Continuing our propensity to post works in progress here, I present my DAK on Maneuvers diorama which is almost complete. I wanted to put a lot of action in a small space for this diorama. It will have 5 vehicles, a few "structures (i.e., tent & well) and about 45 - 50 figures/animals on an oval base that is about 2 feet long and about 1 foot wide. After finishing my Krupp Protze truck, I am waiting on my Iron Division Mercedes cargo truck to complete the scene.
Overall view (note - Mercedes will go up top between Arab boy with goats and Panzer):

Recently finished Krupp Protze truck and Italians trying to get a ride for smokes:


Offloading jerry cans from the Panzer III Ausf L:


Sorry for the poor lightning, I took these pictures on my workbench after laying down a velvet backcloth. Also, I am still not exactly satisfied with the groundwork, so any suggestions to scale out the sand is welcome.

looks good so far. As for groundwork, Woodland Scenics has Rail Road ballast and sand in various sizes, the fine or medium would work fine. If you look at most of the DAK pictures, they are NOT in deep sand {like the Bogie movie Sahara with the M3 Grant/Lee tank} but more of a hard packed dirt with rocks.

what you can do is cover the ground with sand,{fine} then sprinkle some larger stuff around. Kitty Litter works but it is absorbent so glue can be interesting.

oh and don't sweat the color of the sand, just hit it with the airbrush

I have some DARK sand, so I just spray it lighter....

That's so cool! Where are the figures from?

Jim,

This is awesome. I really like what you are doing here. From what I can tell you have done a great job painting the figures. But what I really like about what you are doing is you aremaking this scene epic, something a lot of us in 1/48 don't do. Really big with a lot of stuff going on, which in my opinion is one of the advantages to this scale.

I would love to see some kind of building or larger structure to give some vertical perspective here, but I understand if it doesn't "fit".

Great work and keep us in the loop please.

Phil

Thanks for all the comments.

Dan, I'll look for some fine sand at the local model RR shop. Thanks for the tip.

Nik: The Arab Bedoins are from Preiser (the large unpainted passenger set in 1/50th scale, but still a bit bigger than the Tamiya figures), the goats are from Pegasus farm animals set (I wanted to include a camel, but I could not find anything suitable 1/48 scale or compatible), the dog is from an old Life-Like western kit via my spares box, and the rest are all by Tamiya from the vehicle kits, a few German Infantry on Maneuvers, Panzer Grenadiers, German maintenance crew, and the original German Infantry issue. I just mixed up the arms, torsos and heads to give some variety. For the tropical uniforms, I had to open up the collars on a few, and carve/file the boots down to represent the canvas boots the DAK wore. For the Italians, I used German Infantry officers legs (to get the pantaloon effect), and various torsos (a few from the Kruppe passengers) and arms that would reasonably fit. I had to break into a Russian infantry set for the helmet and machine gun altering it slightly to represent a Baretta. The caps were modified from the German field caps to represent the Italian bustina caps.

Phil: Ever since Tamiya started to churn out subjects in this scale, I always wanted to do a multi vehicle, massive figure display in a small area. With this scale, I tried to put as much into the scene, and still have sufficient open space to make it visually uncluttered. I always liked the Afrika Corp, and using two Osprey books, the Squadron Signal book, and the internet, including the DAK website and various uniform reproduction websites, as references, I decided to do a desert scene. My concept started with the well, and then branched out from there. Originally I thought of including a few palm trees for some heighth, but all of my references showed wells like this on flat terrain with no vegetation nearby. Besides, I really didn't want to include a palm tree or two and then have a 1/35 guy tell me I used the wrong type.

Thanks again for looking.
Jim

Hi Jim! The diorama is looking good! About the sand issue, a cheap alternative is...drumroll please...budgie bird gravel! I don't know if you have any pet stores near you, but the budgie gravel they sell in rectangular boxes has all sorts of bits and bobs in it! Everything from fine stuff up to foot long (in scale of course) pieces. What I like about it as opposed to the model railroading stuff (I am a model railroader - HO scale) is that it is comprised of these different sized particles. Just my 2 cents.

Ken

I'm agreeing with the others. This is a great idea you got going and the new things you make are fitting in nicely. A lot of Mini-themes that support the main one. Is that a Tamiya kit future release Wishing Well I see?
Greg

Hi Jim,

Now this is what I call a DIORAMA!

Isamu