Ryan,

Dio looks great,, as for the rat,,I would say maybe use wire for the tail instead of clay, that way you can get it thinner and then I would trim down the nose, head and ears,, It looks armadillo-like now,, But excellent work!! Looking forward to seeing more of your 'talent' !!

Good effort on your rat.  I think his proportions are a little off - legs are too long, butt needs to be bigger, the nose is long relative to the rest of the body, and like tonka said, try using some thin wire for the tail (you could coat it with putty to bulk it up a little and taper it towards the tip).  Take a look at some pictures of rats online to get an image in your head.

One final thought - actually two: first, remember that sewers are pretty nasty places - I'd add a lot more grime and crud and junk down there.  Second, you can have a dead rat, but I'd have at least a couple that are alive as well...

Good work so far! I agree with what everyone has said about the rat, I also think it may be a little bit too large, almost cat sized.

As many have pointed out as well, the sewer is a dirty place, so it may be a good idea to dirty up the men a little as well as their surroundings. Trudging through a dank and nasty tunnel full of nasty substances would put a little grime on the boots and pant legs of your Germans. Just a thought.

oddmanrush

 

As many have pointed out as well, the sewer is a dirty place, so it may be a good idea to dirty up the men a little as well as their surroundings. Trudging through a dank and nasty tunnel full of nasty substances would put a little grime on the boots and pant legs of your Germans. Just a thought.

As I went back and looked over your most recent pictures, the thing that jumps out at me is that, absent the ladder and manhole cover, your sewer does not really look like a sewer.  It looks more like a street and the Germans are on the sidewalk, maybe in a tunnel or walking under a bridge.  The poster on the wall on enhances that feeling - I know the sewers got a lot of use in the war, but I think that poster would serve you better crumpled up on the ground.

Again, I know this point has been made before, but if this is a sewer, particularly one in a wartime city, with a battle raging, it should be NASTY dirty... and like oddmanrush said, anyone in it is going to be dirty too...

Yes, the rat is a little on the cat-size of the realm, but I have read stories from a book about police stories in where an NYPD officer went to clear a basement, and a rat about the size of a baby ran across his foot and the room.

So yes, while rats of that size are not common, they sometimes do exist.

(If you doubt me, get the book Funnyist Cop Stories Ever  and I can tell you, the story is in there)

Railfan 233

So yes, while rats of that size are not common, they sometimes do exist.

(If you doubt me, get the book Funnyist Cop Stories Ever  and I can tell you, the story is in there)

That might well be true, but it muddles up the story of his dio.  The whole point of a dio is that the viewer should be able to 'get' the story at a glance.  Is he trying to tell a story about the huge rats in the sewer, or is the trying to tell a story about city fighting during WWII?  It is possible that he could use a really large rat, and incorporate it into the story, make it a bit of 'comic relief', but he would have to rework the layout considerably, in my opinion.  Because the RAT is not what this dio is supposed to be about.

Railfan 233

So yes, while rats of that size are not common, they sometimes do exist.

 

Well I think viewers like to look at things that they can understand and be familiar with. Where an abnormally large rat may exist, like you said, they aren't common and therefore would be rather unfamiliar in the eyes of a regular person, and would probably be seen as unrealistic or as Boyd said, comedic in a way. In each person's imagination, one can bring up the image of a rat and compare it to what they see here and if the pictures don't fit, I think that would detract from the overall appearance of the scene.

Its similar to what I did in my Pirates diorama with the fish. The wrong color makes it look a little cartoonish and ends up being distracting.

A lot of things in art and especially modeling relies on context. A tank is just a tank, but add figures and now you've created scale, dimension, story, drama, in a way that most people could relate to. If something isn't quite right about one of these aspects, it'll take away from the overall effect of the diorama.

I think he is on a good pace for making a great scene, I just think the rat should be scaled down a wee.

I never thought of it that way. Then again, I never seen any rats before....

 (I'll look up some photos, and I'll see how large the adverage one is. I'll admit, with rats, mice, and snakes, I don't care which type, or size, they are as long as I don't have to deal with them.)

I made the sewer much more dirty and I will take the poster down, I re-made the rat and I think it looks much better. I will take some pics and post them soon.

101stAirborne

I made the sewer much more dirty and I will take the poster down, I re-made the rat and I think it looks much better. I will take some pics and post them soon.

Great!  Can't wait to see them!

Look forward to the new pics!

If you continue to build dios and with your talent,,look 'outside the box' for materials,, I am sure its been mentioned before on here but railroad accessories are great for dios,, they have 1/160, 1/87, 1/48/ 1/32 and 1/22,, but many items can be used in different scales,, as an example a 1/87 barrel becomes a 1/35 pop or beer can,,,a poster becomes a photo,,, etc.

Aslo craft stores with doll house and scrapbook sections can yield great finds...

Even around the house,, I once made a light house for a HO railroad scene from discarded scotch tape rolls,,, have fun with it!

Keep up the great work and sharing the pics!

Here are the new pics. Now I made the sewer dirty, but I think it is hard to tell from the pics buif you think it should be even more dirty don't hesitate to tell me (I'm sure you won't!) The rat was completely remade, I made it smaller and I think it looks much better and I want to use this one.

It looks more like a sewer now.

One question, though: what happened to the water in the sewer? It was there before, but it's gone now.

I masked it with masking tape because I sprayed the dull cote and never got around to taking it off.

Ryan..wow!! what a difference! You made a good dio even better!

since its a sewer,,and you have some water in there,,maybe consider running some water streaks down the wall,,and a puddle or splash on the walkway..

Rat looks like,,,well a rat! 

GREAT JOB!!

tonka

since its a sewer,,and you have some water in there,,maybe consider running some water streaks down the wall,,and a puddle or splash on the walkway..

Ryan

I agree with Tonka - your new rat is a significant improvement on the original - well done.

I think he also kind of hit the 'nail on the head' for me regarding the look of your sewer.  I think what is missing is the sense that it is a wet, dank, musty environment.  I think the idea of a puddle on the walkway, maybe some water streaks on the wall, and some greenish mildew/mold streaks would give that sense of moisture to reinforce the idea that this is a sewer.

Hey thanks guys I am glad it looks better. I will add the puddle and some green streaks on the wall. Thank you guys for all of the wonderful suggestions that made this diorama come to life.

I also agree with every one. The rat looks a lot better, and I like where you placed him. I also concur about the moisture. I'm sure there would be a lot of steamy condensation along the walls and floor, making every thing quite damp and gooey.

Keep up the good work.

101stAirborne

I masked it with masking tape because I sprayed the dull cote and never got around to taking it off.

Phew. I thought you took it off the diorama. O.K., that was my main question, I can't think of any more from me.

Take off the water! That would be crazy.

Yeah it would be crazy, but I never think of logic untill after the fact. Then again, it is easy to go in with a putty knife, and scrape it off

Here is the finished product. It turned out even better than I thought it would thanks to everyones tips. I added some green streaks to the wall, and I added a puddle in the middle of the walk way. So bring on the pics!

 I added some paper to the water which can be seen here.

 The green streaks on the wall

 The puddle of water is in the middle of the walkway, but is a little hard to see.

 I am going to enter this diorama in the IPMS National show this August. Thanks for all of your tips and comments that really made this diorama come to life.

Really cool! Like the idea, the debris, the figures, the water, even the rats.

Looks great. I like the redo on the rat.

SUPERB end result Buddy!  Great work ironing out the details and great photos too!  Of course someone will always come along and find one more thing to improve--nothings perfect right? I say great job.

Ryan

I think you did a heck of a nice job with this dio.  I especially admire how you listened to people's advice, incorporating some, discarding other, but not getting bent out of shape when people pointed out stuff that didn't seem to 'work'.

One question for you, though.  This dio is set in Berlin?  In 1945?  So why is the newspaper under the manhole cover in English??

I just noticed that. I guess what you see every day (i.e. a newspaper headline) is likely to go un-noticed, untill an eagle-eyed viewer (in this case, you bbrowniii) notices that detail.

At least there's still time to correct this, since this is not the IMPS (or any other) contest.

Exelent work.

Hey Ryan

Judging by recent activity in my 'Conversations' folder, apparently my comment about your newspaper was seen by some as being hyper-critical.  It was not intended that way.

Let me be clear, I think, as I said, that your dio looks great.  I pointed out the newspaper because it jumped out at me,  In the discussions we've had about your dios, one point I made is how the story of a dio should be obvious and that anything that does not fit the story should do so for a reason, lest it detract for the overall composition of the dio.  That is what I saw with the newspaper.  I'm left to wonder - 'Hmmm, now why did he put that there... am I missing something?'

I also made that comment because you mentioned you intend to enter this in a competition soon.  I figured if I noticed it, a judge might notice it as well, and I'd rather tell you now and give you a chance to fix it (if you so choose) rather than have you come back after your competition and post a comment along the lines of, 'They liked my dio but gigged me points for the newspaper and that dropped me out of medal contention.'

So, I hope you understand that I made my comment not to be malicious, but because it was something that jumped out at me.  Given the great effort you've put into the dio thus far, I thought you would want to know what I saw.

Keep up the good work.  I'll look forward to your next project.

bbrowniii

Hey Ryan

Judging by recent activity in my 'Conversations' folder, apparently my comment about your newspaper was seen by some as being hyper-critical.  It was not intended that way.

So, I hope you understand that I made my comment not to be malicious, but because it was something that jumped out at me.  Given the great effort you've put into the dio thus far, I thought you would want to know what I saw.

Keep up the good work.  I'll look forward to your next project.

Hey don't worry about it bbrowniii, I didn't take it that way. And I could easily fix the problem. Here is a pic

I just covered it up with another newspaper (acctually in German this time). The reason I wanted the Hitler dead newspaper on the dio is because it was supposed to support the time I said earlier. I wanted one in German but I couldn't find one so I just used that one.

Ryan, I think you did an excellent job here, both in using your own creativity as well as incorporating the suggestions of others. I love the multi-dimensional nature of this diorama. You have several down-trodden, war weary soldiers below the street which I think express a certain level of gloom and despair but some what relaxed. Then you have the gentleman climbing out of sewer, sort of back into the war, which injects a little bit of drama and suspense into the diorama as the viewer doesn't exactly know whats going on above the sewer.

I wish you luck if you put this in a contest in the future!