couldnt get good light for the photos so they are a bit dark but acctually makes them look a bit better i have done 50 guys so far took me 2 weeks .

What scale is that? 1/tiny? Looks very small. And did I read you right, you are making 3000-2000 figures?!? Good luck and may god have mercy on your soul. Jaysun out.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1242560

hope this link works cant seem to post my photos so mabee you can view me folders at this link.

pls let me know, and if anyone can upload tyhem into the gallery here then by all means give me help/ or if you can do it then cool

god damn it

[img\Documents and Settings\PatrickM\Desktop\New Folder/mvc-036f][/img]

hope this works

The kit I mentioned is a trumpeter LCM. It looks like a great kit complete w/PE and all. I actually might head in a buy it now that I think about it. Sorry I lost the ID # though. Good luck anyways mate. Jaysun out.

nice one cheers, airfix has 2 landing craft lct, lci plain but looks good when blown up and in bits, hee hee.

infantry is gona be the longest part me thinks 3000 troops in total plus 2000 dead/wounded see you next decade.

Paddy. I love all that is 1/72 scale. Italleri has a great battlefield equipment set with sand bags and antitank/beach obsticles.#6049. They also offer greatly detailed 1/72 scale american infantry set that with a little modification would look just like the men on Omaha#6046. Twigs and sticks can be used to make other obsticles. A guy at the hobby shop showed me a great 1/72 scale landing craft too. I'm going down there today so I'll look up the # for you.
Regarding the accuracy of the scenery. I think if you look at what Stephen Speilberg did in Saving Private Ryan you can get away with not being entirely 100% accurate. He filmed it in Ireland and used the same set through out the whole movie. Same with Band Of Brothers. Yet the feeling and emotions were there. If you focus your modelling on some of the basic principles of what Omaha was (chaotic, horrifying, a killing zone, a complete military foul up) then details such as exact replication shouldn't really matter. This is why I love Diaramas. This is why some great modellers/artists can get away with only having one figure on a display and completely floor ones loaded with extra figures. I look at all sorts of Dios of an anoymous street in france or country road in italy and still get the sense that I am actually there, that this is a scary place, that war is hell, and heros are born from this. So don't sweat the small stuff and as long as you are happy then have fun. Good luck with your dio.

cheers guys, should be finished the first part soon im just experementing wuith materials, terracota clays great for brick houses, epoxy putty good for sand bags sprues , wood poles, ect, wire cable strippped and used for fencing, plastic perfume packing hedghogs, so on . as it is me first wont be the best but it gives me good practice doing a small scale set then when i get a bit better i will try 1/35 but my fine detailing is a bit gash at the mo , and il be buggered if i can work a air brush, it wont be hostoricaly accurate me thinks but as close as i can get it . when i get a digital camera i will show you guys my feeble efforts, trouble is i only get 1-2 hours per day to do it ,work ,kids ,wife, but its good fun just to potter about trying new things. actual rust looks great on vehicles i put a stanly blade and some staples in salt water and placed on my boiler i week later rust paste shows up pretty good

paddy

IF YOU CANT FIND ACCURATE PICS JUST BUILD IT, CHANCES ARE THE PEOPLE VIEWING YOUR DIO WON'T KNOW HOW IT REALLY LOOKED! i too absolutely HAVE to have accurate pics or else i go crazy!! i hope ur dio turns out great sounds like ur putting a lot of effort into it!!! SO its gonna look grrrreat!!! -DJ

ahh, my area only really deals with 1/35 scale or bigger, and the airfix and tamya etc have only limited stocks of famous stuff. as this is my first time making somthing like this i havnt done a lot of recerch into different companys and have only bought what i can to bulk up the scene, im making as much of the landscape from scratch em well all of it and due to the size i will need to include the low tide mark, the width of dog green sector, 2-3 foot wide and to the top of the buffs and draw and beond 5 -6 foot length , i have the problem of no space in my house so i am resorting to doing it in my attic but once its built it will never be possible to take down again. its a bugger. i think a smaller project next time.

aye ment the 88" sorry bad day at work yesterday, but the piccy looks a bit strange , probably cause its black/white, and the tides in . i think making up the model solely on piccys is the way for me to go, i dont think i will get it 100% accurate but will look the balls ( i hope ), finished my first bit last night a german stronghold in one of the delapidated buldings on draw 1 , with a half trak and 88 gun under camo netting,( will change gun when i can get more howitzers, and a demolished house with a german self propelled gun ( panzer chassis ) driving through it along with horse drawn artillary group ,

p.s whats the best models to use as most of mine are from an airfix d day set and are well not the best, i cant seem to get any other type in my area , fife, dundee, . in 1/72 scale, im also looking for extras kits but only see them in 1/35 scale , can you recomend a good safe website to purchace some stuff,

hi paddy.a book called d-day the first 24 hours is a great book by will fowler.has all info u need about dog green sector( omaha). even down to brigade strengths and orbat ( order of battle) for both allied and axis forces alike...." THERE WAS A WIDE STRETCH OF SAND BEING NARROWED BY THE TIDE,THEN A SHARPLY RISING SHINGLE BANK OF SMALL,SMOOTH STONES THAT ENDED AT THE SEA WALL. AGAINST THE WALL WERE SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST ASSAULT TEAM.SOME WERE SCOOPING OUT SHELTERS;A NUMBER WERE STRETCHED OUT IN THE LOOSE ATTITUDE OF THE WOUNDED;OTHERS HAD THE ULTIMATE STILLNESS OF DEATH;BUT MOST WERE SITTING WITH THEIR BACKS TO THE WALL"...this is a great book and costs roughly £10.00 it will help u no end...guaranteed.......i am in no way affiliated with this book, and am not will fowler!!! good luck,omaha is a great diorama to produce,i done it already and understand the hardship u are experiencing.

thanks peridexion,
i have spent about £50 plus on books, maps, etc but every one has a different account of what happened and what equipment and troops was there.
i have that map already but as you say there should be two pak 88`s and i belive at least 2-3 50mm guns, your first piccy looks to me like the right hand side beach bunker with the 50mm but the sea wall and shingle looks different than retold in books.

hatewall, im shocked to hear that aboot the films ,shame!!
i dont know about artistic freedom the thing is 3 foot square in 1/72 scale and only half the size im needing , it will (in about 3 years when i finaly finish painting the 1-3000 trooops ) be finished i hope. like i said the only problem im having is the draw itself (buildings, bunkers, traps etc. but will post piccys as im doing it . done 10 veichles, 88 gun two 50mm guns landing crafts and a handfull of men, the basic beach shingles and the start of the draw. 4 months so far, best bit will be building the bunkers houses and so on .

cheers neo hacker. book is in me local book shop may have to buy!!

Try the book "June 6th, D-Day" By Stephen Ambrose. It has a diagram cross section of the beach and some photos. There are also lots of descriptions. It's an older book, so it might even be at your local library. Good luck.

The problem with Omaha, is that the photographer that developed the footage over emulsified and destroyed almost all of the photos taken during the invasion. I belive some film also went into the drink, but the story of the over excited developer is completely true and one of the biggest goofs in history. It is a real shame.

I used to always wonder why they always used the same 4 pieces of video and handful of photos in documentaries. When I heard that, I became ill.

As a side note, you have a lot of artistic freedom. That is a project I would like to attempt someday and will have to tackle the same issues.