Diorama: Tunisia, Feb '43 w/ custom Tiger I!!!

[PanzerArm]

Hey guys, now that I have both my 1/32 s.pz.abt 501 panzers painted and back from Cabe, I had to make a dio to commemorate the occasion!

This dio doesn't depict a specific engagement per se, but it is sometime in early February 1943, somewhere between Bizerte and Kasserine. The Germans have just sighted some Amerikaner and have come to a halt to assess the situation and possibly engage them. Luckily the Luftwaffe was still quite a force in Tunisia at the time or this kind of exposed stop would not have been acceptable!

These first few pics are just of the tiger I recently got back, traveling down a dirt road, representing the actual movement to where the diorama takes place. The black and white ones just were too cool to not do
















Ok, so now to the actual diorama. The lead tank is the Panzer III ausf. N I made and Cabe painted late last year. It is Tank 07 of the 1st Kompanie's leichter zug, or light platoon. This platoon would normally precede the heavy tiger platoons, but perhaps this one has fallen behind due to mechanical issues?

The tiger is tiger 122 of the 2nd Platoon, 1st Kompanie. The only info i have on this tank is that I know it was disabled by mines and AT rounds (from a picture), with both tracks blown and probably drive sprockets ruined. Although I'm not positive, this kind of damage usually meant the end for a tiger, as spare parts were hard to come by in Tunisia, due to the allies control of the Mediteranean. This was usualy accomplished by demolitions.

The infantry are a mix of Oryon 1/35(the ones with the immovable bases ) and 21st Century. They would have been panzer grenadiers of the 15th panzer division, a unit the 501st work with often, and ultimately became attached to in late feb '43. I also would like to bring to your attention the relative air of safety the 4 grenadiers to the rear believe they have behind their tiger, as opposed to the 2 grenadiers behind the panzer III, who have taken to the ditch.

And I like to imagine them spotting some white scout cars off om some distant road, with maybe some Shermans or M3 Lees following behind.

Alright, enough explanation, here are the photos
























































These last couple are just a detail of the engine deck and rear of the Tiger. Enjoy









Hope you all like the dio, it's been something I've wanted to do for quite some time, and i am pretty pleased how it turned out.



-Kevin

[VMF115]

Pretty cool for 1/32

[PanzerArm]

Thanks VMF! I think people in these parts prefer the 1/18 customs and dios, but I just don't have the space for such a large scale


-Kevin

[VMF115]

Thanks VMF! I think people in these parts prefer the 1/18 customs and dios, but I just don't have the space for such a large scale


-Kevin

I bet you would be wrong....how about doing some more 1/32 dios.

[Dauntless]

Very Nice Very Nice!

[Tshintl]

Cool. You may want to consider adding tank track marks on the ground behind the tanks. Those beasts weigh a lot and would definitely leave their foot print.

[ostketten]

Nice work on the dio, looks great. I'm gonna have to check in to those Oryon 1/35 figs, they look pretty darn good, and I've heard you can get them for pretty reasonable prices, especially if you catch em' on sale.

[Col.Pickle]

Awesome! Only thing I could suggest would be to maybe add some more accessories/rubble on the side of the road.... Jerry cans, spent casings and the like.

[PanzerArm]

Thanks for the feedback guys! This is my first dio in a while, so I knew there would be some minor issues, but that's why I posted it, to make the next ones better

Cool. You may want to consider adding tank track marks on the ground behind the tanks. Those beasts weigh a lot and would definitely leave their foot print.

I tried to make some form of "footprint" evident from the tanks on the road, but I think I went about it the wrong way. It happened when i didn't have the right paints available and I had to make the track marks lighter than the road (if you look closely you may be able to see them), which is wrong they, should be darker (didn't have any dark brown paint to make the upturned dirt look). I also wanted to actually use the tracks from the tanks to make an imprint on the plaster underneath the sand, or on the sand itself while it was drying. But, since I don't have some spare action grade tiger or panzer III tracks lying around, the only option was to use the actual tracks on the customs, and I just wasn't into the idea of ruining them. I still may go back and "rough up" the road where the tracks will have gone and then lay down some darker paint on that.

Awesome! Only thing I could suggest would be to maybe add some more accessories/rubble on the side of the road.... Jerry cans, spent casings and the like.

I wanted this scene to portray a temporary halt to investigate an enemy sighting on the horizon, so things like jerry cans and spent shell casings aren't really something that I feel would fit. But more rubble and rocks and even bushes would definitely be something I could see are needed. As you can see from this picture, Tunisia in early spring is quite the green place with lots of foliage, I was just worried about overdoing it in the dio. Note: The color in the photo was re-done, so it is not necessarily accurate.



Here are a few pictures I dug out of my reference file to show you some of the sources i was working with.

The first two are of the actual Tiger "122". One shows it during a halt with lots of stowage and camo. The next one shows it with some battle damage, some from mines and some from AT rounds.





The next one is of the actual Panzer III "07". Again this tank has more stowage and sandbags, something I'm bound to go back and add some sandbags and helmets and such.



The last few are just a series of photos that served as the motivation behind the dio, and also just some looks at what the tanks tread marks would look like on the road, I guess more for my benefit than yours, but I figured I'd add them anyway.












-Kevin

[Cabe]

i paint tanks
and make dioramas
I like it
and women's affections