huge diorama

I found some shots of eary in the construction, i thought i would tag on as well

(excuse my messy workbench)

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the mezzanine level was ditched in favor of the lathe and workshop machines

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the Panzer IV, and workshop bench are sitting there to give me some idea of size in scale

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I stopped taking photos of the construction at this point to concentrate on the build

 Great job, friend! However, I failed to find the "messy" workbench! Welcome to the forums.

                                            60

Great work alot going on there but it all works

John

m60a3 wrote:

Great job, friend! However, I failed to find the "messy" workbench! Welcome to the forums.                                             60

i tried to hide it using the background sheet in the construction photos, but it is there in the last 2 shots

Stern0 wrote:

whew! Alot going on there! Please post a full shot..your detail photos are great...I need to see it as a whole...How much time invested?...takes me a month for 4 figures!!

the who thing was built over a 3 year period (you may notice all the photo etch on the famos, and the tiger). the groundwork, buildings and final assembly took about 3 months.

the buildings are from "firestorm", (australian model manufacturer), although i had to carve the inside detail (they are one sided castings), and scratch build all the fittings.

Great dio!  I wish I had about three years to model in my spare time without interruptions...school...banjolele, accordian...work...

Anyways, that picture you placed in the background reminds me of a painting I saw of the Shire from LOTR a while back; and I thought to myself, when did the Germans invade Middle Earth?

lol

Good work, I hope you're proud of it!

Wow! And I was worried mine was huge- I hope I can pull it off as well as you did- didn't even see this one before I posted mine. Very nicely done- I've already got about a year invested in mine, that's just the construction end of things- Your painting and detail work is very well done, looking forward to and overall shot of the finished one if its no trouble, and welcome to the Forum!

That's not a messy work bench at all- you should see mine

Really nice work... A bit too much going in too small a space to get what's being depicted IMHO though... I'm actually counting about 6 different dios, lol... One that's particularly confusing is the infantry squad... They doin' a land nav exercise that's gone wrong and they wound up in the middle of a regimental support area? ("Lost One, this is Lost Three, are you Lost Too?, over") 

Anyway, the models are excellent and the figures and buildings well done... Just don't get exactly what's going on...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Really nice work... A bit too much going in too small a space to get what's being depicted IMHO though... I'm actually counting about 6 different dios, lol...

funny you should mention that!

As I was building each individual kit I was thinking "that would look great in a diorama", the imagination was going wild with the images being drawn in the mind, and plans to make a small scene to frame each model or group, with a particular theme.
But as time went by I just seemed to move from one model kit to the next, without doing any groundwork. (there is nothing like the feeling of opening that new box)
Well the cabinet was slowly becoming fuller and fuller, until finally, I bit the bullet.
I eventually got around to making somegroundwork, but couldn't decide what kit (or kits) to use, so I thought I may as well throw them all in... and I did!
It was a case of, it looked too empty with only a few, and too full with them all, so I chose the second option. (in for a penny... in for a pound)

I agree it is a very busy scene, but i figured i could use a little artistic licence, and not depict one individual event, but rather a period of time over which a number of events happend in the same area.

I learnt alot from the build, (including it is easy to kill a diorama with too many subjects), but since finishing the build, the cabinet (was) empty. And I am back in control, and able to focus on telling one story per dio.

that dio was built up on 3 layers of plasterboard, (it was very heavy) and too big to keep, these are the only pictures i have of it, and since taking the photos, it has been dissasembled, so the proverbial "shot of the whole thing" ain't gonna' happen. (sorry guys!)

The backdrop (not quite middle earth! LOL) is just something I picked up at a model railroad shop, and does not depict the time or place the dio was based in or at, but it makes the photos a little more visually appealing. (the scene is the same whether you look north, east, south or west).
the infantry squad are supposts to be a group of lost soldiers, trying to make sense of the confusing sign posts, once again, i had built all these figures, "may as well throw them in too".

Thanks everyone for the great (positive) feedback,
hope you appreciate viewing it as much as I enjoyed building it.

m60a3 wrote:

Great job, friend! However, I failed to find the "messy" workbench!

here it is

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