WIP: 1st Dio, a local location w/political overtones. Done.

Here's the final installation picture, on my living room bookshelf lit with a set of L.E.D. lights.

This diorama is Finished.

Here are the final two photos. Added is the dune which the retaining wall is holding back, and just in case I ever decide to enter this diorama in any kind of a show, I painted the back and added some caution signs.

ps., I'm sorry about having to rewrite this post. I'm having trouble with the place that's hosting my photos and they lost all the photos I posted in this particular post originally. And their site is now not allowing me to log on or upload anything else right now.

Received and completed my reconstructive surgery on the Revell 1/35 LKW Wolf (also known as the G-wagen). I have been looking for a 1/35 kit of the VW Iltis but have been unable to find one. However, armed with a drawing I found in a Yahoo Image Search, I started chopping away at the Wolf with my trusty Exacto knife. I cut out the doors, trimmed the mudguards off the front fenders, trimmed the front skidplate, moved the front bumper up to hide the bottom part of the grill, scraped off the Mercedes emblems from the wheels, and added styrene "strakes" to match the ones which are on the Iltis.

One bad thing happened right at the start of building the model. The masking tape I used reacted to the type of styrene Revell used in this kit and it it frosted the windshield (but only on the inside, the outer windshield remained smoot and clear).

Anyways, here are the photos of it so far. I'm waiting for some more UN decals to arrive, since I used all the others on the Stryker.

Please notice the contents loaded into the back of my "Iltis."   I really had fun making them.

Hellcat man wrote:

Is that Schwinnwagen going to be in the dio or will it be replace by another vehicle? Also where in Canada is the barrel depot located? Alex

The schwimmwagen will be replaced if the surgery on the LKW Wolf (G-Wagen) is successful. If my cutting skills aren't up to snuff, then the diorama is complete as it stands right now.

My diorama seems to have turned out to be sort of a satire, with the newpaper trumpeting a massive protest (with the photo under the headline) and the actual scene of just a small group of uniformed soliers standing around talking without any protesters anywhere in sight.

Or...you could take it as the UN troops have violated our national sovereignity and trampled our constitutional right to civil protest and are now just standing around afterward, drinking Pepsi and looking as though nothing is bothering them.

The Barrel Store's address is:

The Barrel Store, 155 Wellesley Cres., London, ON, Canada N5V1J6

They have a website (that's how I found them): www.thebarrelstore.com

I got the United Nations decals from a place called The Barrel Store, located in Canada. Once I got them on the Stryker, I glued the model to its spot on the diorama.

Here are the pictures:

falschimjager wrote:

Why does the UN have a shwimwagon (or however you spell it)?

I had one sitting around.

I do, however, have a LKW G-Wagen on order that I'm going to try and convert to a passable VW Iltis (I think all I have to do is increase the downward angle of the hood, remove the doors and trim a little of the body behind them, leave off the convertable top, and use the grill from the non-Mercedes version).

That--if successful--would then take the place of the schwimmwagen.

If not, then one of the participating UN countries must be using schwimmwagens.

Oh, well. I like the results I have, so it doesn't matter.

And I like the article about the popularity of fixing up your home being right next to the "UN" headline. That's small-town newspapring at its best.  

You dont have to copy it.  You use the 'prtscn' button it means print screen.  That takes a snapshot of your desktop and puts it in your clipboard.

From there open paint and just simply paste, and voila there is your newspaper

Worked on mocking up a newspaper front page. The closest thing I got off the web to our local papers was the South Bend Tribune. The Herald Palladium (our local paper) makes you pay a dollar to view the web facsimile and then it won't let you copy it. Just read it.

Here is my fake frontpage. 3x5 inch image, so you probably don't need to click on the thumbnail:

When I shrink it down to a scale which looks normal to the figures in my diorama, however, you can't read the headlines without a magnifying glass.

I've made a 3x5 inch print which folded to look like a real newspaper, added some "inside" sheets, andmade a little metal stand which tucks under the base of the diorama, acting as a kind of title for it.

Hmmm...perhaps it is that the destruction of the St Joseph Division and the destruction of the Jean Klock Park's wetlands/dunes habitat are kind of spiritually linked in what I am trying to express in my "UN moves in to quell the protests" diorama.

What was it William Faulkner said? "The Past isn't dead. It isn't even past."  ......and like Banquo's ghost, it just won't go away.

That's something I'm gonna hafta ponder on.

edit, added: I have to add, here, that Whirpool's closing of the Division turned out to be the best thing that happened to me. I wrote an unpublished novel, started my own stained glass business (which ended when I suffered a mild stroke), and became a small-town grocery store cashier who had my own following of customers, and was employee of the year once and employee of the month seven times during my ten year stay at that store. Personality-wise, I really blossomed. At Whirpool, I was pretty much a recluse and a loner, suspicious of everyone.

charlie98210 wrote:

Quote from Manstein's revenge: Nope, you answered it...where did they move the production to, down south? We were union organized (IAM Local 1918). Clyde and Marion were not. In the mid-seventies Whirlpool moved its distibution centers to Ohio. St Joe Division could build the washing machines for $17 less per machine than the non-union divisions, but shipping the machines to the distribution centers by truck killed us in costs. Word was, "It was a simple economic decision." Like when they (Whirlpool) closed the Maytag factories in Iowa. Just business. Sorry.   Oh...and they made the decision to close the St Joe Division three weeks after celebrating the Division's 75th year of production.

Quote from Manstein's revenge: Nope, you answered it...where did they move the production to, down south?

We were union organized (IAM Local 1918). Clyde and Marion were not. In the mid-seventies Whirlpool moved its distibution centers to Ohio.

St Joe Division could build the washing machines for $17 less per machine than the non-union divisions, but shipping the machines to the distribution centers by truck killed us in costs.

Word was, "It was a simple economic decision."

Like when they (Whirlpool) closed the Maytag factories in Iowa. Just business. Sorry.

Oh...and they made the decision to close the St Joe Division three weeks after celebrating the Division's 75th year of production.

charlie98210 wrote:

Quote from Mainstein's revenge:  So what happened to the Whirlpool plant? They closed the St. Joseph Division down. Then bulldozed it. The engineering building called "The Laundry Group" is still there. Across the St. Joseph River, Plant 7 (the plating and metal tube extruding plant) was renamed the Benton Harbor Division. 2500 factory jobs were lost. I was there almost to the very end, even though I only had thirteen years seniority. When they shut down the mini-washer assembly line, I got a temporary job, taking the place of a twenty-year seniority guy who was out recovering from open-heart surgery, and I worked in what was left of Plant 6 (originally called the Porcelain Plant. Until 1983, the tops and lids of all Whirlpool's washing machines were porcelain-coated. Plant 6 did the porcelain coating for all three of Whirlpool's appliance divisions--St Joseph Division in Michigan, the Clyde Division in Ohio, and the Marion Division, also in Ohio). They finished closing the main factory toward the end of May, 1987. If I have misunderstood your question and you were actually asking what happened to the Whirlpool plant in the diorama...well, it's not supposed to be in there.

Quote from Mainstein's revenge:  So what happened to the Whirlpool plant?

They closed the St. Joseph Division down. Then bulldozed it. The engineering building called "The Laundry Group" is still there. Across the St. Joseph River, Plant 7 (the plating and metal tube extruding plant) was renamed the Benton Harbor Division. 2500 factory jobs were lost. I was there almost to the very end, even though I only had thirteen years seniority. When they shut down the mini-washer assembly line, I got a temporary job, taking the place of a twenty-year seniority guy who was out recovering from open-heart surgery, and I worked in what was left of Plant 6 (originally called the Porcelain Plant. Until 1983, the tops and lids of all Whirlpool's washing machines were porcelain-coated. Plant 6 did the porcelain coating for all three of Whirlpool's appliance divisions--St Joseph Division in Michigan, the Clyde Division in Ohio, and the Marion Division, also in Ohio). They finished closing the main factory toward the end of May, 1987.

If I have misunderstood your question and you were actually asking what happened to the Whirlpool plant in the diorama...well, it's not supposed to be in there.

Last night I used my graphics program to create some United Nations shoulder insignia for the soldiers in my diorama.

In this photo, you can see (sort of) the UN insignia. You can also see the trashed protest banner laying on the ground and the guy on the left is drinking from a Pepsi can.

This is a photo of the UN force commander reading one of the protest flyers (UN insignia on his shoulder)

And there is now a small UN flag fluttering bravely from the top of the concrete retaining wall.

modelchasm wrote:

That newspaper idea is a good one! Nice thought ark. I think this one has a nice idea to it. Everyone models the past ... This one is about the present/ future. Not sure if it would ever come down to the UN protecting it, maybe the Guard (although I'm not sure what/ if any Guard units have STRYKRs.) Might be something to look at. But .... I like it. Has that 1960s civilian conflict feel to it.

I know some have the new M-rap (don't know how to spell it) and another modern armored vehicle it might be called a buffolo. Not sure if they have strykers, but they have up-armored humvees which might be amore realistic option in the states as they're phasing out in the middle east.

PaintsWithBrush wrote:

charile98210, You are a book reader? A book reader? No wonder "They" had a file on you (wink). That is a nice Diorama you have going there.

The funny thing was, when the Plant Supervisor went to our union rep and told him to tell me to get rid of the books and stop reading, the union rep pointed out that three other people in the shop read the paper and he, personally, read the Wall Street Journal while on break. The Supervisor replied, "That's okay. But he's reading a g*d-d****d novel!"    

Ideas can be dangerous. They can make you think. They can make you dissatisfied with the status quo. And there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

The worst part of the illness I have, is that it is wreaking havoc on my reading abilities and cognition. And I am losing vocabulary (trouble accessing the words I want, when I want).

Here are some phots showing the tentative placement of the two UN vehicles and two of the four figures.

Yep, that's the idea. One of the things which came with the Trumpeter Stryker kit is a bunch of paper make-some-cartons of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. That will work for the trash. I am working on a crumpled banner.

The funny thing is that the local protests really started when Whirlpool Corporation (who started in Benton Harbor and still has its World Headquarters here) rented the park for a recognition party for its management people. They then called the police to run out the people who came into the park a couple of hours before the picnic was supposed to start. Several people were threatened with arrest and Whirlpool later apologized to the community for the "misunderstanding."

That was the catalyst (I think) which formed the idea for the diorama when I found that piece of concrete. (Whirlpool and I go back a long way, to when I was an eccentric, noncomformist factory worker who played mind-games with them over their workplace rules--I would read books while on break. Think about that for a moment. The company and I actually had a five year tussle over that. My mother in law worked for them for a while as a typist and read my file. She told me it was more than two inches thick; containing mostly memos about how to deal with me and keep me quiet, and worrying that the union would tap me to do PR work during contract talks...which is funny because the guys running the union viewed me in much the same way).

That newspaper idea is a good one! Nice thought ark.

I think this one has a nice idea to it. Everyone models the past ... This one is about the present/ future. Not sure if it would ever come down to the UN protecting it, maybe the Guard (although I'm not sure what/ if any Guard units have STRYKRs.) Might be something to look at. But .... I like it. Has that 1960s civilian conflict feel to it.

After about the third time looking at it, I noticed the park name on the concrete.  This is a really cool and artistic idea... How are you thinking about positioning the Stryker IV and other troops and what not in the diorama?  Could you put something in it's place for right now so we could get a feel for the layout?

Another thing.  I'm not sure how to word this, but maybe you'll understand.   I'd imagine it with a bit of trash 'fluttering' on the beach.  How about a newspaper cover page with a big headline about the protest or something like that...

Take care,

Austin

Went to the store and bought some water putty. Mixed in sand to give texture. For some reason, the sand turned the putty orange. Here's the results:

Just got my Tumpeter Stryker IV model, which I will be painting up as a UN vehicle, which will become part of the Jean Klock Park diorama (along with my newly done figures and a schwimwagen I had laying around).