Not an NCO but the guy in charge.
Battle of the Bulge was Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Joachim Peiper, the notorious Waffen-SS.
1 Like
The detail, in both the models/dio and the story, make it. Layers!
3 Likes
Thanks Karl. Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to replying… More coming very soon!
2 Likes
Thanks Wink. Sorry for the slow reply. More to come very soon!
1 Like
Sorry it’s been over 4 months…
As you will see there has been a fair amount of progress in the meantime… not just on the diorama but also figures and vehicles.
Just to remind everyone of the basic plan, here are some shots with the German element in play.
Looking at the groundwork, I decided to use VMS Smart Mud for the first time.
It’s an odd substance to work with at first, because it seems to want to stick to your fingers rather than the terrain (gloves don’t seem to help) and you must not dilute it with water. However, once you get the hang of pressing it into place, it goes down very well. There’s also plenty of working time.
So I started working my way down from the top right of the scene, allowing myself to work in stages, adding fine sand and other scatter materials as I went. Then I added the odd larger stone.
I’ve taken a bit of risk here because the vehicles and figures aren’t finished so I couldn’t mark their final position as precisely as I might like. But I had a pretty good idea where they were going to end up.
I also made a little jig for the wheels for the Schwim and the Jeep my gluing a pair of the original kit wheels to a piece of plastic rod. This meant that I could roll them over the surface to create the wheel ruts in what is going to be fairly frozen, muddy ground. I also added hoof prints from a Tamiya cow, especially in the sloping area alongside the house.
Next stop: building the grassy bank.
21 Likes
Impressive work!
3 Likes
That indeed has been a long time!
The progress you made indeed is impressive. Not so much the amount as for the results…
4 Likes
better start wearing a hard hat when cooking.
5 Likes
You have really fleshed out that groundwork well- the consistency looks great with nice variations. The rougher, rockier ground with the patchy scrub by the tree adds a nice bit of interest behind the open gate- a natural looking little patch.
4 Likes
Looking even more fantastic. A real miniature - a small version of a real thing. Perfect.
I do think you might want to paint the vehicles, though… 
4 Likes
I’ve used that stuff too, Tim and you are absolutely right, the stuff sticks to your fingers and anything else. I did get the hang of it after a short time though and as you said learned to press it into place. Great stuff, dried rock hard and doesn’t shrink and takes all kinds of paint and weathering.
Outstanding job so far!
5 Likes
Thanks Dan, I’m back in the saddle…
3 Likes
Thanks Erwin.
There is plenty more to come, I promise!
3 Likes
Thanks Wink. Believe me I am itching to put some paint on them… it’s just the 250 that’s holding me up - all that interior detail!
1 Like
Thanks Karl,
There’s a lot more work on the foliage about to come!
2 Likes
Thanks for all the kind words gentlemen…
I am glad to report that I have finally got the doors onto my shed! The reason for the masking tape ‘bandaid’ in the other shots was to prevent my carefully painted interior filling up with detritus from the scenic work that I was about to start…
I added the tarpaulin over the logs because the woodshed just looked too exposed. It also helped to disguise the true thickness of the wall on the right, which to my eye just looked a little too thin… It was simply made using a piece of double ply tissue soaked in diluted PVA and then given a suitably grubby appearance. The axe buried in one of the logs actually came off an old diorama that I finished when I was 17 (so back in 1985!) I also added an oil drum to give the effect of a working farm yard.
At the same time I was working on building up the foliage on the bank behind the house and to the right of the shed. I will do a post on my tree later, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
Here is the bank in an early state…
The longer grass was made from bristles from a cheap paint brush. Undergrowth (brambles?) was added from clumps of rubberised horsehair and leaves from MiniNatur ivy.
I wasn’t entirely happy with the grass (too think and straight) so I went back and glued in clumps of much finer pale grass. I also varied the colour of the leaves for the brambles by randomly painting them with various shades of Vallejo greens and yellows.
One of the benefits of doing terrain during the appropriate season is being able to look around and see how a late Autumn / early Winter landscape actually looks. We discussed whether there would be any snow on this diorama way, way above. I’m still not sure.
The popular perception of the Battle of the Bulge is of everything covered in deep snow - but that’s because many of the famous images were taken after the initial battle was over. My scenario is set between 16th and 18th December 1944 in a part of the Ardennes where there was some intermittent snowfall in higher areas - but not all.
Either way, at this time of year there is still plenty of grass to be found, even if it tends to be leached of its colour. There’s also a lot of fallen leaf cover on the ground which slowly turns to mulch.
To help with the next step I bought this little gizmo at Scale Model World in Telford last November. I used it to punch out leaves from coffee strainers that I had tinted with water colour paints.
These do have a satisfying leaf-shape, but used on their own they would look wrong for the mid-December feel I am after - too fresh and too bright. So I mixed them with some generic leaf scatter and started to scatter them along the edges of the building and other terrain features (where leaves usually end up being blown) and fixed them in place with either diluted PVA or Sand and Gravel fixer (I forget, but I probably used both).
This is still work in progress because I still have the rest of the diorama to cover, but I’m liking the way this is truning out so far. It looks COLD…!
26 Likes
That ground work is just beautiful! Really, really lovely work!
2 Likes
Great work!
2 Likes
Just masterful Tim, everything is done with just the right amount of reserve, not OTT; Fantastic 
2 Likes
The results of your work is really impressive!
2 Likes