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This is my 5cm AT gun (see German WWII) placed in a small diorama.
ORIGINS OF INSPIRATION
Interestingly, the idea for the diorama actually came from the display case. I purchased this case at Racing Around here in Halifax as soon as I saw it last September because it's rare for decent display cases to show up in local stores, and this was one of only two remaining in the shop, and the fellow who made them had sadly passed away.
The case is a good size for an armour model, but rather narrow, so there's no real room to turn a turret. The real interesting thing about the case, however, is that the back wall is mirrored - common in car displays, but less so with armour modelers. I've had my T-34/85 sitting in it to keep the dust off for a while, but made a base for it recently, and had the case sitting there, so I began to wonder what to do with it...
...At the same time, I've had DML's 5cm AT gun completed for several months, (you can see the build review and some shots in the German WWII gallery) and want to bring it to the MMM at the end of March, but having displayed it at a smaller show on a plain base, I knew it wasn't too impressive. I wanted to do something more with it.
If you've kept up with my kits here on TL, you'll know that I am still trying out several new things (well, new for me), and one of the things I've been wanting to try is foliage.
One day near the end of February, all of the above came together in a concrete idea: Make a diorama that would be best viewed in the mirror - something that would be obscured if view it from straight on in the usual way to view kits.
Using three DML figs with Ultracase heads (done The Bannerman Way), and lots of bits from the spares box (mostly Verlinden 'Super-Value' sets), I set up what you see here.
OVERVIEW
The dio shows a 5cm AT gun and crew that had been laying in ambush, and by the spent shell casings (styrene rod) laying about, it's seen a good deal of action. Now, howevever, one or two of the crew have become casualties - possibly due to mortar or small arms-fire, though the exact source of the attack is not apparent in the dio (ie, no shell crater or heavy blast damage).
MODELING CASUALTIES
Now, it's always a touchy thing to show figures injured or dead, but war is about death and pain as much as anything else, so I feel it is a valid subject, as long as it is not gratuitous. And while I wanted to show the casualties tastefully, I also wanted to maintain enough tension to maintain the power of the piece.
THE FIGURES
Enter Dragon's excellent figure sets "Fallen Comrade (Aachen 1944)" and "German Heavy MG team". Using two figures from teh first - one soldier holding the other, and the MG loader, I built these figs straight from the box.
The two figs from Fallen Comrade were a natural fit, showing exactly what I wanted, and with a little creative use of groundwork, the MG loader is in the perfect pose to have his right arm up on the wheel of the AT gun. It's up to the view to interpret whether he's been hurt, or if he's simply taking cover. The 'fallen comrade', however, is certainly injured. A chest wound is bleeding, and the fellow holding him up is trying to apply pressure to the wound, with blood just visible on his hands, on the injured man's uniform, and on the ground beneath him. It's interesting, but because of the injury to the one fellow, nearly everyone who views this dio interprets the fellow by the wheel to be injured/hurt as well, though no wound at all is modeled.
FOLIAGE
As noted above, I've not tried this before, and doing this dio was a great way to trie out something new.
Using train-modeler's lichen, and various shades of 'fine turf', I made the bushes you see in the dio. I air-brushed the lichen brown, let it dry, then sprayed on 3M Spray-adhesive. Next I put the sticky lichen in an old margarine container with the fine turf, shook it like Shake-n-Bake, removed and shook it again over the garbage can to remove the excess. Surprising this worked well enough.
For a couple of pieces, I merely dabbed the sticky lichen in the turf, which resulted in less turf on branches, letting the 'branches' show through.
Finally, once the adhesive was set (I think it was set, it was an hour or two later), I airbrushed the 'bushes' various shades of dark green, yellow and brown. I sprayed most of the bushes a darker shade from the bottom, and a lighter shade from the top, building in a bit of the natural shadow. It's not perfect, but it's pretty convincing for a coniferous (needle) type of bush.
BASE
The dio base was made from pink high-density styrofoam cut to shape (to fit the base), with the sides sanded smooth and painted Humbrol flat-black. I wanted to show an anti-tank gun set up in ambush, so the base was made as a small depression on the edge of an embankment - in short, a perfect defilade position. The styrofoam was gouged out using my Dremel with an embankment on the 'viewing side and front, gradually grading down to the 'mirror' side and back. During this stage it is necessary to fit the vehicle - or in my case the gun - several times to make sure it sits properly on the base. Look at the pictures if I've confused you.
The Groundwork is my usual white-glue/brown acrylic tole paints/fine rail-road ballast mixture spread on thinly with a tongue depresser nicked from my doctors office. While still wet, I sifted various shades of Games-Workshop static grass over the entire scene, and pushed in some kitty-litter rocks around in a random way. A few leaves from Hudson and Allen were also scattered about - there are no big trees in this scene, but that doesn't mean they aren't nearby.
ASSEMBLY
With the groundwork on the base complete and light airbrushed, it was time to put the bushes in. I started using my trusty spray-adhesive, and just pressed in the bottom row of lichen/bushes. When these were in, I set in my figs and the various bits of kit, shell casings and shells. Placing the upper row of lichen/bushes proved more difficult, however. Though the spray adhesive worked fine, the bushes kept leaning way over, encroaching on the gun and figures. Using a couple of peices of straightened paper-clips, I just stuck them down through the bushes, as support poles. Pushing them into the styrofoam base, this seemed to do the trick. They may be gravity defying, but the look is ok.
With it all together, I simply had to put it all in the case. Voi-la.
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