Glenn, there is some outstanding pictures on your Flickr link, are they pictures of your experience in country, or posting from many Flickr contributor?
Harold
Glenn has been there, done that! He has really beautiful photos in his collection, a real treasure.
They are slide scans. So many to do still. Thanks Pawell.
After considerable looking for a picture to model a diorama I have chosen this aerial photograph of a US Marine combat base in 1968 during the Vietnam War. The bloody battle of Khe Sanh lasted 77 days while the base was under siege from the North Vietnamese Army.
It has all the elements I wanted. However, I will only have room in the diorama for one M107 and M109 self-propelled howitzer, one M54A2 cargo truck and M151A2 MUTT with trailer.
The terrain will be relatively simple since the area was devoid of trees and water, but it will represent what many Marine and Army veterans remember about a Firebase in Vietnam.
Wow! That is going to a be a really big dio. Good luck on it.
Gino, I have studied dioramas for months. Some modelers suggest dioramas should be as small as possible, even cutting a vehicle in half to emphasis only the figures or message convyed in the diorama.
Other modelers seem to emphasize the vehicle(s) with figures almost secondary in the diorama. My purpose is to replicate a fire base in Vietnam as you would expect to see it flying in by helicopter. There would be gun placements on the ground, support vehicles, people and buildings, or dugouts and tents with boxes, sandbags and oil drums in the area.
I don’t want this 1/35 scale diorama to be any larger that 30” wide and 36” long because it needs to be freestanding with a 36” high base cabinet. The finished diorama can only be a small portion of the overall fire base in 1/35 scale because of the size of each gun. It will be on display in veterans hospitals and social clubs of veterans organizations like the American Legion and VFW.
It will hopefully become another way of remembering what our veterans went though in the Vietnam War and in that respect a way of honoring the ones who gave their life and the families who lost their loved ones.
Any thoughts you have about the concept of seeing a fire base from a helicopter would be appreciate.
Harold
I personally think smaller is better. Huge dios with lots of open space (to replicate actual distances between pieces) tend to get boring as the open space draws the eye. I think a few smaller dios with a couple vehicles each, with lots of details, is a better option. Just my [2cnts] .
Gino, I had dinner tonight with a Marine Captain, a Master Sergeant, a Gunnery Sergeant and two Staff Sergeants from the Marines 3rd Division that we’re in the Vietnam War. All were involved with artillery at some point in the war. They explained that one of the most frightening experiences for artillerymen and tanks crews is that when you fire, especially at night the enemy knows your location and if you can’t move and they have the fire-power the next round you hear is an 88 or some other projectile incoming.
They agree with you that a fire base viewed from a helicopter is not nearly as important to them unless it was taking them out of harms way. But to be in a dugout when large caliber projectiles are exploding all around you is an experience they will never forget.
I need to rethink my concept of a diorama, so that when a veteran sees it he remember how good it feels to be alive.
Harold
If you haven’t already, grab a copy of Shep’s book.
It’s sort of old think, but his artistry endures.
The trick to a good diorama is to engage the viewer with a story. That starts like all good stories with an opening line that just grabs attention and then leads to an unfolding of layers of detail.
Nothing kills a diorama faster than having initial objects of interest on a comparable scale or prominence that compete with each other.
Building a diorama that replicates an aerial view of a bunch of acres just can’t be an improvement on a photo of same.
You’ll enjoy this more if you focus on a story line. Your redlegs operating a gun is enough to keep you modeling for a year.
Scatter around a ammo bunker and a observation post nearby.
Shep also taught a valuable lesson; get the viewer to actively imagine what’s off picture.
Thank you for your service.
Bill
I have been on the receiving end of incoming fire (Iraqi D-30, 122mm) and can attest that it is not fun.
Good advice from Bill. Take a look at what Shep Paine has done and you will see what I mean. I think smaller dios of each piece with maybe an ammo truck conducting resupply, or the gun in action would be enough to convey what you are looking for.
As an example, here is one I did of an M270 in Desert Storm getting a visit from the BC during a reload. This one is about 12" x 14". Sorry for the crappy pic, but it was a while ago.
Gino, was the M270 MLRS what you worked on in the Army? Are the ballistic missiles they fire similar to 1960’s RIM-24 Tartar (T-SAM’s) or RIM-66 standard missiles? My first four-years in the service was onboard the USS John King DDG3 that had a MARK 11 guided missile launching system.
Harold
Bill and Gino, which of Shep Pain’s books are you thinking about? He has several on building dioramas.
Harold
Any of Shep’s books that deal with armor/ground vehicles is fine. They all had great examples.
As to the MLRS, I was on cannon (M109A6 Paladins), MLRS, FireFinder Radars, and a Fire Supporter throughout my carreer. I don’t know about naval missiles. The MLRS was developed in the '70s and fielded in the early '80s though. The rockets for them are 300mm in diameter if that helps.
“How to Build” is the one. It’s been reissued at least once. I have a copy of the latest one that Mike Thompson sent me, but I don’t think much changed.
Gino’s dio is pretty great, please excuse me but I’m not a suck-up.
First of all, it’s a model of something you can bet the dog on that you’ve never seen a model of before- the reload of an MR launcher.
So that’s the story, and now he’s got you. How did they get those pallets of rockets off of the transport and into the launcher?
What does a really lethal weapon look like when it’s down?
And what is down range?
Gino, the advances in technology from my time to your’s with M109‘s is very interesting and the Multiple Launch Rocket System looks like the same concept. If we consider how far artillery has come since the US Civil War, with most of the advancements taking place in the last 50-years it is amazing.
And the land artillery of the US Civil War was a result of the Napoleanic wars.
Naval arty really made advances in the 19th Century. Rifled guns on swivel mounts.
Bill I found the Shep Pain book you suggested and placed an order on Amazon. It sounds like we have a common interest in military history as well as architecture. My particular field of architectural design was residential, mainly renovations and remodeling of 1920’s and 30’s American Craftsman, French and Dutch Colonial. I love old buildings especially the type you have around San Francisco. My construction experience was commercial, medical and manufacturing Buildings. I specialized in building envelopes, roofing and foundation systems.
Thanks for the comments. I had a career in SF design teaming highrises. Now I live in Carmel and am retired so I have the time to read more history.
My company website is still up- debranicholsdesign.com
Given that vets are often surrounded by non-vets, providing context can sometimes be cruical.
Your idea of “firebase as seen from above” is valid for giving a sense of scale and context–something books, videos, still photographs often don’t.
However, both Gino and Bill bring up good points.
At larger scales, the vast emptiness between combat units can be daunting to make a diorama of.
However, there might be a solution. Build a firebase to scale, but in small scale, like, say 1/72 or 1/87 at reduced detail, but with enough detail to suggest the intricacies in real life. Then pick ot one or two (even three) “scenes” from that small-scale dio to detail up in 1/35, where you can get the finicky "bits’ to show.
Could stand up the small scale version as a “backdrop” of sorts on the base cabinet.
36" x 24" scales to 261’ x 174’ (±80 x 50m) at 1/87 scale, so, maybe having to move down to wargaming scale might be needfull.
Such are the dilemma of scale. At 1/300 wargaming scale, a 4km tank versus tank display would need to be 13m wide (this is why naval wargaming uses 1/1250scale and needs gymnasium floors–30,000yards is 72’ at 1/1250, so scale distances are often halved for play purposes).
At least that’s my 2¢. I’ll admit to being an outlier, I find fewer vehicls in dios are more realistic–but, I also spent time getting people to stop bunching up on my beach, as the work was hard enough without drawing fire.
Very interesting ideas CapnMac82… I’m back at the drawing board on this diorama. Gino sent me some great detailed information on building a Vietnam era M109 with the right interior equipment. The article below from Boresight magazine, January/February 2015 has everything I need to know to make an AFV Club M109A2 into an M109.
From Shep Paine’s books I learned a theme is key to a good diorama. My theme for this diorama will be ordnance delivery for an M109 in battle. It will include an AFV Club M54A2 6x6 truck and men unloading ammunition under fire.
