Been away for a bit, great continuous progress time!
Cheers Ski & thanks guys. Jerry – MiniArt not so much (surprisingly) apart from 35062 German soldiers at Rest, one sitting officer with floppy hat; Stalingrad out of stock on Waffen SS officer (S-3596); Evolution nothing available either (but I’m getting their NKVD officers, the ones Stick used in his not-Bladerunner masterpiece), Dragon & Tamiya – even more surprising nothing I can use. I’ve kinda got sitting sorted, it’s moving on 2 legs I’m short of (officers typically stand still of course) so there’s a bunch of Frankenfiguring in my future.
Brian/H.P. – yikes I may be desperate but I’m not sure I could handle 1977 Heller, Herr Offizier looks decidedly primitive in the sprue shots. Although who am I to turn my nose up at nostalgia? Look what I just bought from my LHS…Partisans reboxed by Italeri (who else would dare?!) from original 1977 ESCI mo*lds…
You can tell they’re 1977 vintage, check out Molotov-cocktail-guy…
Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I’m a Partisan …
Ah such memories - the white suit, the sky-pointing, the hip-action, the falsetto…every time I go shopping these days 
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Not to mention that the song “Staying Alive” was perhaps, singularly apposite for Heydrich(!)
Heller figures aren’t that bad; with a bit of TLC and say a Hornet Head they tend to come out OK ; see my figs in support of an AMX 30 below (always subjective of course):
What I’m trying to emphasise is that the officer figure might after all, be useful - whether for Klein or Heydrich in some such pose I don’t know, over to you Tim!
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You may be right Brian & especially if I run out of other options. But for now I’m parking the figure-work again until I’ve finished prepping the scene, which seems to have become an endless cycle of uh-oh there’s another thing. I’m on the brink of declaring victory over the 14 trees following a gruelling 3-month restoration campaign which they’ve fought every step of the way, so that’ll leave just two things left to construct - the tram powerlines, and this…
I’ve mentioned before this building will figure in so many photos that a flat 2D backdrop will look way too lame, just a glance at the shadows it casts is enough persuasion. Come to think of it I think this photo was one of those taken late afternoon on the same day (no trams replaced in position yet for the police reconstruction) so once I’ve built it I should be able to work out the right shadows for 10.30 in the morning. Looks simple enough, good picture refs with figures right there for scale so out came the old-school draughting/drafting gear…
I tried several calculators but they all gave me the same dimensions: 88 cms wide, 42 cms high, 54 cms deep, set back 10 cms from that corner and at 45° to that side of the base, at a gradient of 
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I feel another bout of Dioramartin magic coming up!
Jeez Tim, you don’t make life easy for your self do you? Clearly you need a constant challenge!
Surprisingly modern looking building. Good news is, no compound curves to navigate.
J
It’s the Rokoska power substation built in 1939 (designed by Eduard Hnilička).
H.P.
Of course Frenchie would know that! LoL
J
Thanks H.P. your Searches move in mysterious ways yet again! I don’t know how you found that out, clearly my Czech translation skills need a lot more work. I’d always believed the advertising hoarding seen in some recent views that it was some kind of Healthcare centre, but it must relate to the building next to it. That’s why I never discovered its true original function as a sub-station for the tram power grid – whodathunkit? So, further research inspired by your greatly appreciated intervention shows it was shut down in 1980, by 2004 derelict & totally covered in graffiti, since then tidied up & most likely protected by heritage order. And even better…
…spot my drawing’s errors, mercifully now rather than after I’d built it. I’d deliberately omitted the guttering for clarity, and suspected the side elevation was as revealed – I was kinda hoping it wasn’t, in order to avoid building a whole slope both sides of it but it looks like resistance is futile. Hmmm…Lego anyone? There’s a nasty rumour styrofoam’s going to be outlawed very soon, so build up your stashes for the future black market. There really could be Diorama Police - “Model-maker jailed for trading styro on the dark web”… 
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Quick quiz: Which well-known fugitive was hiding out in Prague at the time of the assassination, almost within earshot of Kubis’ exploding grenade? (No, not Christopher Lee)
In the process of researching this sub-station building following Frenchy’s tip-off, I came across an interesting article “The Assassination of Heydrich and Prague Trams” by Libor Hincica which explores the surviving eye-witness statements made by tram staff & helped me understand the dynamics of the event a bit more clearly. These statements obviously need to be treated with caution because while some were freely given others may have been provided under duress and/or in order to receive a share of the substantial rewards offered by the Gestapo. Nevertheless, some very plausible details (inconsequential in terms of helping the Germans identify the perpetrators) don’t seem to have been correctly represented in any movie or literary version I’m aware of, so strap in for a few surprises when my final photos reveal all.
Of equal interest (to me) was how these five witnesses’ testimonies have fuelled some of the myths & contradictions about the event. Two drivers & three conductors provided statements to the SD/Gestapo in the days following the attack, and then after the war they were all tried in a general war-crimes court which dished out capital & penal retribution to collaborators. It’s hard not to sympathise with these witnesses, by bad luck caught up in the whirlwind & at great personal risk from their German interrogators should their evidence have been proved false or incomplete, and then accused of co-operating with the Occupation following liberation. At their trials they modified their witness testimonies to varying degrees to minimise whatever help they may have given the Germans to identify the agents. Not surprisingly their various defences were dismissed out of hand (mainly because they accepted the rewards), most summarily fired from their jobs & finding only the most menial employment (if any) for the rest of their lives.
So while some authors used the original statements, others quoted the differing post-war versions. The article (rightly in my opinion) tends to trust the statements provided to the Germans at the time, more than the clearly obfuscating and contradictory versions provided four years later under a fresh level of duress. In any case it’s typical that five eye witnesses to any kind of crime or accident will give five different versions of what happened, so when you throw Gestapo and Czech/KGB interrogators into that mix what were the odds of getting any facts straight?
Quiz answer – Roger Bushell, aka “Big X” as improbably played by Richard Attenborough (a bonsai Edward VIII lookalike bizarrely impersonating the big hulking dark-haired ex South African ski champion) in “The Great Escape”. Bushell had been shot down in France during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 & before ending up in the infamous Stalag Luft III he’d staged several (obviously failed) escapes from other POW camps. In early 1942 he absconded with a Czech officer (Jack Zafouk) during a prisoner transfer from a camp at Barth (Baltic coast) and laid low for weeks in one of Zafouk’s friend’s apartments in Prague during May & June 1942. In the paranoia and fear of reprisals following Heydrich’s death they too were betrayed – Zafouk’s friend, wife, son and daughter were all arrested and shot, Zafouk sent to another camp, and Bushell to Berlin Gestapo HQ for further “interrogation” to check he wasn’t involved in the Anthropoid operation, before eventual transfer to the Sagan camp later in 1942. One of The Fifty murdered after recapture from the mass breakout in early 1943.
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Brilliant construction and a wonderful history lesson !!
Damn Tim, I thought you were going to give edited highlights of the 5 witnesses! I thought you might give a bit of myth-busting chapter and verse - but see that you’re still building at a rate I could never aspire to, let alone achieve.
I wasn’t aware of Bushell being in Prague - he was lucky in that Night and Fog wasn’t applied - although as a constant thorn in the Nazi’s side his ultimate demise must have always been on the cards.
Keep it up!
Brian
Impressive! The amount of research that you’ve done (and are doing!) is more than just commendable. If you haven’t actually considered doing so, I encourage you to put it all down in writing, even if just to create a “white paper” on the subject.
This is a great example of how the diorama builder’s attention to detail and need to physically “make all the pieces fit” can lead to fresh insights to historical events. On paper, the historian can easily dismiss those facts and suppositions that don’t fit his or her thesis or accept those that do no matter how questionable or debatable or apocryphal. He can mold and form his thesis around his selective facts and assumptions to support his own version of the history, but the diorama builder can’t do that.
The diorama builder, of course, has a degree of “artistic license” that he can lean on if he so choses. However, the more information and facts he gathers, the closer to forming an accurate vision of the reality of the events he can get.
At some point, the diorama builder will be confronted with conflicting information or be forced to fill in the gaps. Both will demand that he conform his vision to physical reality. Quite literally, if the pieces can not fit on the diorama, they could not have fit in the reality of the time and place he’s modeling. Something is wrong, and in the process of fitting those elements that will fit and discarding or modifying those that will not, the diorama builder recreates only that which could have actually existed. If what he does incorporates the known, true, facts, then those questionable “facts” and suppositions must be suitably revised to fit. Physical reality, not personal opinion and bias, becomes the judge and jury of truth and accuracy of those questionable “facts” and suppositions.
Not a perfect process, but it’s an honest one that the diorama builder cannot hide behind. He must present the facts truthfully, and his own suppositions cannot be disguised. They must conform to reality and the known facts.
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Lookin good Tim!
Thanks guys - Brian me too, I only recently discovered the Bushell connection. He was formally advised by the Sagan commandant on arrival that his personal intervention had saved him from execution in Berlin, but that if he escaped/got caught again he’d be executed for sure. Bushell (a junior barrister just turned 30) somewhat ungratefully but very deliberately shouted back so much during that interview he was thrown out, thus causing the guards to overlook the customary entry-search of belongings. Under his arm, wrapped in paper, Bushell was carrying a brand new dark grey civilian suit given to him by Zafoud’s friend from his wardrobe back in the Prague apartment.
Anyhow, for Anthropoid this time the myth-busting/correcting can wait to be revealed in visual terms, the Stripper Principle. The source article referred to in my previous post was very long…and in Czech. Google Translate never fails to provide me with endless childish amusement, phrases like “excited trousers” and “soared to the foot of her recollected disturbance” tend to slow me down gasping for air. After several hours I boiled the “new” evidence down to four clear points of difference with the generally accepted story - one major, three minor & taken together they make a much more believable narrative than anything I’ve seen, and even more compelling if that were possible.
A couple of other things the article covered are worth mentioning – the first was a theory I’d never heard before that Gabcik’s Sten didn’t jam at all, he threw it down because there were civilians/children beyond the limo in direct line of fire. This idea came up because of an ambiguous remark (apparently originally by Pannewitz [?] although not recorded in his post-war statement) implying the SD tested the abandoned gun and it fired no problem. Curiouser & curiouser, but I’m not buying it because Gabcik had cased the scene and would have prepared for that risk/eventuality. The Sten was supposedly assembled on site by touch while concealed inside a briefcase stuffed full of grass clippings, which ended up jamming it. The grass was cover in case of a spot-search, civilians collected it from parks to feed their rabbits which ended up in pies. I know, sounds like a crock too…
The second item depresses me so much it causes actual pain to relate it. Remember the trailer tram? The one I spent so much time converting……and glamorous Agent Vida sneaked vital interior reference photos of it back to me…?
Well, turns out it may not have been that model of trailer at the scene. One of the tram conductors said he exited the trailer’s centralised door when the grenade smoke had cleared, meaning it was an older/different trailer type…but another witness said he jumped off the trailer amid the shattering glass from the end-door. Go figure! We always knew the one they used for the reconstruction was just a stand-in, but I never imagined it might not have been the right type. So, not proven beyond reasonable doubt, God knows I ain’t buying a fourth MiniArt tram - sorry Mike (Freeman) I know you’re trying to offload one, but at least the brake wheels you kindly donated for my conversion are safe!
Yep Michael I guess when it’s all over I could condense the text of this entire 3+ year thread down to a proper research paper…with maybe just a couple of illustrations?
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Hey Tim! I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. However, there’ll be none of that “free shipping” nonsense to your part of the globe. 
…
I’m so honored to see that the brake wheel has found a proper home after its long journey! 
Lastly… those photos just look astonishingly real — ever so, that only the likes of lurkers like myself would know that it’s a 1/35th creation. … It’s alright, madam, I’m a professional lurker.
Cheers!
—mike
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Beautiful lifelike fer real photos Tim , absolutely amazing dude !!!
Remarkable pics man!
J
In celebration of all your hard work on this project I’ve organized a special dance dedicated to you and all your excellent work !!
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