My WW1 all encompassing dio

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

welcome aboard one and all. Glad to have so many of you along.

jakko - nice idea, it would be nice to keep the whole tank, it depends on whether it would be too domineering for the scene. Hopefully I will start buildin thd tank by the weekend, then get a better idea of the layout and whether to chop or not to chop.

Peter - you are right about Gallipolli - I shoud have specified the Western Front.

Jim - absolutely, how could I forget the barbed wire! Yes there will be barbed wire.


Peter

[Guest]

Just to be clear: I didn’t mean to suggest cutting up the whole tank, but that you could have the track partly off the tank, and the track running off the base, which would probably save you links. Cutting the track to conform to the edge of the base then suggests there is actually more track outside of it, while a whole track link at the edge gives the impression that’s also the end of the track.

[Defiant911]

Like the sound of this. I made the tank as one of my first few builds this year but the dio sounds a great idea. My other thought to your list was ‘barbed wire’
carl

[stillp]

Peter - you are right about Gallipolli - I shoud have specified the Western Front.

Gallipoli is often forgotten, since it didn't really affect the overall war very much. Many people think it was only the Anzacs that fought there, although they were only about a quarter of the Allied troops, but suffered a third of the losses.
Grandad had signed up at 16, badly wounded within three weeks of landing at Suvla bay. Spent 18 months in hospital/convalescence, then invalided out just before his 18th birthday. They wouldn't give him a pension in spite of having lost the use of his arm, because he was too young to serve! However, he'd signed up "to serve His Majesty for the duration" so he was still the Army's property so they posted him to an ammunition factory as a checker. I can't complain, that's where he met my grandmother so I wouldn't exist otherwise!
Pete

[Peter Gillson]

Jakko - I get you point, good idea.
Carl - barbed wire has been added, how I missed it off the original list, I do not know.
Peter - great family story, but bad how some soldiers were treated.

here is an addition to the kits, more French figures:


it is basically the same figures as the set above but these are not wearing gas masks. The only figure which is different is the officer shouting, which I will change to adding a gas mask. It may seem a bit extravagant to buy the set to use one figure, but I prefer to have an odd number of figures in a dio, and with the size of the tank Only using 3 would not be enough. I may play about at converting a couple of the others to slightly different poses - looking into the tank perhaps. No fixed ideas yet, hopefully I will get some inspiration when I start to work with the figures.

Now I'm looking forward to starting the tank.

Peter

[papa 695]

Just seen this Peter, and a great idea, so I've just pulled up my chair too.

[Peter Gillson]

Hi all

I hope everybody is sitting comfortably.

I have decided to make a start- if it is like the male tank it will be very straightforward



I will post photos when built

[monica]

as I always say Peter ,any start is a good start,look forward to seeing more,

[Peter Gillson]

Hi all

yesterday evening I built the tank. A simple kit which goes together reasonably easy. like the male version it's a basic model, if I wanted to build a model of the tank as a project I would not choose this one, but for my purposes it will do fine.



i also put the five figures together - straightforward, the parts fit very nicely with only minimal filler.

that was yesterday evening, since the weather was bad today I decided to work out the layout of the dio. I still have some resin sandbag sections from my earlier WW1 dio so used those with roofing insulation off-cuts to build up the ground to the level of the top of the sandbags.

Using various blocks and stuff to hold the elements at near enough the right height I produced version one:


here yo can see the initial layout - the French figures going around an abandoned tank. The lengths of mdf are to roughly frame the area of the dio.

Ok but not quite right - the trench did not seem to be fully integrated into the scene, and how would they cross the trench?

So, here is version 2:


Slight change - some of the soldiers advancing along a supply trench, there will be a ladder at the end of it and I may try to convert one of my unused French sodiers to be climbing the ladder. again, the mdf delineates the dio.

in the photo below I have started to cut the insulation board to shaope, which starts to give a much better idea of the layout.


Next photo and more of thr elements have been cut to shape and size:


The photo above also shows a couple of design changes: firstly, the supply trench has changed from having sandbags for its whole height, I am going to panel the lower part in the "wicker" type of trenching - I am sure Andy B can tell me the correct terminology!

Also on the corner of that trench and the main trench I have cut-away some of the sandbags. To make it easier to see the figures I wanted to make the space a little larger, and so that corner will feature a doorway into a small shelter, like the one in this photo:



Here is a photo of the final layout:

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the trench looks a little wide, but I hope that when I have added the fire step it will look ok.

Peter

[monica]

very nice work going on,I do like the sandbag stacks,

[grumpa]

Coming along very nicely Peter. :thumb2:

Jim

[Peter Gillson]

Thanks Jim.

Monica - they arefrom Model Cellar in the USA. They do various shapes; straisht and corners which all interlock. It is a shame nobody stocks them in the UK.

https://modelcellar.com/product-category/accessories/

peter

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
Nice to see how the layout evolves. Certainly the tweeking has improved it. I like the idea of a guy climbing a ladder. I think the work involved would be worth it for that little extra detail. I can imagine viewers saying "Oh look, have you noticed that guy climbing the ladder" :tongue-out3:
Jim

[Guest]

A fine scheme coming together there Peter.

[monica]

Thanks Jim.

Monica - they arefrom Model Cellar in the USA. They do various shapes; straisht and corners which all interlock. It is a shame nobody stocks them in the UK.

https:tongue-out3:/modelcellar.com/p...y/accessories/

peter

thank you Peter, :smiling: