Hans joachim marseilles -desert diorama 1/72 scale

[yak face]

As some of you may know ,this ones been a LONG time coming, about a year i think.Here is my first attempt at a proper diorama, of a subject many of you will be familiar with. For the record though , this is supposed to represent the german ace ,hans joachim marseilles getting yet another kill marked on his bf109f-4 in africa about 1942. I based the scene on various photographs of HJM and his personal kubelwagen 'otto' with a bit of artistic licence as regards the camp /airstrip. The bf109 is the italeri kit with some of the decals from an old frog kit and the kube is the hasegawa one. The figures were converted from the old airfix polythene luftwaffe ground crew set and were a nightmare to clean up and convert (the polythene wont accept any kind of glue easily) but eventually they came out ok (ish!)but lack any real facial detail , so dont look too hard!!The barrels were white metal for the ones in the open and the ones under the milliput sand bags (all 100 of em) are cigarette filters meant for roll ups , a lot cheaper than buying another 50 white metal ones!!! The palm tree is made from painted feathers and wire wrapped in surgical tape ,and the base is covered in budgie sand and sprayed with sandy colours to get rid of the unnatural sparkle. Anyhoo , have a gander and any comments and criticisms welcome, cheers tony

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[Centurion3RTR]

Beautiful Tony, in 1:72 too (wait for the conjunctivitis to kick in lol). I see Ron will be pleased, there's a bucket. Top marks matey.

Have fun, John

[Guest]

Hiya Tony. Great, great subject, im loving this dio. I loooooove "Yellow 14" and the Kube two of my absolute fav modelling subjects. And the great flying ace himself HJM, a genius in his aircraft. IT MAY WELL HAVE TAKEN A YEAR BUD....BUT BOY HAS IT BEEN WORTH THE WAIT. Congratulations Tony a credit to you matey. Regards Martin :-)

[Guest]

Excellent dio.

[tr1ckey66]

That is fabulous Tony! 5 stars from me - 1/72... man, that's hard core!

Cheers

Paul

[Gern]

Nice one Tony. Like Martin says, it's well worth the wait.

Gern

[Guest]

thats real nice. loads of nice wee touches. like tr1ckey66 said, i did realise it was 1/72 scale. after looking at the pics i had to re-read your intro at the top to make sure i didnt read it wrong. it's great that u did a wee black and white pic of hans and the painter to match the book.

[Guest]

Nice job tony. nice finishes to the model! Hey isn't that the pilot of the 'yellow 14'?

[Guest]

Hi Tony, Gullivers Travels strikes again, I love the low sun shot, you'd swear you were looking at a photo of the real thing. A definate 5 Star, a Russian one next please. Cheers Derek

[Guest]

Great piece of work there Tony, obviously a labour of love. Superb job all round. A well deserved 5 Stars.

[yak face]

thanks gents , much appreciated. The figures are a bit devoid of features, and most of them had to be altered which isnt easy in the polythene material,ie the painter originally had a fuel hose in his hands (hence the fact that his paintbrush looks like a cornetto!!!!) which i had to carve into a brush. In typical sods law fashion,just after i had painted all these ,revell released a set of luftwaffe ground crew and pilots in 1/72 in hard styrene DOH!!! Still its not too bad if you squint,and without the magnifying effect of a close up camera shot its ok, cheers tony

[colin m]

This really is brilliant, the effort gone into this is obvious. Many others (well ok, me) might not have completed such a project. Not one single aspect fails to impress, but, the use of cigarette filters is a stroke of genius. So what about the left over cigarette papers ? canvas sheets ?.

Well done,

Colin M...

[stona]

Fan-bloody-tastic Tony! Nothing to add to what everyone else has said, you must be very happy with that result.

Cheers

Steve

[spanner570]

Sheer, unadulterated quality...no question!

Ron

[yak face]

thankyou gents. Colin the filters were just on their own in a box so no papers to get rid of, but youve maybe hit on something there! Perhaps a cigarette paper when painted would give a good impression of canvas? For the tent i used microporous surgical tape stuck onto a carved polystyrene shape,maybe cig papers would have looked ok too? Steve, i was helped no end by your excellent pics of HJM although i didnt manage to pose him having a dump in the cockpit!!Ron,mate ,glad you like my first dio , you wouldnt believe how hard it is to scratchbuild a 1/72 scale bucket though!!! cheers tony