i asked for for a little help on the forum before Christmas about Lodestar III in the museum at Brussels. Sadly, as my model was a present for my father at Christmas, I ran out of time with the project and finally had to finish the tank as Hyacinth as per the Tamiya decals. I thought I would show you all the finished article and the diorama I put it in. I realise it is a little contrived, showing a range of different periods of equipment but that was the intention. The piece is intended to show off all these things for interests sake alone, as a showcase of just some of the equipment used in the Great War. Anyway, enough design philosophy, here we go!
The Tamiya kit was great fun to build. I Know that the motorisation of this kit is a little controversial but I enjoyed making it work. I am a railway modeller by natural habitat so I guess it was natural to me to do this. I will admit to playing with it a little bit when I got it working. Ok! I played with it quite a lot! It was fun though and it's surprising how the duvet on the bed can become a substitute for the Western front in 1:35 scale in the window of the mind! I was stopped by Mrs Castle adding the mud to this to further my experimentation however. I can't think why... The tank was built exactly as per the kit, painted with Tamiya Acrylics and weathered using my usual mix of Games Workshop washes and Tamiya weathering powders / Humbrol Matt acrylic spray. I cheated a bit and simply covered the errant hatches in the stores rack at the back by filling it full of stuff! Lazy but effective...
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Once built I figured that having gone that far, I really ought to put it on a diorama. And if you knew the way my mind works, you just know things are going to get out of hand from here on in! Wanting to display it in an appropriate environment, I sent off to the reenactment people Tommy's Pack Fillers (they were very helpful to this WWI novice!) for a set of plans to make a replica of a Mills Bomb (grenade) crate. Having built a metric timber version with the front and lid cut out, a plan to fill it emerged.
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The scenery was a combination of a few packs of Tamiya brick wall kits, a Mini Art kit for a fan cobbled street (which included a park bench, bollards, wrought iron railings and some drain covers), some balsa wood for the large farm gates and some of the excellent Eduard etched barbed wire. The idea was to create something that looked a bit like a sunken area in a European town square behind the lines where things such as re supply take place. Things were once a pride of a community but they have begun to sink under the weight of wartime austerity and necessity. The upper areas look like a few shells have fallen in the past, blasted trees and the barbed wire in screw pickets hint to this, but this was a while ago a sense of calm has descended, perhaps not permanently though... The gates are scratch built.
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Then I really got carried away! The export version of the tank kit came with a set of british soldiers in heroic poses. Heroic poses aren't much good for behind the lines but I was intrigued by all of the kit on the sprues - a plan became to form... It turns out that ICM produce extra WWI kit in 1:35 scale, Resicast do a nice Vickers Machine Gun and Accurate Armour do the POW tanks that were used to refuel men and machines so I ordered the lot... Here we can see some fabricated Duckboards and on them are a selection of different short magazine Lee Enfield Rifles and associated kit. On the left is the version with the grenade launcher cup and the copper banding to support the barrel when firing this extra large charge. Behind that is the a gas rattle and gas mask packs which were worn on the front of the soldiers uniform. Lying across the duckboard is the standard Lee Enfield with bayonet fixed. Above is a set of magazine pouches, the scabbard for the bayonet, the head of an entrenching tool in an a pouch and an assembled entrenching tool. Scattered around this lot are No. 16 grenades and Mills Bombs. Leaning up on the right is a Lee Enfield fitted with a wire cutting tool.
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In front of the tank is a set of gear for a wiring party. The rolls of barbed wire, wire cutters, axe, shovels and my scratch built wire screw pickets. On the bench we can see Webly pistols for officers and NCOs, ammo pouches for the pistols, canteens, binoculars and cases and caps.
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The Vickers water cooled machine gun is seen here with its POW cans for water and ammunition boxes.
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Here are the Lewis air cooled machine guns (same as in the tank) and ammunition drums in pouches, kit bags and so on. On the Lewis gun case is the Ross Mk. III with its bayonet and a bandolier.
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Here are a few pictures just to show the complete diorama as finished.
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Well, there we are - my first effort in the world of both military modelling and WWI subjects. It has turned out to not be my last however... More of that later!
Hello
This is a lovely model.I enjoy looking at the detail !
And really good use / presentation of the kits from different manufacturers !
Congratulations !
Olivier
Thanks for the compliments! The idea of putting the model in a box is an offshoot of the railway modelling thing. There are some really great examples of this sort of thing where layouts are put in a box type structure. A guy called Iain Rice has written extensively on the subject and has released several book on this approach to layout construction. A lot of it is based loosely on theatre design with the scene extending beyond the limits of a sort of proscenium style arch arch which 'frames' the scene. This gives the impression of the scene extending beyond the limits of the container and also restricting the view to what the modeller wants the viewer to see. I hope this helps!
Well, I Â did promise a return to form and here we are! This is actually the third WWI diorama I have done but only the second posted. I have done an educational piece for my Mum (yes, you read that right - she and an ex colleague from the school they worked at pre retirement at are just starting up doing a touring WWI experience for school children!) which shows various features of a trench as a sort of cross section but that had to go before I got decent pictures as it was needed but I will catch up with it soon!
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This one was a sort of response to seeing the excellent set by Master Box called "British & German Soldiers, Somme Battle, 1916". This is based of a famous photograph of German prisoners and their British escort and I felt it was the sort of thing that needed a Castle style diorama! So, having bought the set, what to put it in? I decided that some sort of lamp type display was a good idea. This one is not an accurate WWI prop on the outside but it was a good, well made candle lamp that was cheap and readily available from a local TK MAX store that is one of my haunts wen looking for model displays. It might not seem sensible but look at it this way, it's a good quality pre built wooden, 4 sided glass display case that just needs a lid and the candle holder removing from it for much less than £10. How much is a purpose built display case? I have access to a 30W laser cutter from time to time, so cutting the custom lid (which has a ring of LEDs in it) and the back panel with the dimmer and on/off switch in brown 3mm acrylic was simple to do. Brass slotted machine screws were sourced from Eileen's Emporium and the countersunk screws came from a local hardware store. Guess who couldn't count to 12 when ordering the screws? 2 more are on the way... D'oh! The electronics came from both RS Components and Maplins.
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From the front you can see the basic idea. The display block and back panel are all made from black 5mm thick foam board from Hobbycraft (other suppliers available!) and the main block is coated with the Tamiya diorama mud material. I did intend to just leave it black but I then spilt a little of the stuff on there, liked the effect and went for it! Some model railway static grass sheet made the grassy bits and the same jig I made to make the screw pickets in the tank diorama was used along with some off cuts of the Eduard barbed wire were Employed around the base As further enhancement.
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On the diorama itself it is almost pure Master Box with one or two additions from the ICM equipment set as they were already painted and I am quite a lazy modeller! The dimmer means that all sorts of lighting effects can be achieved so here is a couple of examples! The original image was grabbed from the internet and placed behind it and the background to this is a photograph of an original Somme battle map also artfully borrowed from your friendly local Google Images search!
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Well, there we are, another Castle mash up of another otherwise perfectly good kit!
For your first WW1 diorama I would say that I will be waiting impatiently for your second
