dio i started recently...

Looks great so far. Just the kind of tedious work that I would torture myself with! LOL.

My only comment would be that with the wall stones strewn about the road, I would add a damaged section to the wall on the side of the road to show where they came from.

There's a glaring flaw, man. There's no airplane!

He, he, he...

You're rock wall is teriffic. One thing, here in the Motherlode of Northern California, there's rock walls here and there built by Chinese laborors during the Gold Rush and they're all three or four rocks thick, not one row. It makes it makes them stable... and last quite a long time apparently!

Dude! It looks dang realistic.

Your in progress diorama just needs finesseing to show a story...

ideas:

1) unexploded aerial bomb in the road...

2) mine sweepers...

3) reluctant cow in the road...

4) rotten little children of the enemy taunting...

5) enemy flag trophy scene...

Sf, looks great so far.Love the trees good idea.Where did you get rocks all the same size like that? Maybe a Jeep in the front with a guys looking at a map on the hood? Df. need one more vehical to fill it up.

John

sf_plane_nut wrote:

i didnt really have enough rocks that size to do that but once i get my rock supply up ...any suggestions ?....]

yeah shake your head you'll get more     

just kidding   

good start  keep it up

DURR wrote:

sf_plane_nut wrote: i didnt really have enough rocks that size to do that but once i get my rock supply up ...any suggestions ?....] yeah shake your head you'll get more      just kidding    good start  keep it up

Sorry to say this but your rock wall doesn't look right.  Most rock walls were built from the rocks that were plowed up and picked up from farmers' fields.  These were rough and ill shaped as they worked themselves up from below the surface of the earth.  These are pieces of gravel that are smooth from being tumbled in a streambed.  These pieces would have to come from the bottom of a very large and very fast river.  It would be better if you would take a hammer to themj to rough them up.  They look toy-like and not that represenative of a European landscape. 

True dat... Figured I'd let someone else chime in on that...  But now that the cat's outta the bag, it's easy enough to camouflage... But rather than startin' over & hittin' 'em with a hammer, it's a simple enough job to pookie the wall up with some sheetrock mud for mortar, then do a bit of "moss work" with some Woodland Scenics "Turf".  After the motar dries, give it some dark washes and then brush on some white glue along the tops of the rocks where they protude from the mortar...

Be sure to add some moss here and there around the location as well and don't sweat the directions... Moss grows on all sides of a tree, rocks ain't any different...

For field rocks, I hunt around near the gutters & curbs, and edges of parking lots... That's where the rugh stuff is livin'.. Half an hour will give you a scale half-mile of wall material...

I think your dio looks great! But most old rural stone walls were 'dry' ie they didn't use mortar in between the stones, peasant farmers didn't waste money on cement. So I think maybe you should have left it the way it was.

Also as stated in a previous reply they were built from stones pulled out of the ground so they would be rougher, not round like yours.

But doing a search for some pics of some dry stone walls here in Ireland, you can find many different types of rock used, also the way the walls were built depended on the shapes of the rocks available.

Here's some different examples.

This last one is made of faily round stones, probably sourced from a beach, the wall is only one stone thick and look at those gaps!

Basically what I'm trying to say is, unless you are building a dio and depicting an stone wall thats in a photo, nobody can tell you your wall is wrong. Keep up the good work!

The wall looks really good, pard... I'd think about the mortar-color though... It'd probably look better in a lighter shade.. Not sure exactly what shade, but one that's lighter than the rock itself...  I'd also try drybrushing some highlights onto the rocks in order to accentuate their shapes and to add some depth; perhaps a "concrete" color of some kind, a medium tan or the like... Alfaspud makes a good point about construction, but since the walls are along a road, I doubt that they would "farmer-built"... I'd venture a guess that regular stone masons built those kind of walls..

As for the figure's jacket, if it's M1943 field jacket, I'd say it needs to be more a lighter shade of the color of the trousers.  If it's the paratrooper jacket, I'd say a bit more on the tan side, like MM SAC Bomber Tan... The M42 Jump jacket and trousers, when I paint them, are usually done in MM SAC Bomber Tan on the trousers, Armor Sand for the jacket.

Gettin' there... Glad I could help..

Just a suggestion though.. Try bringing some of the road color up onto the tracks and tires, along with the figure's boots.. That little touch "ties" the subjects to the groundwork... 

Also a tip from a technical POV.. Soldiers operating mine detectors remove their helmets, weapons, equipment, and web gear, any items with steel in them, since some mines were fuzed with magnetic detonators... Thee's also another Soldier that works with him... His job is provide security for the operator and to mark any spots that the detector indicates may be a mine.   You may also want to add a German minefield warning sign to the front area (facing away from the Americans), is if the Yanks are just about clear of the mines...  A skull & cross-bones with the words, "ACHTUNG!! MINEN" is always a good touch, especially for your non-military viewers who may not know what's going on...

Here's some examples:

If you want a bigger selection of signs in various sizes, I used the keywords, "Achtung Minen" to search Google Images...

Also, the turret hatches... Are they cylindrical "tubs" rather than open to the rest of the turret?

Well i am finally calling it done...learned a lot...got to a point where i just wanted it to be over...i have tons of more stuff for 1/72 dio's but the next one will be 1/35...that should be fun...

Hasegawa Sherman...some 101st airborne...some regular army...just kind of thrown together to get a job done...thanks for all the help...

 This is 1/72?!?!?!?!?!  I thought for sure it was 1/35!!!

 All looks MANtastic!!! As a former stone mason myself, I do agree that the mortar color could be lighter, but whatever, it still looks great!!!