I had my first Fanta in Germany in ‘85. Great stuff!
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I f you watch the John Wick movies Fanta is the drink of choice for the underground king, Lawrence Fishburn’s character. Wayne
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Freezer full of steaks that went undiscovered, on left. Note that it can now be accessed immediately. 
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You guys had quite the set up there.
During my first tour in Iraq, my unit was at Camp Taqaddum between Fallujah and Ramadi. One of our medics had a brother who was a C130 pilot. Every once in a while he would fly to TQ and bring enough steaks for everyone in our Battalion to have one. I thought that was pretty nice of him. But having a cooler to store a bunch of steaks sure had us beat.
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Today I finished painting the final figure for this diorama. It took a bit longer because I had other stuff to do on our land to get ready for spring and also had to do ours and my mom’s taxes which took some time away from modeling.
A recap on the figure - it is a conversion of the leaning truck driver figure from DEF Models. I sculpted a jungle fatigue shirt and thigh trouser pockets, replaced the head with one from Mantis Miniatures, and added a boonie hat from Bravo 6. The head from Mantis Miniatures is from one of their new head sets containing two of each head in two sizes, one for figures requiring a smaller head and the other when a slightly larger one is needed.
Since the original figure had creases on the trousers and because it is made out of brittle 3D printing resin, I decided to let them remain as these guys in the diorama are on standdown and it is plausible for a NCO to be wearing a patched and freshly laundered, pressed uniform. Plus I didn’t want to ruin the figure trying to remove the creases. If it was traditional resin, then I would have removed them.
Now that the figures are done I can concentrate on gathering the small details and accesdories that support the diorama’s story.
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Nice…I agree it would be very plausible for a senior NCO to have a clean and pressed uniform w/all regulation patches as well, especially if at anything bigger than a FSB. Our Bn SMAJ always showed up looking like a walking example of a proper uniform (which was part of his job, leadership by example), no matter how hot or nasty the weather. Your depiction of uniforms are very accurate, contrary to common belief, we did not all sit around looking like Rambo or the cast of the Tropic Thunder movie. Even in RVN, it was still the Army, and your works reflect that.
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A lot of your company clerks, supply and orderly room personnel would usually wear the more stract uniform, since they pretty much worked in a cleaner environment. We got a new CO. and he wanted everyone to wear clean fatigues every day. The guys on the pentaprime crew.started going to supply every day to get new uniforms, since you couldn’t get that stuff off. The supply sgt. had a fit and pretty soon that practice was gone. Wayne
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@SFCJJC ,
One of the reasons why I build the types of dioramas I build is to break that movie based stereotype of all US Personnel looking like hippies wearing whatever they want however they want. The military is the military and there are standards even in combat zones.
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@namengr ,
Was that CO an Engineer? You would think that he would know that the guys doing the hard work are going to get dirty and that requiring everyone to have clean and pressed uniforms everyday was unrealistic. I could see having everyone looking good for ceremonies or soecial occassions, but not for day to dat operations. It is a goid thing the Supply Sergeant set him straight.
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That was a weird time for both the enlisted and officers. They were trying to weed out both, so officers that were about to be passed over were trying to find ways to keep their jobs. The CO that I had in Alabama was commissioned as an Engineer, but wanted to be a helicopter pilot. He did things similar wanting us to stay clean when we were working. Kept quoting regs that applied to aviation people. I was clearing an area for a new place to load dirt. He showed up and asked the sgt. what I was doing? The sgt. said “He’s trying to drop that tree where you are standing!” He left. Oh, and the supply sgt. was running out of uniforms! Wayne
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I have been busy with some non-modeling tasks, but have been working on getting things ready to try to complete this diorama. I decided that I want to change some of the positioning of several of the figures as they need to fit among the motor pool crates and items yet still have the same interaction between figures. This is pretty much where the figures will be located. Once they are removed from their painting platforms the positioning will look more natural.
These next photos show the positioning of some of the major items. I still have to ptime and paint several items as well as create the recreational program materials being used by the Donut Dollies. The crates and other motor pool items are placed in an orderly manner as they would be in real life so the mechanics and vehicle operators can find items without having to search for them. The Battalion’s Motor Sergeant insisted on keeping things orderly in HIS motor pool.
The open drum being used for trash will be full of stuff you would find in the trash at a motor pool.
It is getting there…
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Getting even closer to completion. I still have to paint Emily’s guitar and make the recreational program board that Sherry is using and then I can start the groundwork. I painted the cat to look like one of my cats, Pumpkin.
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Really starting to come together James, and ‘Pumpkin’ adds a nice touch of innocence to the scene, 
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G, 
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Thanks, G!
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I didn’t get as much done on Friday as I would have liked to, but I did get the matting from ICM put together, most of the figures removed from their painting stands, and played with the layout a bit. Sherry is still on her stand until I put the recreational program materials in her hands. Tomorrow I plan on priming and painting the matting and possibly apply the ground work.
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It’s coming along great! I like the Marlboro packs (and carton in the trash), the mixture of issue and PX bush hats, and the scruffiness of the jungle boots in exactly the right places. Very nice.
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@SFCJJC ,
Thank you. I thought you would appreciate those details. I am getting closer to completion.
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Today’s progress on the diorama consisted of priming, painting, weathering, and installing the steel matting before attaching the conex facade, the pallet of crates and drums (and cat), Emily’s guitar, Emily, and the NCO from the Scout Platoon. The chair Emily is sitting on is pretty fragile. I glued that to the matting and then glued her to the chair. There is a slight gap between the figure and the chair. Because of the fragility of the chair legs I do not want to mess with trying to fill the gap with putty and possibly break the legs of the chair.
I just might be able to get this completed soon.
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