Unruly Tommies WW2 France 1944, need some help

[Hobbyinovator]

I have been working on this complicated diorama for the last months. I have been trying to get out of the Comfort zone in several ways so it's kind of time demanding.
I haven't built any form of vehicle model since I was 12 or 13, let alone tried any form of conversion. So scratch building a driver, while at the same time constantly making him fit with the seat and steering Wheel was quite a challenge as well as opening a shut door.
The car is the British Staff Car Forlite Saloon 8HP mod.1939:
http://acemodel.com.ua/en/model/440



I have made a separate thread related to this diorama in the general forum where I'm looking for info about the different paint schemes of the Austin K2 ambulance. viewtopic.php?f=103&t=22089

I Think I could need some input from you guys about this diorama. There are lots of aspects to it that complicates it.

[Hobbyinovator]

[Hobbyinovator]

Some scratch built figures and some conversions with the exception of the British driver and the German. The Driver was first supposed to be in the Austin K2 ambulance, but since there are no closed doors and the guy is missing his legs I had to rule this option out.

[Hobbyinovator]

This is the Airfix foward Command post.




The corpse is scratch built.

[Hobbyinovator]

My converted figures:

[Hobbyinovator]

The storyline is that a British infantry unit has been relieved after Heavy fighting at the front. They reach an aid station that is overburdened with casualties, and some of the infantrymen desperately tries to get their wounded into an overloaded ambulance.





Red caps have a hard time stopping the desperate Soldiers.


The commanding officer who just arrived in his Staff car has drawn his revolver trying to stop what seems to be the start of a mutiny.


Everything must fit within this diorama frame. I could need some help with the choreography of this diorama. So that the story becomes a bit clearer for an outsider.
Not sure if I should Place the sandbags to the right or the left of the Forward command post? I was planning to add some fuel drums, boxes etc. maybe between the aid station and the house.
Not sure about the placement of the dead guys either.
I had some plans in the beginning to maybe have one or guys holding liberated wine bottles and maybe some guy with a handcart loaded with looted property to show a unit where disciplin has been falling apart, but there isn't much space left in the diorama.

[Hobbyinovator]

Severly wounded Soldier falling and receiving help from a less wounded comrade:


Hard to get a good photo angle for this figure:

[Wiking]

Some of my thoughts about the really not easy to do scene of fleeing soldiers.

At first,play with the scene.

Put things in positions you think alright.
And then start to change everything. Step by step. Till you have change each figure, car, house.
Do that several time. You get a feeling what is possible, you like, don`t like. The figure is useful or not.



Put your stuff in an angle. Avoid German Ordnung. So you get more room. Sound silly, just do it.
You do a action, running scene in front. And the rear is the calm with the wounded scene.
The Austin red cross is parked between the house ruin and the first aid post. Doors open to the street of fleeing soldiers. Or the doors open to the other side. The Austin split your wounded scene into two
one house, one first aid point scenes.


Use pose in move (only one feet touch the ground) on the retread road. More as standing pose. There is the action!
I think your officer who stop one with each hand is nice looking but very unreal.
Try to stop only one people who is running in panic. And he will stop two ?
One officer by the car with the pistol and the other officer by the car (without stopped soldiers) on the other side. Two non move pose in the action section is enough.




Open the door of the car.


Wish you the moment:
"Like this, that`s it !"

[Beano Boy]

Your work displayed above is a good size for people to view.



This is your photograph above posted from Postimage. This is a good size to view.
My advice is change your picture settings so larger sized photographs can be seen.
This will add greater interest in your topic if others can actually see what is going on.
This advice is meant kindly. May you enjoy your hobby. BB

[Hobbyinovator]

Thanks for the tips about the car, it will be applied to the diorama. I found it hard to get things to work as intended though if I start to angle the diorama so I'm afraid I will have keep the orginal straight angle, but thanks for the tip.

[Hobbyinovator]

I had to take two years vacation from model building, mainly thanks to Osprey Publishing and all their discounts, causing me to buy large amounts of their books(like 7-10 in a single order, followed by yet another order one or two months later) and reading through them. It doesn't help that the print on demand books being filled with printing errors(like the Warrior book about US WW2 paratroopers containing color plates from the warrior book about German Fallschirmjägers) forcing me to demand that they replace the incorrect ones taking up even more time.
Imaging spending all the time reading up litterature to be able to make better models and because of that not actually having time building any models.

[Hobbyinovator]

Some positioning before before starting applying ground material. I had big problems attaching the doors of the ambulance which is now painted with sirens? attached at the roof cross. Aid station is now painted, with figures installed and roof attached. I had to move the wounded soldier sitting at the bench in the ambulance to the floor, because he was to high for the roof:

[Hobbyinovator]

Another pic from above. Notice that I have added a wounded guy lying beside the corpse in the building.

[Hobbyinovator]

Close up of one of the MP:s and the German prisoner.

[Hobbyinovator]

Last pic before adding ground material showing the officer by the car and the soldiers around him.

[Hobbyinovator]

Pic with ground material, made up of Das Pronto while still wet. I some of ended up on the figures and I failed to remove some of it.

[Hobbyinovator]

A few days later when the Das Pronto has fully cured. Notice cracks. I hadn't expected it to shrink that much side ways. Notice the gap between ground and frame. The shrinking affected the positioning of the figures a little bit, but luckily not enough to ruining things.

[Bluefalchion]

You have taken on a tremendous challenge here. Good for you.

[Hobbyinovator]

Yes I sure did. Her is a picture afte curing.

[Hobbyinovator]

There were lots of cracks in the Das Pronto and there was quiet some shrinkage from the frame as well, something anyone planning to use this material should take notice of.