D-day, Omaha Beach diorama WIP UPDATED 1/24 with pictures.

Great looking progress! The landing craft looks very good. I have always wanted to do something simular but have never had the confidence to make a start. Its certainly a lot of work, but I'm sure it will be worth it. I hope you keep us posted with your progress, I'd like to see how you are going to do the water as I have'nt a clue how its done!

Looking forward to seeing more, 

Hey Ian,

Lookin' good, man!   

I think you made a good call with the black sand.  I agree with you that it makes things 'look' a little better while you are working on them.  It will also provide some nice depth when you do your final painting and weathering.

I do have one question (that infamous line in these threads ).  Judging by the placement of your figures, I take it your scene is in the first or second wave of the D-Day landings.  If that is the case, I wonder about the machine-gunners on the landing craft.  They just seem awfully exposed to me.  Would they have really been up there?  I can't imagine him lasting too long.  I have never seen any pictures that show guys up there, but, then again, I can't say for certain that they would not have been.  So mostly I am curious...

Can't wait to see more pics!

Boyd

Fantastic job so far,the LCM was a very good paint job.

Keep sending.Congratulations

Pedro

Thanks guys, and to Bbrowniii, you are completely right.  With mortars going off and bullets whizzing by, the last place I would want to be, is cowering behind a tiny metal shield.  I was trying to think of ways to make them look a little less casual, but I couldn't.  Do you think any of the gunners would have jumped ship or atleast left their post for better cover?  I'm not trying to insult the bravery of the United States Navy, but I thought it was posible, and it would look better to have no gunners than to have wo gunners that looked perfectly happy while surrounded by casualties and mayhem.

--EDIT-- What about sand bags?  Im guessing it's a no since landing crafts for the intial waves had their primary cargo and nothing else at all, but I'm looking for an excuse to use a new sandbag making technique I found on armorama, and I thought they would go well stacke dup around the gunners.  Again, Im guessing that would be vastly historically innacurate, but I thought it would be a posibility, since it seems so practical as an extra bit of defence.  Any reference or even ideas would be helpful.  Thanks guys, Ian.

all I can really say is WOW! you are off to a great start, hopefully when I try my first dio (flak 36 set in Ardennes) that is looks as good as yours.

I especially like how you gave the mines on the poles a very realistic look if you ask me.

 My only suggestion is that if it is supposed to be an initial Omaha landing, perhaps a bit more casualties on the sand to illustrate the havoc that was brought down on the army, as well as abandoned equiptment rolling with the waves.

 again, looks great and I can't wait to see the finished job!

IanIsBored2000 wrote:

--EDIT-- What about sand bags?  Im guessing it's a no since landing crafts for the intial waves had their primary cargo and nothing else at all, but I'm looking for an excuse to use a new sandbag making technique I found on armorama, and I thought they would go well stacke dup around the gunners.  Again, Im guessing that would be vastly historically innacurate, but I thought it would be a posibility, since it seems so practical as an extra bit of defence.  Any reference or even ideas would be helpful.  Thanks guys, Ian.

Hey Ian,

To be honest, I don't know about sand bags.  I am of two thoughts on this topic - the first is that there are lots of photos of landing craft being loaded before they headed to the beach or as they hit the beach on D-Day.  From those, you should be able to get an idea if the machine gunners were up there and if they were, did they fortify their positions any.  My second thought is, what the heck, it might look pretty cool, it would let you try out your new sandbag technique, and it would avoid having those guys look so 'casual' as I think you put it.  Of course, this second thought runs into that treacherous territory and asks that dangerous question - is a modeller allowed a little artistic license or must we aspire to strict historical accuracy?   I guess your answer to the question will be a result of which side of that arguement you fall on....

P.S.  I don't think anyone in the Navy would take this as an insult to their bravery - that has been proven time and again.  Instead, they would probably point to it as an example of the superior common sense practiced by the average sailor... (and remember, this is coming from a Jarhead...hahaha...)

Ian,

I just thought of another question for you - I was looking at the picture of the figures you intend to use.  They look pretty sharp - can't wait to see them painted.  My question is, how did you get them to look like they are holding their weapons so realisitically?  The one hurdle I seem to face when building figs is that they never seem to really grab their weapons.  I have tried a couple of techniques to get them to do so, but none really seems to work.  I'd be interested in your approach.

Oh, yeah, one other thing - what is the sandbag technique you got from armorama?

Boyd

Thanks guys for the opinions.  To brownii, I thought it was interesting how you talked about when it is/isn't "right" for us to take an artistic license at the cost a a bit of accuracy, and I share about the same idea.  I'm also glad you thought the way my figures "gripped" their weapons was good.  To tell you the truth I kind of just go with however it fits.  A dab of glue in each hand and then just place it in.  As i'm sure you guessed, it also matters what weapon you use.  Obviously a BAR won't look natural in the hands of a soldier molded to hold a Thompson.  And about the sandbag articleI read.  Basically you make little bags out of tissue paper/tissues and seal one end.  Fill them with sand and tie of the other end.  Last you fip them in diluted glue, and when the glue dries they are left with a hard "shell" ofglue around them and are less fragile.  I used the tissue paper and diluted glue technique for the tarp on my LCM.

Heres the link, really interesting: http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=45675&page=1

hey ian that is a great tip on how to make sandbags.

 that tip actually comes from the march 2002 FSM article by Bob Colligan great two part article on the sherman tank and how to make sandbags. Mr. Colligan doesnt take credit for the idea that technique actually dates back to the very first FSM issue Spring 1982 by George Woodard.

 Cool link none the less for those people who do not still have or havent been ordering FSM for awhile just a shame when people do not give credit where credit is do .

Hey, I remember that FSM...  I knew what Ian was talking about sounded familiar.  That is a great looking technique. 

Kenny, you said you had tried it.  Did you make a lot of sandbags?  Got any pictures of the results?

Hey, got some work done painting the Czech Hedgehog barricades.  I did a reddish brown base color, with some orange-ish brown rust over that, then drybrushing slightly with some silver paint for a tiny bit of bare metal.  I put a brown wash over it all and then some rusty brown oil pastel.  Since I was using a lamp insted of natural lighting or something like that, the pictures came out terrible, and you can see blobs of weird colors if you look closesly.  Some are too dark in the pictures, some too light, so just ignore that.  Not a big update, just thought I'd post it.

I already had the camera out--how could I resist playing with the figures??

Black and white shows the painting better since there are no colors for my camera to mess up

Looking great, Ian. You can try strands of autumn colored lichen for the bleached seaweed, dark green and brown for the fresher stuff... if you want, I'll send you some. I put it on my barricades and around the water line mixed in with equipment. I even made dead fish out of Sculpey. Some left, if you want those, too.

Through a series of drybrushing and oil washing, that sand is gonna look great. You can also dust with Mig pigments and pastels. Normandy's beaches look to me to be much more coarse than the ones you and I are used to, google "normandy beaches" and look in the images for recent color pics. See if you can tell what I'm talking about.

Excellent work so far.

Steve 

Hey carnival fun, youre completely right about the paratroopers.  I was going to try and modify them into regular soldiers, by cutting off the extra pockets and stuff.  Most I probably won't use anyways, since they are too casual.  SteveM, thats a good ideas about the lichen for the seaweed, I might have to try it out.  Well, not a big update, but I love posting so heres some newer pictures.  Im still getting used to this camera, so the quality is still pretty bad.  All Ive really done is painted the rest of the obstacles, and I don't like my wood tone much, but I can still fix the that.  I did the wood darker than normal too to give it a saturated, waterlogged look.  I did a bit more work on the hedgehogs as well.  I'll keep you updated on the sand.

My camera made th rope on the mine look kind of thick and blobby but its not.  It also made the mine look rusted, which it isnt, although I gave it a wash to keep it from looking too clean.

 My hedgehogs are badly in need of a flat coat.

 Looking REAL good, Ian. The mines look great. Keep posting, friend!

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