La Réale de France

 Heller's 1:75 scale galley. Plastic kit, I replaced the kit sails with cloth ones, and used wooden deck planking and wooden masts in lieu of the kit parts. This dates to around 2000. Bottom pic shows it in our house now.

                                       

Britannia

1/64 scale by Mamoli, my first wooden kit.  Built in 1993 I think, still looks good in this current photo.

1/35 Panzer IV

 Tamiya kit, along with the Panzergrenadier figure set.  My second diorama, 1976 I think. Many times busted up, many times repaired. Still have it, still wears well. The fuel trailer was my first shot at scratchbuilding.

Nashorn

 This is DML's notorious 1992 first edition Nashorn somewhere in Russia... you pick the locale. The dio dates back to 1995 or so.

Way back in the early 1970s I was introduced to the Nashorn by the wargame "Panzerblitz". Soon after, I bought Squadron's "Nashorn, Hummel, Brummbaer in Action" which served as my reference on this project. My favorite photo therein shows a man on horseback hand-delivering a message to a Nashorn commander. 25 years went by, and then I bought this kit. I still liked the message idea, but didn't go for the horse, which would seem odd in the winter scene I was planning. I really enjoy winter whitewash schemes, and the slab-sided Nashorn is the perfect subject. So the horse and rider were out.

I had recently bought DML's Ski Troops, and expected to use one of the skiers as the messenger. But I decided the walking figure carrying his poles and skis would work better than a figure in the process of skiing. I wanted to get a good eye-to-eye relationship between the crewman and the skier, and besides, the ski gear was more interesting up on a shoulder than on the ground. The document he's handing over was drawn in Autocad, using a German blackletter font. Seen close up it's recognizable as German.

I had also been thinking for a few years about showing the clutter of discarded ammunition, but had not found the occasion to make such a mess. In this dio, having all the used casings and empty crates flung out the back of the Nashorn encourages the messenger to take off his skis. My casual research showed Nashorn ammo packed in metal tubes, but I really liked these wooden crates for their character. And if you do the math, I'm short quite a few shells, but they cost a buck each; so I made do with 6.

The diorama base is Styrofoam topped with painted Celluclay. While damp, the 'clay was covered with soupy baking soda. For some reason, baking soda put down like this heaves up and down as it dries, leaving a final irregular surface, even if it started out smooth. The soda also yellowed a bit, pulling some tint out of the Celluclay, I think. I then sprinkled enough dry baking soda to cover most, but not all, of the dull off-white crust.

The figures are from Tamiya's Flak Crew, and DML's Assault Gun Crew, German Snipers, and Ski Troops. They're pretty near stock. Except for the scissor telescope, the Nashorn's stock too, inaccuracies and all.

Other than the whitewashing, no special techniques were involved in finishing the Nashorn. First, I airbrushed Testor's Model Master Enamels in a 3-color scheme....nothing special there. Then I painted on the German crosses, using paper stencils also drawn in Autocad. Next I used an old, stiff brush to scrub on el cheapo craft-store acrylic white paint. I gave the paint a few minutes to dry, and then began to scrub it off with a wet toothbrush. The results vary with the wetness of the brush, how hard I scrub, and how dry the paint is. If too much white comes off, I put more paint on the bare spot, and come back to it in a few minutes. I have also used toothpaste on my finger to wear whitewash off on other models. The effect is not the same as with the toothbrush, so you may want to experiment.

MiG-3

1/32 Trumpeter MiG-3, March 1942. First time doing winter whitewash with whitewash paint, i.e. non-acrylic, non-enamel, non-latex water-based paint. Bought it in the kiddie-art section of the local store. Most of the weathering-off of the white was done with my fingers. Very therapeutic. I haven't seen a MiG-3 with topside stars on the wings; but I like red stars, so there they are. I recently picked up some EZ line for the antenna wire, plan to add that next time I take this down from the wall.

For those who simply must know more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distemper_(paint)

P-38 Lightning

"During a sweep over France on 18 August, 12 Mustangs of No. 315 (Polish) engaged 60 German fighters of JG2 and JG26, which was in the process of taking off and landing near Beauvais, France. In the ensuing battle, the squadron was credited with 16 victories, 1 probable and 3 damaged for the loss of one pilot, Squadron Leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski. Conversely, German claims were that 12 aircraft had been lost and that they had themselves shot down 6 aircraft (one of which was claimed to be a Lockheed P-38 Lightning)." -Wiki

This old Revell 1/48 kit (1964) came with Richard Bong decals, but I wanted to do invasion stripes. I applied nose markings which I had lying around from the aforementioned Polish RAF unit. Voila, instant mysterious Polish Bong-doppelganger that was downed in France.

Left off the usual bits, e.g., Pitot tube, antenna, prop-blade decals, stencils, mass weights on the elevator. Put the front landing gear on backwards with crazyglue, decided to leave it as is. I think the standard invasion stripes look too wide on P-38s, so these are about 15% narrower than spec. I didn't want the white stripes butting against the bare metal surfaces, so I reversed the colors as well.

Tiger I

Tamiya's ancient 1/35 scaleTiger I. Vegetation is pampas grass stuck into holes drilled thru homemade spraycan-painted celluclay on plywood. I have a deep bookcase now, so was able to have a relatively big base to get the 'endless steppe' vibe I like so much. Back in the 70s I did my first pampas grass dio, and dutifully crushed the stalks the tank treads would have crushed. So ugly. I'll never do that again. Mural courtesy of my wife. What else...tank is assorted washes of craftstore acrylics including 4 shades of green, 3 shades of brown, 2 of yellow. Tow cables are the original soft plastic endpieces cut off and drilled out, with picture-hanging wire crazyglued into them. Minimal weather with oils and a pencil. Used the Tamiya zimmerit rakes for the first time. I trust they are to scale, but my old eyes need reading glasses to see the resulting texture. I know, men pointing in dioramas is corny, but I love that DML-Dragon cavalryman, so sue me.