HM Cutter Alert - Diorama of the Day

"Alert" 1/48 scale scratch build diorama by Kazunobu Shirai.

All men on deck! The HM Cutter is in a very dangerous position in the hard storm and the crew needs to be alert.

I love when model builders are creating a story line in their pieces and this amazing diorama from Kazunobu Shirai is a perfect example of this. Not only is it a stunning model but Kazunobu truly shows he understand the sea and I have received information from a good friend and a professional seaman, that the sea and the ships positioning is very realistic depicted.

The model itself is not less impressive. The HM Cutter is a 1/48 scale model and is completely scratch build and hand crafted. The rigging looks great and the whole model just looks so damn good. Most the figures are converted from Tamiya German soldiers but it really don't show. I will be stopping by his website in the future to see what goes on in Kazunobu Shirai's workshop. If you want to see more of these beautiful ship models, please follow this link...

-Kasper

"Battle of Mylae" 260 B.C. in 1/72 scale

by Michael Rieß



I have depicted a fight between a Carthaginian and a Roman trireme at the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC, in this diorama. Roman soldiers are storming across their boarding bridge (lat. corvus, engl. raven) for a direct assault on the enemy ship. The Battle of Mylae took place in the First Punic War, it ended with a Roman victory.

I used two Trireme kits and several packages of figures from Zvezda for this big project.


The first video is about the construction of the ships and the planning of the diorama. I show you all the different kits and figures I used in the build. I also share some of my knowledge of the ships and their use, in a historic context.

In the second video I give you a close up of the figures.

The third video is about the construction of the diorama. I don't have a lot of experience with water effects and I'm not completely satisfied with the result but I learn by trying and this was a fun project. 

Oh La La - Diorama of the Day

by Kasper Fischer

 This amazing German mini-sub diorama won 1st prize in the ship category and an honour award too. I really like the composition and the many small scenes with-in the diorama. It's an real eye pleaser.

Unfortunately camera wasn't able to pick up the under-water part but I got it on video and if I can get the editor/computer to work I will make a short video of it.

Tirpitz in Faettenfjord - Diorama of the Day

This amazing 'wounded dragon in it's lair' diorama was constructed by Rainer Michalek and posted on modelshipgallery.com. Rainer used the Revell Germany 1/350 scale kit and the diorama depicts Tirpitz, docked in Faettenfjord, Norway(1942) for general maintenance and repair.

-Kasper

Amazing diorama by Rainer Michalek.

The real Tirpitz docked in Faettenfjord.

Hog Islander - Diorama of the Day

by Kasper Fischer

Absolutely amazing! What more can I say? The diorama is in 1/700th scale and all was scratch build by Jim Bauman. It was first posted on Model Ship World and if you visit the site you can see a lot more pictures.

D-Day plus 4 - Diorama of the Day

by Kasper Fischer

This amazing scratch-build 1/72 scale US Coast Guard patrol boat and diorama was created by Michael Maynard and published on modelshipgallery.com. The boat itself is a fantastic model but the diorama really brings it to life. I think it's very interesting to see all the activity on the dockyard and when ever I see work like this, I always start to create a back-story in my head. Maybe the boat was attacked by a 109 in the English channel, trying to pick up a downed pilot. Michael is calling the diorama 'D-Day Plus 4' so maybe it was damaged during the invasion. 

Michael has posted a bunch of close-up pictures on the website so please follow the link and check out all the nice details.

Battleship Yamato - Diorama of the Day

by Kasper Fischer

This amazing and very dynamic diorama of the Japanese WWII battleship Yamato, was made by Uun Bariansyah. Uun is from Jakata and is one of our Facebook buddies and if you are on Facebook you should really visit him and take a look at some of his other work. Amazing stuff.

I have really been looking closely at this one because of the fantastic water effects. The model ship really looks like it's plowing through the heavy sea. I will be trying my hands on some ships in the future but I don't think I will be able to do anything like this. One rule in life though; you'll never know unless you try.

Roman Trireme diorama 1/72 scale

by Michael Rieß

The Roman Trireme kit is from Zvezda ( Trireme of the Roman Emperor #9019). It is quite hard to get one of these kits these days because it is out of production. I bought my kit on ebay for about 40€. The figures are from Orion Haron and Cäsar Miniatures.
The quality of the kit is nice and the details, especially the engravings of the wood structure are excellent. The only weakness are the decals, they don´t dissolute properly and disintegrate very easy.
The kit offers a full hull and a waterline option. I built a similar trireme some years ago in the full hull option, so i decided to build a waterline model this time.

I had some trouble to create the water on the diorama. I used transparent Window Color paste and later on "Water effects" from Busch and Noch. At least it looks like water, but it is hard to create waves, because the paste is very thin fluid. I´m happy with the finished diorama anyway.

Plamo Tsukurou | Battleship Kongō

by Kasper Fischer

Once again it's on. Plamo Tsukurou. All new HD episodes of the fantastic Japanese TV show on model building. I don't understand anything they say but still I feel I can learn from the show and it serves the job of inspiring me good. This modelbuilder makes a fantastic 1/700 diorama of the Japanese battleship Kongō in drydock. Super datailed, with buildings, cars, own railroad and even very very small workers. Very impressive...