Weird idea

You do have a point, but in a tree how would you be able to see the sniper or would it just be the dioramas secret.

David

ww2modeler wrote:

You do have a point, but in a tree how would you be able to see the sniper or would it just be the dioramas secret. David

What if you did a cutaway scene, that deliberately illustated the sniper and his position, as a way of showing their craft ?

Another approach is a placard that indicates that "The officer near the____ is going to meet his end without any warning. Can you see why?" This might encourage folks to scour the diorama more closely for clues, and thus reveal the hidden sniper.

Just a few thoughts.  

The placard Idea is a great idea. Maybe put "I spy a sniper, do you" but how would I replicate the suit worn by the snipers with the twigs and leaves on them.

David

Paint everything in black and white except for the sniper.

wash out and pale the colors more as the distance from the sniper increases.

something that might be tough to picture and may be quite subtle but may be worth the effort:  shade the settings as if the sniper was an inverse point light source.  that is, all the shadows face the sniper.

now, obviously these are not going to look realistic if that's what you're looking for but it'd probably look cool in a stylized sort of way.

Great idea, but it might be kinda hard to pull of given the scope required for good depth. A forced perspective might be an idea, where you look over the shoulder of a sniper in a consealed position as he looks down on an 88 in a field.

Forced perspective dios are really hard to pull off though...  

Carnivalfun, that seems like a good way to do that but are you using the church steeple only or making a whole church and using it like that. Or, should I make a tree and make one side with all the leaves off and one side with the leaves on to show the snipers craft like Kolschey said.

David

goat monkey wrote:

Paint everything in black and white except for the sniper. wash out and pale the colors more as the distance from the sniper increases. something that might be tough to picture and may be quite subtle but may be worth the effort:  shade the settings as if the sniper was an inverse point light source.  that is, all the shadows face the sniper. now, obviously these are not going to look realistic if that's what you're looking for but it'd probably look cool in a stylized sort of way.

 As for camo it all depends on theater and war, if its a WWII german sniper they would be wearing a face veil(black mesh) and a snipers smock with some improvised camo, twigs, leaves, etc. If its a WWII american sniper your portraying then their gear is even more basic, mostly feild improvised because our military was only in the begining stages of astablishing sniper programs. After WWII you'll see the Ghillie suit a lot more (as well as in WWI)...If its a russian sniper then you can get pretty creative, the russians had the best training programs for snipers in WWII, plus with a dio you could portray more shorter range sniping, often building to building shooting. Japanese sniping was very improvised, however their gear was somewhat more suited to the idea, their weapons...the type 97 w/ 2.5 power scope...used underpowered cartriges so the charge burned up in the barrel eliminating most if not all muzzle flash...but shortened their range, so this may be a good way to demonstrate sniping in a smaller dio.

Its a pretty interesting idea, i've thought about it a few times, i was thinking about putting my sniper on a rooftop or bridge beam on a kind of "March to Berlin" urban combat theme, with the black mesh veil and mesh rifle cover...

detailfreak wrote:

perhaps the movie enemy at the gates would give you the inspiration yo need.

please don't watch that.  all that movie ever enspired me to do was a) change the channel and b) kicking jude law in the nuts for being in that disgraceful piece of crap.

A cool idea might be to make a ruined two story house with a tree that fell onto the second floor and the sniper is using the tree as cover on the second floor.

Hi all, Thanks for the input again, Canucks Idea of having the sniper in a window sounds cool and so does the one of having the destroyed city and having the sniper hidden, sort of like the Sniper duel in Stalingrad. Finally, what are the best sniper kits in the form of detail vs. price.

Thanks, David

Forced perspective dios are really hard to pull off though...

 Sniper in tree, in the foreground**, with a ridge between the sniper and the target, the sniper's line of sight....he can barely see the slope of the opposite side of the ridge, beyond the ridge, the scale changes smaller, where the target is. A backdrop on the dio could further extend the "range", by drawing the eye into it.

**your sniper will have to be super detailed, as will the tree, almost to the branch and leaf. That level of detail will help to force the perspective, with sniper being the thing that captures the eye, and mind, the rest being "background". ( Us model railroaders have the problem of creating depth to our layouts, and resort to forced perspective, often, to provide the depth that space doesn't allow.)

steelrudi wrote:

Snipers try not to use trees now days.  No chance to quickly change position after your initial shot.  Plus you need to police up your brass after the shot so as not to give away the position of said shot.  If your in a tree, your brass can go God knows where.   Buildings or high ground is the ticket.  Shoot and move.  Shoot and move.

High ground is great as long as you don't skyline yourself and draw attention even better...which is another problem with trees as well

Stalingrad would be a great setting for a sniper dio. Your surroundings options would be endless, considering how the city and surrounding area looked by the time of the surrender. You could take your pick of german or russian, considering the number of snipers deployed during that "campaign".

Re: Enemy at the Gates: I agree: a terrible job once more by hollywood screwing up what could have been a fantastic biography/drama of one of the greatest self-taught snipers who ever lived.