peter's 1/72 scale D-Day diorama. (Greof's D-Day GB)

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting choice of figures, should compliment the scene nicely. Anthony Barton (AB figures) have a very high reputation so those should paint up well.

[colin m]

This all looks amazing Peter. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together. Just last night I was listening to an Al Murray / James Holland podcast discussing D day landings from a Armour point of view. There was a good discussion about swimming tanks.

[Neil Merryweather]

This all looks amazing Peter. I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together. Just last night I was listening to an Al Murray / James Holland podcast discussing D day landings from a Armour point of view. There was a good discussion about swimming tanks.

Ooh that's a great podcast series! Thoroughly recommended if you're into WWII

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

thank for the support. getting closer to the painting stage and will post some photos of the completed tanks later on. In the meantime I came across this while researching DD tanks. Never seen it before but thought it may be of interest for anybody visiting Omaha beach:

Peter

[Peter Gillson]

Here are a few photos of the tanks - ready for painting:

One wading Sherman:

Second Sherman , the one to be half buried in the sand:

Milicaste Sherman dd:

Second sherman DD - converted from an Airfix kit;

when I built the half-sunk Sherman I decided not to add the tracks, instead I used one of the long lengths to build this ...

... a gadget I will use to mark out tank tracks in the sand.

I am now off to power up my airbrush ...

Peter

[Jim R]

Very nice indeed. Love all your scratching work. Clever track marker.

[JR]

Slight change today - I put aside the Milicast Sherman and decided to work on the Airfix sherman on to which I am going to add the deep wading trunking.

Finding any scale drawings proved more difficult than I expected; i had resigned myself to having to scale some off of photos but fortunately a search of the WWW located a photo of the etched brass trunking for a 1/35 kit. i took a screenshot of this, saved it and inserted the photo into a Word document. This photo was then reduced in size until it was about 1/72 scale. I printed it and by comparing the print to the Airfix kit i established it needed slight tweaking. Just ot be sure i produced 4 very slightly different sizes:

[ATTACH]511096[/ATTACH]
Having decided which was the one to use i cut out the whole photo and stuck it to a piece of thin plastic and started cutting out the actual shapes.

the next stage went all wrong - the bits were far too fiddly, would not stay square; a bit if a mess so I: gave up and ordered two Unimodel Kits:


[ATTACH]511097[/ATTACH]

hopefully they will arrive next week.

Thats a great shame Peter, I was just thinking how clever that was.

[JR]

Looking good now you have those Airfix wading kits on. Such a pity the resin kit was so poor.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Coming along nicely Peter

[Tworrs]

I'm in awe of your mind Peter, it comes up with the most amazing things.

[Peter Gillson]

Thaks guys for the support.

a bit more progress - the 4 tanks are (almost) finished, as you can see from these photos:

the wading tanks are finished:


the Milicaste Sherman DD is finished apart from painting the gun cover, the converted Airfix Sherman DD needs a little painting on the inside and then the screen to be fitted in place, once fitted i can add all of the little struts. On both of the tanks( had to add thecommander'viewing platformfrom which he would steer the tank while at sea.



I have started the two landing craft. The gunner figures with the Higgins Boat are really bad, the ones with the Dragon lcm(3) are better but just standing upright - they do not look like they are actually firing their machine guns. So I am converting acouple of the infantry figures from Eurikaminiatures. Here they are withlife-jackets added from putty. Their arms will be positioned when they are placed on the LCM. The two Dragon figures will be used to replace the 2 in the Higgins boat.


next - painting 2 landing craft.

Peter

[Guest]

Looking very good, though one small thing: if I were you, I’d remove those star-in-circle decals from the two tanks with deep-wading gear, if you still can. Only the star on top of the vehicle was supposed to have a circle around it, like on your DDs. The usual spot for this star was either the engine deck (again, like on the DDs) or the roof of the turret. This was also usually the only star actually left on the tanks after some combat experience, because the ones on the hull side and turret were too visible, but the one on top was vital to (hopefully) prevent being attacked by Allied fighter-bombers.

[Peter Gillson]

Itseems like sges since I have been able to work on this but other projects (garden) and over the weekend i returned to this to 'play' with the layout Finally deciding on this layout:


if you can remember back to when I last posted there is one major change to the composition ; gone is the Airfix Sherman i converted into a DD with the screen up. The slope of the beach is very gentle and for the tank to still have its screen up it would have been much further away from the beach and a 6 foot long diorama is not going to happen! Using some old, off-cuts of plywood I have raised the levels so the landingcraft can be embedded - easier that cutting them into waterline versions.

With the minor destraction of yesterday's Royal visit* over and I have had a chence to progress this a bit further by using PVA glue to fix some very fine, sifted sand onto the beach area:


When this has dried I will start to add the sea using filler. If you look carefully at the very right there is a little batton of plywood, there is a similar one on the underside at the left edge. The wooden base will slope, reflecting the slope of the beach so the sea can be level.

*royal visit. Yesterday the King and Queen visited Guernsey, I'm notsure about other places but the visit of the Monach is a major ecent, one which results in a one-off Public Holiday to celebrate. If anybody happens to also keep goats as a hobby, and happens to have a one ofr the Golden Guernsey breed, they now have a roaysl goat since King Charles has awarded the breed royal status, the breed is now the Royal Guernsey Golden.

this is all ok but 'what's happened to the Sherman DD?" i hear you asking. This is what is happening to it:



the DD will be despayed on its own in the sea. The idea behind the depth of the box is to help convey the idea of it be floating in deep water.

Peter

[scottie3158]

Peter,
Looking really good mate. Great idea with the track for making out.

[Peter Gillson]

In my last post I mentioned a garden project I had just finished, well here it is; two new runs for our two tortoises:

There were three raised beds have been replaced by the two runs - each about 2m x 7m.

Peter