Anti-Air Measures - France Fall 1945 - WIP

Neuling
Nice dio! I guess these guys will not have to wait long for the Allied Tiefflieger .......

Bobby Thumbs
amazing work on the forest Mathias - can you give a quick description of the the steps and products you used to achieve such an excellent forest? I have so many questions bro!! - first off the bat is "are they real twigs"?

Mathias Decommere
Thank you Bobby, I should have made more pictures ... damn... Generally its like this: I constructed the base and levels with wood and finished it up with plaster. To construct the rocky part on the rightside of the hill and next to the road I used bark en pushed it in the plaster so only the sidetextrure is visible. Then the road part I did with Polyfilla. I covered up the hill with gluespray and sprinkled sawdust over it. Then I sprayed it with Tamiya canspray green and brown at the same time. For the trees I simply used dried weeds. You can find a lot around railways. The strobberies are painted seafoam. And then I used dried leaves en pinned out mini-leaves with a leaffigurestapler. So in fact they are real. The weeds between the rocks next to the road I cut from a Fennel and dried them. The little strobberies between the trees in the forest are cut from nettles (they grow under the nettleleaves). The moss is lightgreen-painted sawdust and the roadside grass is flax wick. I guess that's about everyting. But feel free to ask specifics. Happy to help!

Neuling
Interesting and helpful! And thanks also for the kind likes, Mathias!

Neil Patrick
Very nice dio! Love it!

Mathias Decommere
O yeah, I forgot: for the ferns, I used fake asparagus. I found them in a flower artwork my wife received from visitors haha. I cut it in mini peaces and glued them on the bottomside of the hill. Timespending work that was... but very satisfying

Bruce Huxtable
Superb work, Mathias, you obviously have a good eye for real nature, as you've achieved it here 🙂 The rusty truck with moss is an eye-catcher too 🙂 I see the bark you mention - very convincing as rock - very creative solution 🙂

Mathias Decommere
Thank you very much. It pleases me a lot to read these comments! I must say I walked the woods of the Ardennes endless times. Every year we go there on holiday and come back home with a lot of photographs and notes haha.

Bobby Thumbs
Thanks for the info mathias

Rui S
Great work, very well done 👍
I guess you need a lot off courage to ""spoil"" the great sd/kfz 11.4 kit 🤔

Alan G
Stunning work Mathias. Love the composition. What did you use for thin trees?

Mathias Decommere
I will add a picture if I find it again during my walks 😉

Alan G
👍

Bobby Thumbs
@Rui S: I know what you mean by spoil, we all want to see a good looking vehicle in action BUT is it really spoilt if Mathias's aim was this rusted beauty? At least he got a lot of spare parts for the next dio

Mathias Decommere
I understand your vision Rui. Honestly, the easy part was that this model was spoilt years ago by accident and the choice was between the bent or somehow make something of it. First idea was to but an abandoned sherman there, but historicly I wasn't convinced of the timeframe. It was more likely that a towtruck was taken out by an airraid and that Germany comes with the anti-air solution. I like it when a project takes a turn after a nignts sleep. I was happy to revive an old model and make it into a eyecatcher.

Mathias Decommere
@ Bobby: thanks to speak in my defence😀

Rui S
Well it seems to me that there is a misunderstanding here.
Maybe I chose the wrong word? I meant maybe damage? but it also seems that you didn't notice that I wrote spoil in quotes " ".
And I also wanted to say that doing this is, IMHO, an act of courage, (nothing negative I think) but of course, when the result is pleasant then even better.
In this case, if the kit was already damaged, then it is not a courage act, but the logical option, combining the useful with the pleasant.
Anyway, a good dio indeed, but also IMHO, (to make another positive critic, if I may?), oddly
it looks like that the Panzer officer isn't too interested to hear whatever the rider has to say? 😉

Mathias Decommere
I know you ment it well Rui. But you gave me to much credit. That's why I wanted to point out that in this case it was an easy choice. If it woudn't have been damaged yet, I wouldn't have had the courage I admit. I'm glad it was still usable for this goal and I am satisfied with the result. I do welcome your comments and positive crtitics. Don't worry about that. The interaction between the panzerofficer and the rider is indeed to be interpreted in different ways. I leave it open to the observer 😉 .

This diorama beïng discussed profoundly makes me happy and eager to start my next project 🙂

Rui S
I look forward to see it coming alive 😎

Mathias Decommere
@ Allan: picture of used trees found in my street added to the fotoalbum

Alan G
Many thanks Mathias 👍

Gary Kitchen
Fabulous dio Mathias. I have Flak Vierling 38 on the bench at the moment and am taking great inspiration from your work.

Mathias Decommere
How nice to hear! I will follow that project with great interest!