What's not to love about this diorama, Its great! Youm have improved upon your original concept. One thing that did draw my attention was the scattered gun shells. The casings are correct in brass, but not the warhead. They should be black or another color. Other than that I just wish one of my dioramas would come together like yours.

Mike T.

it looks amazing! 

on a scale of 1-10,......about a 5. just joshin' ya! its definately a 10! is that Tamiya's 1/35 Sdkfz251/1? i got that one in my stash. the figs look like fun to paint, but if im looking at the right one, there is only one figure posed jumping over the side. oh well. looks great!!!!

sam

Appreciate the input guys.  I did toss the idea of a dead russian back and forth for quite a while, and decided to put him in.  I don't see a lot of dio's with dead soldiers, and the way I see it 40+ million people didn't die in WW2 by accident.  In the urban battles thousands of dead bodies littered the towns and cities during fighting.  The hardest part I guess is to depict dead troops respectfully and with taste, which is very difficult. 

Yeah I guess I could have set it aside for a while but I wanted to finish it so bad, as I have tons of other ideas to kick around, and I really wanted to start my 2nd dio. 

I learned a lot from the mistakes of this dio and it'll sit on my shelf as a reminder.  

I really like your composition here, kopfschuss! I like the fact that it tells an unmistakable story in the instant you look at it--the mark of a successful dio, in my opinion. I could point out the seam lines on some of the figures as well; and I don't know about that guy sitting high up on the blanket roll, but...since you've admitted that you "ran out of patience" I guess you might know that already...

I can only say that it's a shame that you didn't just put it down for a few weeks and come back to it, 'cause this could be a real serious contest winner (and still might be?!) but the judges will catch all these little things and bone ya hard for them.

All in all though, a really nice composition!  Please don't take this wrong, cuz I mean it in the nicest way, but I'm excited to see what you can do when you give it 100%!

The concept is great man, really is! There are some things to take into consideration.  The weapons on the figures aswell as their hands have a bunch of seam lines on them.  I would check them more carefully to make sure that they are gone, they detract from the realism of the figure, and are easily spotted!  Also, the armbands on their sleeves, are a little too thick!  In 1/35 scale they are pretty tiny, try a set of Gen 2 figures that have them molded on, you'll get a better sense of scale!  As a personal taste, dead figures aren't really a good idea!  Maybe it's just me, but the scene can be depicted just as lifelike without the dead soldiers!  The wounded German is in a great pose!!  I really like the feel and the way you have the figures laid out!  I know figure painting is really hard, but watch the shadows and highlights, it's something that comes with practice!!  over all nice job!

Wow, simply amazing work. I love the wounded German being pulled by the other. Great work.

David

I like this one a lot. There's a real sense of action and urgency. And I feel for the gut-wound guy. Nice pose. The half track looks very well done and taking the whole project outside for it's photo shoot makes all the difference in the world for me.

Looking forward to your next project.

Steve