Achtung ! Flugzeug ! (Flak 43 dio finished)

For your first diorama it looks really good. My only criticism is that the sand bags dont quite look right. I think they might be a little too rigid. Everything else looks great though

   Hey Wirraway, nice job on your first diorama mate! Those tree stumps are a great idea and your snow doesn't look to bad either. What did you use?  I sent those ammo belts off for you today, well actually i sent the whole sprue set. When i got home and read saw your post i had to laugh because there is a map case in the set too, maybe you could hang it off the gun trailer..... There are also three individual stick grenades as well, they would look good sitting up on the sand bags near the MG34. You could also put the extra machinegun ammo boxes inside the sandbag walls.

   Again, nice one...

Excellent work!  I agree with carnivalfun in regard to sand bags being stiff.  One of your photos showing that end of one sand bag is half on a sand bag and the other half is floating in the air. 

Excellent effort, Wirraway!  I assume those are the Tamiya sandbags?  Not sure what you could have done about that, aside from trying to make your own out of some kind of very thin fabric, though. Anything else wouldn't have the flexibility of the real deal at this scale.  No worries, though - a very impressive build!  I agree about the snow, too - what did you use for that?

Nice! I dont know if you know how to use "washes" but I think a light one could really really bring out the detail and fold in the monotone color of the uniforms. Plus the sand bags look maybe kind of too yellow/orangish to me. Last, the ground is a little flattish and the tree stumpts look a little too uniform. I hope you take that as constructive criticism though, because its a great start!

Thanks guys.  The snow is plaster of paris with bicarb soda sprinkled on top. I made the footprints and stuck the shovel in before it had a chance to set.  The tree stumps were glued to the wooden base before I poured the plaster.  The idea was to have the plaster of paris level with the top of the frame, which would of made the tree stumps shorter, but I only bought a 2lb bag of plaster, which wasnt enough, and I wasnt going to do a mercy dash to the hardware store !  I might still try a wash on those sandbags, as they arent glued to the base.  Try and darken up the shadowing and bring out the seams.

Hey Wirraway nice good keep it up mate! good to see more aussie's on here

Looks good, no scratch that...looks great for your first dio...but here are a couple things to help you get better.

1) Snow, unless it is newly fallen is not pure white, mix in some earth tone pigments into your snow to give it a "muddy" appearance.

2) Sandbags are really easy to make out of 2 part epoxy, I use Aves, and it is great!  Not that expensive and it gives you a LONG time to make them.  Your sandbags, and I understand they are "premade", are huge!  A good general rule is to get a standing figure, and make the sandbags the same size as the distance between his foot and knee, maybe a little smaller.  You can use medical gauze presses gently onto the bags to give them texture, and a small toothpick or dental pick to put the seam around the middle.  Like I said Aves is great stuff and it gives you at least an hour to play around with it.

3) Finish the "story" the tree stumps look great, but where are the trees?  Where are the fragments, or the saw dust, or the branches?  Empty shell casings, other "lived" in evidence.

4) The figures are REALLY well done, just need some evidence of wear, and others have given you some great advice.

Great work, very, very well done!

Wirraway,I love the wind drift look.Aftr reading the replies,Did you write a wish list of accessories That I missed ? If so,let me know if there's any other goodies you'd like to add.I probably have it.Good job, rudedog