Well, it’s been in planning for a long time, and with some help, I am glad to say I have all the necessary stuff. Its around 30’’ by 12", and as you can see It’s going to have trumpeter’s 1/35 LCM, assorted barricades from tamiya and italeri, and around 40+ figures, mostly DML, with a few tamiya and some others im not sure about. Its going to have LOTS of resin water. The base is styrofoam cut into the right shapes. Next, with air drying clay, I placed my barricades and LCM and used the clay to sort of “blend” the barricades into the sand, so it looked like they were buried in the sand instead of sitting on top of it. Then, with a heavily watered coat of plaster of paris I coated everything. When that was dry I spread some watered down wood glue and sprinkled my sand. I would have liked to leave the sand its natural color, but it was natural, and too dark to look like beach sand. So, I primed everything black, since doing that, to me, sort of “prepares” it, and is less overwhelming to look at when painting, although it makes it harder to take pictures of. By the way, the LCm looks better than the poor lighting of these pictures show. Still got a lot to do, but here it is so far:
I tried to replicate th mines that germans tied to the tops of these underwater barricades:
Some Czech Hedgehogs:
The gate needs to be fixed so it lays flat, and the string need to be replaced with something much thinner:
An overview, I know its hard to see since its all black:
View from the front:
A picture of the LCM on its own:
You may have seen before, but these are some of my figures. Not all will be used , and I have more to make. They all need to be painted.
Great looking progress! [tup] 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!
that looks very good to me,the lcm i think is what’s going to really set this dio off,but one question,why did you use black sand ? i believe that was only found on iwo jima.but again that is really good work i can’t wait to see the finished project.
Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad you like it. By the way, to prowannab, the sand is only painted the black for now, I like painting everything black as a basecoat and then working from there. It will be a regular sand/khaki color when I’m done, with lots of drybrushing to capture the texture. If anyone has good sand painting tutorials, I would love to see!
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 [swg]). 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… [:-^]
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!
Thanks, and to airtranscrash, right now I’m only working on the base/groundwork for the diorama. I am going to have lots of casualties, along with live soldiers, and some scattered equipment like you suggested. Glad you liked it!
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? [sigh] 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…) [:P]
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?
Wow Ian, that is one impressive diorama you have there. I agree about the black sand, It should give the sand a good shadow effect when it is painted. I also really like the mortar crater towards the front of the diorama, I think it is very realistic. About the gunners, mayby theres a way to take some of the figures you have that are landing that you wont use, and to mix their body parts with the gunners for a more realistic pose? Mayby to look like they are taking cover, or jumping off the landing craft?
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.
duh!!! i totally didn’t even think of having the sand that color for building purposes,now i understand,well there went the only thing i had to nick pick,so awesome build please keep us updated
Haha, thanks, Im going to start painting some of the barricades tonight and give them a rusty look, hopefully i will have pics tomorow. By the way, I was going to try and find a way to replicate litlle pieces of seaweed kind of wrapeed around th elgs of the barricades to represent the look that they had been under the tide line for a while. Any ideas for mini seaweed, or other ideas on whether sandbags would be realistic?
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 .
Hmm, thanks for the information Kenny, and I agree it’s terrible when people don’t give credit for someone elses work. I had no idea where it originally came from, which is the problem with internet, but it was a great technique.
excellent technique i tried it and they come out excellent once you getthe hang of it does get tedious and frustrating sometimes especially if you are making tons of them [banghead]
