The Death of 6th Army in Stalingrad

Well guys. I did it again. Another video of the amazing work done by Paul Keefe. I really have a soft spot for Paul's work because of his ability to tell a story in his dioramas. I just love it and it really makes my job of creating a video very easy. I just have to find some related footage and the video just creates it self. Thanks Paul, for your inspirantial work. I hope everyone enjoy's it as much as I do.

This diorama is called "Death of an Army" and is in 1/48 scale. It was a commision to a private collector and deals with the collapse of the 6th German Army at Stalingrad. I am completely blown away by the level of detail in this piece. The way the snow has been modelled to look like the wind has caught it and blown it across the tank just looks so good.

If you want to see more pictures of the fantastic diorama and check some of Paul's other works out, head on over to his blog through this link. I will promise you he has more goodies in the bag...

-Kasper

Syrian T-62 MBT captured by IDF in East Lebanon 1982

By Francis Lee



Tamiya 1/35 scale T-62A MBT

Video of this diorama

Syrian army lost of T-62 were heavy during wars. The Israelis captured several hundred of these tanks from the Syrians and put them into service. These Israelis troops got a T-62 in good condition during fighting in East Lebanon in 1982.

Russian BT-5 tank & thirsty driver

By Francis Lee


Model:1/35 scale, Zvezda kit of BT-5 & Tamiya kit of Kubelwagen

Diorama:
It was october 1941, a BT-5 Russian tank got lost somewhere near Moscow. The thirsty tank driver looked for water but upset by empty water cans.

VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawO13_k1JI

British 25pdr Gun & Universal Carrier, North Africa

By Francis Lee


1/35 Tamiya Scale Model

This is the first diorama I made in 2012, my computer was broken just before I wanna make the video, I finally upload the video yesterday and I hope you will like it.

These are classic kits of Tamiya, although I wanna buy them since I was a kid, this is the first time I build them.

Video of this diorama

Stug IV Vs T-34. Kirovograd 1943.

By Francis Lee

Models:
Academy Stug IV
Tamiya T-34/85
ESCI figures

Happy New Year to everyone!

During Christmas day, I built up this diorama. Without a heater at home, the recent cold weather of 8-10c in Hong Kong. (It is already COLD temp. here.) it brings me the mood to make a winter snow diorama. I try to call back my feeling of snow which was 2009, december. I was in Rovaniemi, Finland.

Start with layers and layers of toilet paper to create the slopes on a base board, I poured a layer of gesso paste (I brought it at art material shop), after it dry out I sprinkled alot of gypsum power and spreaded it smooth by a tiny tea spoon. Finally I place the tanks and figures there.
I try not to sneeze or I will blow my snow away! Please let me know if you have better way to make it! And I am sure you guys have it!

Beside, I this is my first time to use the Tamiya zimmerit coating applicator, my feeling of it is fine, but I guess a pack of handsaw blades may work the same but cheaper than the Tamiya, and this time I try not to use the epoxy putty to make the zimmerit but using a very common office stationary of "Blu tack" or "Bostik ". They are soft enough for me to apply the texture and it gets harden after I painted on it. Although it wont as hard as putty but it is still OK.


Video of this diorama:

"City of broken glass" diorama

by Michael Rieß

This diorama shows German troops in an occupied Ukrainian city in summer 1941. The tank model is a Panzerkampfwagen Mk IV, 744(e) (A13) from Bronco Models. The kit is quite nice, but some large parts were twisted and it required many nerves to assemble the model. Most parts are very small and thin, so there was always the danger of breaking parts. Usually it takes me 1 week to assemble and paint a 1/35 scale tank, this one took me 4 weeks. Therefore the kit is good for long dark winter evenings, but it is bad if you want a fast result.

The diorama from MiniArt had the usual quality. The details are nice, but the walls of the house have a very bad fit. Thats not a big problem, it is only a matter of filling the gaps. Overall i´m very satisfied with the MiniArt houses, they are beneficial (compared to other house kits) and they offer a large variability.
The soldiers are all from Dragon, taken from different sets and dog is from Tamiya.

I painted the models with acrylic paints from Revell and Lifecolour. Oil paint washes and MIG pigments were used for the weathering.

Tamiya Sd.Kfz. 250/3

by Michael Rieß

This kit from Tamiya was released in 1978. Although it is a good kit, the level of detail and accuracy is not up to date anymore. I added the missing details and corrected the kit as much as possible, using some left over parts from other kits, mainly parts of a Sd. Kfz. 251 from Dragon.

For painting the model i used acrylic paints from Revell. The mud on the running gear was made with MIG pigments and white glue.

Finnish T-55 with Mine Roller

By Francis Lee



Model: (Scale 1/35)
Trumpeter T-55 with KMT-5 anti-mine roller
Tamiya figure.

This is early product of the Trumpeter comapny, the overall tooling is just OK but it is just half of the price of Tamiya T-55, plus it comes with the KMT-5 anti-mine roller as well.

Background:
The Finnish Army used to have some T 54 /55 tanks, few of them remains as a anti-mine tanks, fitted with a wide range of equipment including singular and combined roller and plough type systems mounted on the front of the hull. This KMT-5 roller is a common tool for other countries tanks as well.

Video of this diorama:

Video of the real Finnish T-55 with KMT-5 mine-roller (with other tanks):