Grossdeutschland WIP

 Nice Job,I cona only hope to be able to paint figures that well, if I can figure out how to post a picture maybe I'll dust my Famo diorama and show it off. Happy modelling.

 It really has most all the ingredients & application of an interesting Dio.It reads to me like they were sucked into an ambush by a larger or outgunned opponent.I like it, all I'd say is that if you aren't upto weathering,at the least spray the 251 & figures with a coat or 2 of dullcote,espescially the figures.But prior to that briefly dust them wih with some brownish weatering powders.Real soldiers in the field would lose that clean & new look about 5 minutes.But your off to a great start.Solid building & most imparting a story without words.     Thanks for sharing,  rudedog

More mud on the street and the tank.

But apart from that: keep up the good work.

Bernabeus

For the decals you can use a product called Micro-Set or Micro-Sol from Microscale Industries I think it's called. It's a 2-part system that basically dissolves the decal so it kind of "melts" to the model like paint. I use it on all my decals and it works great. Just dont touch the decals until they're set up or they will warp or distort (like wet paint) and are hard to correct. Hope this helps if I'm not too late!
-----------------------------------------Kevin

this dio looks good to me so far.im sure as you go on you'll always spot something amiss or that should or should'nt be there.one observation,it would seem to me that going over the side of the apc both makes you a target and a candidate for a broken ankle or leg.if the rear doors are open and infantry are exiting through themand deploying to the left or right to move for cover.that will also add the sense of impending action.dio's are a thing of imagination and eye candy and yours so far seems to be on the right track.maybe if you clean the dust of around the decals and seal with some future that would seal the edges so that your dust and weathering won't highlight the edges.just let the future dry then cover with matte clear to eliminate the gloss.

some of the ropes used for model ship rigging will work great, if you can find some thin rope in a hardware store, simply unravel the strands to get individual "ropes". Craft stores sell alot of beading rope as well.

None of the figures are glued into place so i'll just re position the mg so the barrel is on the bags.  Thanks for the "tie down" tip.  What makes good rope in 1/35 scale?

Oh yah, just saw the sandbags now, the mg does seem to be floating a bit, but that's easily remidied, take some tissue or milliput and make a small tarp to stick under the mg to fill the gap, and maybe add some rope to the sandbags to help "tie them down", if the driver suddenly hit the brakes, they would shoot forward.

 As for the decals, probably not much you can do now, unless you scrape them off and reapply, but that would kill your paint. For future, when you go to apply decals, I usually just brush on a coulple coats of Future Floor polish where the decal would go, when dry, apply the decal. Then you can add your filters to help blend in the cammo and decals to the vehicle, then add a couple coats of flat lacquer to finish. Good use of the old Tamiya figures!

Kopfschuss wrote:

Also, no comments on the sandbags on top of the vehicle yet, thought I would hear it for that.  I wanted to make it different somehow so I decided that the mg 42 shield was destroyed and the gunner put some sandbags in its place.  I saw it in a picture somewhere...

That was one of the inaccuracies I noticed, the MG looked like it was suspended above the bags. otherwise, your dio is on the right track.

Thanks for the heads up Kelly, although I did do the dust idea to blend in the front decals and it ended up highlighting the edges of the decal itself.  Dust collected on the edge and they have an outline now.  Any way to avoid this?

Also, no comments on the sandbags on top of the vehicle yet, thought I would hear it for that.  I wanted to make it different somehow so I decided that the mg 42 shield was destroyed and the gunner put some sandbags in its place.  I saw it in a picture somewhere...

Excellent story line on this one...very moving....!

Very good so far!

Like the guy being dragged as well, the whole scene has that "go go go, c'mon!" feel to it. I noticed the number and cross decals seem to be silvered, and quite noticable I would maybe brush a coat of clear flat on top of them, and add some dust pigment to help blend them in with the vehicle's paint....

 

Thanks for the feedback so far.  Didn't even think about the gerry cans, I'll be sure to swap those out. 

It's funny how many seems you notice after looking at pictures.  Why didn't I catch those when I was building? lol

I also have the "pointing" guy in the wrong place in the top view.  Doh.

Looks to me you're off to a great start! 

If I were you, before doing anything else, I'd replace those wholly inaccurate Tamiya gerry cans. There was never a gerry can with two honking big handles like this, except in the imagination of the Tamiya designers. All WW II gerry cans had three slim handles. on: I don't know why Tamiya doesn't invest a few dollars in their ancient molds to replace these things on kits they keep re-releaasing. They have them correct now, they have them correct in their aftermarket sets, Italeri had them correct 30 years ago. off.

That said, the story looks good, construction overall looks pretty good. You might want to try to reposition the MG42, it looks like it's floating.

I like the way you painted on Grossdeutschland on the sleeve of soldiers. 

  Another inspiring diorama! The wounded soldier being dragged away looks tops. Very imaginative putting those two figures together. Is the wounded guy bashing his fist up and down on the ground yelling, 'ahhh, it hurts! it hurts!'...?

  Nice job, can't wait to see it finished.