"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. 

"The Devil´s General" diorama

by Michael Rieß



I was in the mood to build a diorama again. For this project i used the quite new Opel Admiral mod.1937 kit from ICM, a BMW R12 kit from Zvezda and the German Staff figures from Dragon. All kits are very nice and i can recommend them to everyone. All models and figures are painted with acrylic paints from Revell and Lifecolor.

The diorama shows a German General observing the operations of his troops in Russia, 1941.

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.

Zvezda 1/35 BTR 70

Hey

i finished friday my BTR 70 (Zvezda 1:35)

i built the model out of box without any ideal
the tyres have caused me big problems (very bad quality)


I hope you like the model =)

Greetings Tony

Dioramas in progress in 1/35 scale

by Michael Rieß

I want to show you my current diorama projects. The first one will show a combat scene in a ruin in Normandy 1944, including a Panzer IV H from Dragon and several figures from Dragon and Zvezda.
The ruin itself is from Royal Model and consits only of the big walls. I made the details of the interior and the debris by my own.
Destroyed furniture and other belongings to the house will be added on a later stage.

The second one shows a very peaceful scene. A little girl is sitting on a fountain, observed by a small cat.
The fountain is from MK35, the girl figure from Masterbox, the cat from Academy and the fence and the street lamp are from MiniArt. I want to add more details and figures.

Operation Barbarossa diorama 1/35 scale

by Hamilkar Barkas



I had the idea for this diorama several months ago, but it took me quite a while to dispel some problems.
The base is a wooden chopping board. I designed the ground with modelling clay "Fimo air", which is beneficial and easy to use. The grass on the diorama is from Heki, the tree is from Verlinden and the other green stuff is selfmade. I painted the diorama with an airbrush afterwards. The Panzer III F is a Smart Kit from Dragon, the Ba-3 armored truck is from Zvezda. The figures are from Dragon aswell. All small details like the telegraph pole, the little cart and the fence are from Mirage Hobby. I used quite a lot of MIG and Vallejo Pigments for weathering, especially around the wreck to simulate scorch marks.

Me-109F "Black 7"

by Dusan Lekic











Here is my latest build - Me-109F "Black 7" in 1/48th scale by Zvezda.

It is straight from the box with only added seatbelts from Eduard. The model has been painted with Gunze colors.
The markings are from the Eagle Strike "Barbarossa 3", aircraft known to have been flown by

Oblt. Helmut Meckel 2/JG3 (25 air victories).

I found some real interesting pictures about this aircraft and non standard camuflage in this great book "Jagdwaffe

Vol.3/Sec.2 Barbarosa The invasion of Russia Jun-Dec1941" .