Diorama “The Long Winter” using Tamiya’s Panther Ausf.A and Tri Star’s German Panzergrenadiers - by “Art Instructor”:
This is from my latest page:
http://www.falconbbs.com/model42d.htm
Comments and suggestions are welcome!
Looks pretty good to me. I’ll leave the hstorical nit-picking to those who are better informed than I, however, I did notice the snow. It looks great, but I’m not too sure about the placement. Unless the figurs just got done rolling in snow, I doubt there would be that much caked onto their backs and helmets. Likewise, I’ve never seen trees entirely plastered with snow like that except for around man made snow guns that stick to everything, at ski resorts. Just some thoughts. Overall, I like it, especially the panther.
EDIT: also noticed that the wooden cmoponents (tool handles, jack block…etc) are just painted straight brown. Simple drybrushing and washes make a huge different for wood textures.
The snow doesn’t work.
It ain’t snow…they just ran over the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
think the panther should have a different camo scheme. It needs more weathering.
An overall good diorama.[:)]
Except for the snow on the Panther, it looks more like a frozen liquid then convincible snow.
i guess you never lived in an area that has alot of snow? im from upstate NY when it snows , especially after a heavy snow, it sticks to trees pretty well and stays there as long as its cold enough. i think he got that pretty good. as far as the snow on the tank, a better technic would be to get a white glue base lightly dry brush it and sprinkly snow particles your useing over the wet base and it will be nice and textured to the way you want it to look.
These guys live in Thailand for crying out loud. There ain’t a lot of snow in the jungle to give them a good idea of how it really is. I, for one, will cut them some slack on this one.
I dunno… I’m with Ian on this one. The trees look like they were dipped on white chocolate instead of having been exposed to the elements. Despite residency in Southeast Asia, Googling winter trees and scenes is pretty easy. Basic in fact. I don’t live within a thousand miles of a thick jungle, but my internet access can take me there for decent reference.
Even though the construction of the Panther appears to be very good, the slopped-on snow effect detracts immensely, for me. I think Art Instructor could do much better. Sad thing is: after having looked at his work over the past couple of years, it seems to me that AI has lost any love for modeling.
The ground work snow effects look pretty good, if not a little too “clean”.
Plus, I believe Ian lives in an incredilby snowy part of the states, so I will trust his judgement.
Steve
Snow is difficult to model and have it look any good. Some folks manage to get the effect better than others. My point is the attempt at snow detracts from this model. The vehicle and the figures do not look like they’ve been snowed on or have been out in the snow.
[:)]
The other problem with the snow for me is that it is on the rear of the hull and the lower front slope. As the Panther looks like it has been moving these are both areas that would be warm, and therefore would melt the snow.
I for one really enjoyed the diorama,and I will refrain from flaming you.With my first dioramas,I made the exact same mistake with snow,so I went out to a construction yard(St. Louis in winter,after a snow)and looked at all of the cranes and bulldozers.It is amazing how and where the snow fell and how it built up more in some areas concerning the super structures,bogies,and tracks.Great diorama…I really enjoyed it.
St Louis winters are why I moved to the desert. First it sleets, then it snows, during a thunderstorm (yes, thundersnow). HUGE wet flakes of snow. After snowing/sleeting all night the temps drop to sub freezing for weeks at a time. When the sun finally appears the heavy wet snow becomes slushy ice. Then it freezes again.
St Louis has four seasons: Almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.
Had the builder been a little more careful in the application of “snow” this would look exceptional. Be it they live in Asia, maybe a little more time on the internet would have served the purpose. The trees and ground are fine, I think the tank itself could have been a little more thought out.
Some guyz just get soooo bloody excited and forget to do all the homework.
Thanks for your kind comments and suggestions, mpkev31b! I talked to A.I. about the snow that and the comments given here. He confirmed that he tried to make it look like what he saw in documentary/films and that the problem is that you don’t see the same thing as he did. Anyway, I thank to all comments/suggestions given here. 