Well after all these years of talking about it and dreaming about it, I’m finally beginning to build my what if operation seelowe diorama. So far what i have completed is the first heavy landing craft with a dml tauch panzer III Ausf H. I have to do some artistic licensing with this diorama as the tauch panzer depicted was used in the bug river crossing in 1941. I attached the snorkel to give the appearance that the landing craft is preparing to drop ramp for the tauch panzer to disembark. Next up on my build list is an LWS which would have towed barges and landing craft that were under powered. This will be towing a second craft loaded with infantry.
The landing craft I have are the same variant but scaled differently. I’m trying to achieve a force perspective with the tank landing craft only being built in a half while the one loaded down with infantry will be a complete boat.
I plan on doing a resin pour and adding some under sea terrain in an attempt to show the close proximity a final landing beach.
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This looks really cool! Excellent work and a great concept.
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@SSGToms thank you, i will possibly be looking at some ideas as this dio could become robust. I have a few options to make it smaller or make it a series as well.
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Guys, I’m looking for some feedback here. I’m at a point where i wonder if it would look awkward to half a half landing craft with the tank on it and then a full landing craft with infantry near it being towed by an lws? I have the ability to make it just the front halves of the landing ships being towed by the lws and have mocked them up. If i do a full landing craft with infantry I’ll need to grab more figures which isn’t a problem but so far here’s what a rough sketch of it looks like with the figures i do have.
Option 1: just the front half of the landing ships. Below is a full infantry set that will be on the smaller landing ship
Option 2: a full landing craft in the scene next to the larger tank carrying landing craft.
I feel like i could do either and it would look good. I need some feedback here guys. I have other ideas for operation seelowe dioramas where the back halves of ships would be shown in a dock being loaded with men and equipment. I’m not sure if I’d be breaking any of Shep Paines diorama rules in this dio.
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Hi Greg - rules are made to be broken. Shep would be proud, you’re doing great.
I vote option 2.
Although it partly depends how you intend the dio to be viewed and especially how it’ll be photographed i.e. what angles/perspectives/backgrounds…or, just as legitimately, you may not care. You did mention forced perspectives (I’m a big fan) but not sure how you’ll deal with the tank LC rear half – painted or photoshopped background?
It also partly depends on how you feel about populating the LC’s. A year after the Sealion preparations, I think the Germans took around a million work-horses into Russia for Barbarossa, so it might make an interesting/jarring contrast having a tank on one LC and a bunch of nags on another. Shades of 1066 & all that.
(PS Forced perspective can create its own problems, the intermediate groundwork needs to work, as well as the depth of field/focus in photographs. In this example the front two Ferdinands are 1:35 scale and the furthest one (extreme left) is 1:72 scale - the latter’s only about 3 or 4 inches from its nearest neighbour…
I got lucky with this shot, largely accidental because I’m a basic amateur photographer - it just worked without any digital intervention)
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@Dioramartin maybe I’m using the wrong phrase when saying forced perspective. I think it’s better to say that it’s only the front of the LC carrying the tank and that the rest will not be in view. I have no issue getting more joes to fill the landing craft with. I even entertained the idea of the infantry being in the tank LC but realized the story didn’t make sense; why disembark a tank then ride up closer to get infantry off?
I’m thinking of getting the old revell/icm figures from the grenadier set that is about 12 guys marching. They would fill the LC nicely. As for crew i also have the revell s-boat crew to build too.
The picture you took is great, i couldn’t tell that the vehicles were different scales.
As for the rear view of my landing craft with the tank, i will have it painted black and sitting on the extreme edge of the diorama.
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OK thanks & understood…although a couple of approaching 1:72 LC’s in the rear of the dio base (would only need extending back maybe 6 inches) would look pretty cool (?) You wouldn’t have much problem with receding surf occupying the intermediate ground.
Maybe a squad of tank-riders sitting on the Pz III wouldn’t look out of place, rather than lurking behind it (?)
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@Dioramartin that would be pretty cool, i could probably get them in a smaller scale and bring the kits up the forefront some more. Tank riders would possibly work if it dissembled in low tide and wasn’t going deeper then its tracks. I was thinking of riders on the LWS as they were supposed to be loaded with infantry as well.
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Yup all good. Just remember to paint all their faces a mid green, if anything like D-Day they’d all be terminally seasick 
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@Dioramartin no doubt a vast majority would be sea sick. Hell i could do bullet holes / shrapnel Holes on the side of a landing ship to show a British attempt at impeding the landings.
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Ah that’s a good point - there were some basic (and likely fairly ineffectual) shoreline defenses put up along the south-east/south coasts to deter an invasion - the Brits in 1940 didn’t have as much time as the Germans 1941-44 to do so. A few coils of barbed wire probably, I’ll stand corrected by your research and other members who know more…
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@Dioramartin great book to read is “We March Against England” it talks about the German and English preparations for the landings. Another good one is called “Invasion” and works through the plan of attack. It even has a part on how Rommel would have broken out from the beach head if i remember correctly.
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