Here is my Dragon/tamyia Pak 36 with a half way finished base. I used plaster and and woodlan senics green powder and some small rocks painted with tamiya flat earth. The grass is an old cut up santa hat painted green.
It may be too late to do this now, but the earth spades on the trailing arms should be at least slightly dug into the ground. On hard surfaces like roads where this wasn’t possible, two of the crew members would sit or lay across the trailing arms to help stabilize the gun’s recoil.
Just a suggestion…
Hey Yeti, i think this is looking good so far. I love the groundwork and your base appears to be just the right size. I reckon you can turn this into something pretty good. In the first photo the dark coloured grass looks like it has been burnt, which would be an effective idea for a diorama. I might have to try that one day. The grass is not always green!
In reference to Kykeons comment about the gun trailing arms…it be easy to ‘dig’ up your base and sink them a little. You could then fill in around the ‘spades’. Maybe build it up slightly at the rear of the spades to simulate how the guns recoil jolts the gun backwards.
One last constuctive comment. The gun could use some subtle dry brushing to ‘pop’ out the detail. It is amazing how effective drydrushing is. I still remember the first time i successfully drybrushed a model…i was so proud of myself. I couldn’t believe the difference. Don’t go to heavy though…
Anyway, i do not profess to be an expert on dioramas, i have not done many and those that i have done are not worth showing here…lol. I have so much to learn myself, but i have noticed through peoples comments on here and studying their work that it is the little details that turn ‘just another diorama’ into a work of art!..the difference between hearing someone say 'that’s nice and 'WOW, thats awesome!..
Keep up the good work. Hopefully i can start to post some pics too. I just just have to steal my mates digital camera first…
Happy modelling…
Hop
thanks for the advise. I will try to modify it so that the gun is slightly dug in. Maybe this weekend.
I don’t know what else you have in mind for scenery, but some bushes would be nice. The “Door-knocker” wasn’t the most effective weapon of it’s day and crews in a defensive position would like to stay hidden as long as possible before engaging their enemy. Offensively, they would set-up and fire from wherever spot would be most effective, so cover might not be so much of an issue. Lets get that crew in there! [;)]
who cares what it looks like…brilliant use of “stuff around the house” to make the grass…you get the award, nice work! BTW the dio is looking really nice!
well the crew has been a pain to do. They are not some of Tamiya’s best. I just have bit of touching up left. I will probably add some bushes latter today.
It’s simple and i like it! Acouple of spent ammo rounds on the ground behind the gun would look good, not too many… and a little mud on the crews boots wouldn’t go astray. I think your colours overall blend together really well. I’m inspired to finish my Tamiya kit now.
You’ve got a great simple dio going there. I agree about the spent ammo cartridges. you might also want to have some live ammo somewhere too so it looks like they actually have something to fire out of the PAK. Those little details aside, it looks great. keep up the good work:)