I’m going to pick up Mig’s pg-117 soviet fast boat:
And put it into a small diorama, tied up to a small dock, in some shallow water with reeds poking through. I’m having some trouble thinking of ideas for there to be something happening in the diorama. I was looking at Mig’s resin soviet naval soldier:
, but $22 plus shipping is a bit much for a figure IMO. Just wondering if anyone had some thoughts for a dio, or if I should just depict a calm day with a boat bobbing up and down tied to the dock. I considered a wrecked/abandoned boat being examined and scavenged by germans, but a wrecked boat would be hard to make out of a kit that comes with a solid one piece hull. Any ideas, or pictures of similar dios would be appreciated. Thanks, Ian
The submerged tank is a cool idea…but I’m gonna try and keep his one simple since I have trouble keeping motivation throughout a long diorama usually. Maybe they could be checking out something else…floating supply crates/fuel drums from a sunken supply ship maybe? I also liked the fairly simple reloading/refueling idea, but I’d have to find some russian Naval figures for either idea. I think I remember seeing some from masterbox or zvezda? But they may not have been the correct time period. I’m lovin’ the ideas, keep ‘em rollin’!
After some brief searching, I’m having little luck finding WWII Soviet Naval Figures. Zvezda and miniart make some, but miniart’s are marching, and zvezda’s are in combat positions. Maybe with some conversion work the marching miniart figures could be put into positions to look as though they are salvaging supplies from the water?
Or if you didn’t want to wreck it, it could be stuck in the mud or on a sandbar. Then maybe you could easily modify some of the fighting-posed figs to be in the shallow water trying to push it loose, maybe like knee-deep or something.
-------------------------Kevin
Four more good ideas! I like the bridge, but I fear that with a project that complicated (for me) I would fall victim to the dreaded “95% syndrom” that was discussed a while ago, like the rest of my dioramas. I thought about a wrecked dio, but the hull is a solid one piece construction, making it nearly impossible to depict a wreck. I like the sandbar and running to cover ideas though. My other thought was to pick up miniart’s newish soviet naval infantry:
And convert a couple to look like they were loading the boat, and have one wading through the water with an oar, pushing submerged logs and driftwood out of the way to clear a path for the boat.
With that naval set, you have a lot more possibilities. One idea I had was that the crew just pulled up to a small dock, and are walking off the boat down the dock, unaware that further ahead (mayby behind some bushed or a shed) you could have some german troops lying in wait. Or you could make the boat look as if it was forgotten at the dock, and have it really rusted with some germans checking it out. That way you don’t have to wreck it.
