Note: Title by straffinrun
Landscapes: They work like this, everything gets thrown out. You get all your men ready, lay out your guns, and then look at YT or Google images. Oh My. Even though the distance from the beach to the cliffs was only 35-50 yards, the Higgins drivers dropped the doors sometimes 500 hundred yards from the surf line, dumping men into 8 feet of water with 120 lb packs and gear; many drowned. Many who didn’t were killed by MG 42s coming from the cliffs above. Some, enough, made it to poor defensive positions. That’s where we are.
I saw that a 20”x 30” diorama wasn’t going to work. So I bought a 4’x8’x 2” piece of foam board, and cut it to 24” x 60” which is 120 yards scale, enough for the Higgins Boats, sunken Sherman Tanks, a good long field of fire, and some good Atlantic wall stuff.
Water is Tough to Model: You see, to make water work, you need to paint depth gradients, and carve out pits to install the boats, tanks, etc. at various depths, then pour ⅛” deep at a time. To get the proper effect, I did a practice run, and the results were good.
The Base: I’m building my own “Atlantic Wall”, the online offerings are slim and everything I find, I can do better. I noticed my acrylic duct sealer finishes in a nice shade of grey, so I’ll try it for the base of the Landscape. I get to model mortar hits, on land and water, gunfire and 88 shells. This might be awesome. No, this is becoming awesome!
Sand: It isn’t flat is it? I’m working with duct sealer to get an undulating, but still low sandy shore look, and then it will be mostly covered with a fine railroad ballast to make the sand.
Then things changed, I decided the cliff was too tall/cumbersome, so I tossed it aside and built a lower bluff instead, one I can integrate into my Atlantic wall.
So far I have had to learn:
Blood in water;
Water;
Craters and explosions;
Bunkers and cliffs;
Sand dunes.
I’m sure I’m not done learning.
The Men: Are a Pain in the Ass! They are too small for my old eyes, and I don’t own an electron microscope, so the level of detail is a bummer compared to 1/35 scale. However, the action precludes the detail so it’s cool. I finally found a skin tone that works so I don’t have to mix batches anymore, still a long way to go…….
36 faces, 36 minutes, and they all will become casualties.
Awesome. So cool.
DP 1030 mastic?
Fun to watch this coming together. No offense to the men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion with that title. BTW, small “s” for my handle. It’s in homage to ee cummings.
It’s in homage to ee cummings
I would have guessed Archy.
What’s “Archy”? Archie the comic book?
He was cockroach that wrote poems on Don Marquis’s typewriter (when the columnist would leave a sheet of paper in the machine that is) Since he typed by hurling himself unto the keys it was impossible for him to capitalize.
Ha! I guess I was wrong about Hihn being a cockroach. BULLY.
“It’s in homage to ee cummings.”
..these euphemisms are getting more abstract
The Enormous Room is a methaphor, not a euphemism. Throw you in prison for what I said.
Fuck. You can google it. Interesting story and similar to what Dostoyevsky went through.
I was watching some videos on Water and noticed what time it is! Greetings all!
@ Sean, it’s 1010, but yes, it has served me well on this project. I’m at the Drydex spackle stage right now, and prepping for the water pours, a lot of things need to happen at once, so it takes some planning,
Very very nice work, Yusef.
Carrying over from last thread: You asked me something last night and I’ve been mulling it over as best I understand.
If you want perfect accuracy, you will have to find books on warfare and specifically, that particular battle. Someone has probably answered those questions somewhere.
Let me know if I misunderstood you and I’ll try to give you a better answer.
I’m quite the WW2 Buff, always have been, But my point goes more to the scale. In 1/35 the men are 2 1/2 inches tall, and you can get great levels of detail, so your Diorama is capable of detailed, one on one, small squad actions. In 1/72 scale, the details become different, the Men are 1 inch tall, so less individual detail, but a Monster level oF Strategic detail, that’s very possible. I’m much farther along at this time, and the next post will show some of that “big Picture Detail,
Thanks MO!
I wargame in 1/72 or 20mm scale. Currently painting a platoon that’s part of a Stryker brigade for my Force on Force campaign.
1/72 seems right for table Wargaming, you can do more in less space, or go all out giant battle style,
coolio HM!
15mm, 20mm, and 25mm tend to be the most popular for squad based skirmish games. Though many “epic” scale games use 6mm.
They’re going to fight these guys:
I wish I had the eyes to do that, Great work!
Taliban?
Yep. Taliban.
Thanks!
I obviously didn’t read it right, then. 😛
Your work is incredible.
” 1/35 the men are 2 1/2 inches tall ”
why is that ?
Sorry, 1/35 scale
My first Diorama was 1/35, this one is 1/72
I’m missing something. 35 x 2 is all over 70″ or 5’10 which, if anything, is above average.
I was trying to figure out what the extra 0.500 went for.
I’ll start drinking and see if I can fix my thinking.
In 1/35 scale 3/8ths of an inch equals a foot.
Is a perfect conversion that important to you?
Keep to the scale you are working on and forget the details like that.
If you attempt perfection, you will never finish……..
I’m just saying what the ratio is. To answer Don’s question, the average toy solider was traditionally modeled at 6 feet. At 1/35 scale, 6 feet is around 55mm or around 2 and 1/4 inches.
OK, a 1/4″ ain’t bad, and i have a conversion app so I build building to scale, so it works out fine.
I have to watch for buying kits in 1/76 scale, they are out there
Love everything you boys do and write, but, crissakes: 2.0000 is the closest thing there is to “almost six foot” divided by 35….who goes looking for extry quarters and halves after that?
I don’t need help with the math: I sketch out factories and semi trucks on the back of napkins that are scary accurate all day. That’s the problem: I can’t turn that part of my brain off, so I was really really looking forward to some artistic, historic cool weirdo contrarian whoddathunkit explanation.
love, Don
@ Don, Show your Work Please!
@Don. You’re right. I had a brainfart. I was thinking of 1/32 scale, which is another very common scale for military modeling.
Because real men are 7′ 3 ½” duh.
I enjoy Y’alluns steering away from the actual point, LEVEL OF DETAIL……
Just ball busting Yufus. I’m no dioramaer-ist but I think you may be overthinking the scale vs detail bit a bit. It’s your thing, afterall, do what you wanna do. You may not be able to represent the detail you want at that scale but you can still envision it, and I’d wager even if you can’t tuck a visible Ace of clubs into that one guy’s helmet you can still imagine he’s a card sharp from Brooklyn who while acting tuff is actually scared as shit, and that your overall feel for the diorama will be the better for it. Then again I’ve been drinking since 3:45 eastern time so take that as you will.
Best. Advice. Ever.
Will Do! Thanks for the Mental tip, Both of you!
Bonus points for writing “card sharp” instead of “card shark”
Real silly men.
They could just stand, hold their hands over their hearts, and sing this song.
That would be a.) more badass and b.) more historical.
About a decade ago I went to a public special needs school as a volunteer. A couple times a month I’d go so the staff and principal knew me. I walked up to the school and a bunch of teachers were protesting outside the gate while the administrators we gathered inside the gates. Both sides were motioning me to come join them. I didn’t know WTF was going on, so I just walked into the school. Find out later that the teachers were protesting be forced to sing Kimigayo. Many teachers are supporters of the communist party here and the administrators are government hacks. One of those situations where you hate everyone involved.
Why would they think you had any dog in the fight?
I assume the teachers thought it would be cool to have some diversity in their protest. The admins were just being the control freaks they usually are.
…Until the pebbles
Grow into boulders
Lush with moss
had to google WTF you were on about , and I’m not up on any controversy but that’s a kick ass anthem, the ‘Poetic English translation’ version both sucks and blows. f’ing round eye’s gotta fuck everything up.
Along those lines, unless you’re striving for historical accuracy for a specific group at a specific time, and I mean forensic testimony accuracy, bear in mind that the landing itself was pretty chaotic. The landing boats came in at low tide, and so some ran aground on sandbars they would’ve cleared closer to high tide; there’s your Higgins boats dumping guys into 8′ of water. It was windy as hell, which blew the landing ships off course. Omaha especially was just chaos. There were amphibious tanks that were dropped off for support, but because the seas were rough most of them flooded and capsized. So, I guess what I’m saying is that if you get the general idea right I doubt anyone who was actually there would have a better idea of where everyone else was at the time.
BINGO! Chaos was the order of the day
“Water is Tough to Model: You see, to make water work, you need to paint depth gradients, and carve out pits to install the boats, tanks, etc. at various depths, then pour ⅛” deep at a time. To get the proper effect, I did a practice run, and the results were good.”
An impressive effort.
that was one drop of Red food coloring, and way too much IMO,so I’m going to Slice a drop into smaller drops and maybe use a very mild Grey tint right on the surfline.
I like the way it Refracts the I beam…..
Good work, Yufus!
Tall (24 oz) CANS !
Sup Tres!
I’m headed to Arizona Tomorrow for the Weekend, and I’m importing my own beer,
Tall (25 Oz.) Cans!
Because these go to 11
“Alex Jones is…the Doomguy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Snw6qjlPSE
“Water is Tough to Model”
The insurmountable artistic height I know anything about is cat taxidermy. Bobcats, cougars: there is zero chance to get the form “ripped” and the pelt attached in such a way as to pay the remoted tribute to a cat’s muscularity. A mounted cat’s body seems always wrong, and the face is comical. I know good work and have seen ever color of fish replicated, birds alive in flight, and bucks that that look ready to rut. The best cat mount I ever saw looked like a seventh grade science project.
That’s a Shame, such Majestic animals, ya know?
Felines are just a bridge too far for that artform.
I worked in a taxidermy shop when I was a kid; knife men run on my father’s side, and it was piece work so I could fairly triple the minimum wage. Mostly I caped deer: they’re just stupid forest cows, so that struck me as mere butchery. Some guys would bring in bobcats and otters; I wouldn’t touch them: the pointlessness of shooting a rare carnivore you have no intention of eating still eludes me.
Nice work Yusef! It’s really interesting to see this coming together.
You inspired me SSD. I cut the cord today.
Nice! I hope Directv didn’t make it too painful.
Nope. Customer service was very nice.
I came very close today, when I discovered that Serie A has moved to ESPN+. And yes, the thought of dealing with Spectrum for hours to get it done is very off-putting.
Thank you, I wanted to show how it gets done, messes and all, if you want to see some great Work, check out this Guy, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_aro8CTHw7ZD5H661hC6Q
I have learned tons of new techniques from him, even though he’s a tabletop wargaming Guy
“the landing itself was pretty chaotic”
I’m a harsh critic of corporate management (well, everything, really), and I’m found of saying that “management” is a buzzword/concept where the thing itself doesn’t exist. I also like to say that
“DDay was the last time something came off remotely as it was planned so long as you’re okay with it taking a year, costing a billion bucks, and 3,000 guys got killed.” Since then, management has gone decidedly downhill.
I also liked to note after any of First Wife’s many epic forced-attendance weekend in-law extravaganzas: if her sisters had been in charge of DDay, we’d be having this conversation in Deutsch.
Well, anyone who’s seen a sailboat race (or backed a boat into a slip at a crowded marina) knows how difficult it is to get multiple boats to get to a specific place at the same time in something like a set order. And those Higgins boats were barely seaworthy, IMO. The draft is too shallow for any kind of real weather and those big, flat sides are just begging for wind to blow the boat around. In calm weather they were probably fantastic, but as soon as you get any kind of weather you’re gonna be all over the place.
Same with the Floating Shermans, they tested them in a lake near Chicago under ideal conditions, then set them off in a 4-6 foot swell, I’ll have something to show in that regard.
I mean, it’s not like they couldn’t have asked Spain about how easy it is to get a fleet across the English Channel.
Yeah, I’ve been pondering the Louisiana Maneuvers from the cusp of U.S. involvement in WWII. These days, you get one brigade (and not even a full one most likely) in a training box, and also they aren’t really training to run tactics, techniques and procedures (the infamous TTP) let alone, dear god – doctrine. They’re probably also saddled with at least one operational test for gear that they are barely trained on (if at all) and probably an “excursion” or two for something that isn’t even close to being field ready.
And the last real, major U.S. wargame was Millennium Challenge, the farce that Van Riper demolished – that was almost 20 years ago.
We get in a real fight and we’re might be pretty good for the first couple of weeks (if we’re lucky), and then shit will roll downhill.
Over on Volokh there was some talk about Space Force bending Constitutional limits, which of course harks back to the split of Air Force from Army. We desperately need to rethink both the 1947 Natl Security Act and Goldwater-Nichols. Not that that is going to happen; that would require a modicum of focus and patience to work through a lot of details – and our M.O. these days is 24 hour news and 280 characters. We are so fucked, and it is our own doing.
Yes we are, on D-Day, it was known that it would be a slaughterhouse, Ike already drew up his resignation papers in case of failure, We did that after 3 years of total war.
Today I think we are truly a paper Tiger, we look good, on paper…
The alternative is that the initial plan goes tits up depending what sort of force it is, but the individual units, etc pull through a solid win due to the massive investments we’ve continued to put into small unit leadership, NCO corps, etc.
The more training I have to do on the “planning process” now that I’m at staff – the more I like the idea of screw micromanaging – tell the subordinate unit what you want them to do and when it needs to be done by and let them surprise you.
You have way, way, way more patience than I do.
As long as we’re talking about making things.
https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1030082755671949312
You’re ready to propose, aren’t you?
I think she’s got a white guy over there already (hence all the freaking out about relationship questions from vice news, etc).
One of those dudes in the Signal Corps with a field telephone on his back is my grandfather.
My old man was Signal Corps as well but served in ostensibly quieter times.
Well you are a Mulatto……
No American Blacks fought on D-Day, they weren’t allowed, and i’m sure some wanted to, they got to drive trucks and clean out Dead troops from Sherman tanks.
Only later did they enter combat, with great honors BTW
Yes, this my mom’s dad. Landed on D-Day and went all the way to V-E Day. Was on a boat in the middle of the Pacific on V-J Day. Had things turned out differently, he would have been storming the beaches of Japan as part of Operation Downfall.
~S~!! My grand father was 17 years old at Pearl harbor, still Alive too, the old fucker….
Sadly, my maternal grandfather died when he was 32 from kidney cancer, so I never knew him. Going through my grandma’s stuff one day, I came across a typewritten history of his company, which tracked them from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge. It was awesome.
I’m kind of basing this off of a story of a Company that was wiped out, almost to the man, I read over at RCH
Red Tails were in the game earlier, I believe. If memory serves, they were extremely popular among the bomber squadrons.
Them and a few small recce companies of experimental Darkies in the Army, who of course kicked major ass
One of my grandpas was on the USS Augusta. Joined the Navy pre-WWII (decided not to be a potato farmer in Idaho), ended up retiring sometime afterwards. Was stationed at Pearl Harbor but was sent to a school just before Dec 7. Glad he was, otherwise who knows if I’d be here today.
One of my uncle’s was in the signal corp. He got to meet the Russians at the Elbe.
Another uncle was not at D-Day but fought in the bocage. My dad says he had a hard time with it. Wouldn’r talk much but it had to do with a Sherman tank running over some of their own guys
My Bocage Diorama is an Homage to your Uncle,
https://goo.gl/photos/XErrFMatDRwmj8bQA
You even have a bunch of guys around a Sherman in that one. Third uncle was a captain on a submarine net tender and the fourth was an armorer on medium bombers in the Air Corp, so you have your work cut out for you, lol.
Yusef, you (and HM) amaze me. I do not have the patience or attention to detail necessary for such a cool hobby.
Trim carpentry is my outer limit.
Looking forward to the rest!
Honestly, I’m looking at the better part of a year to finish, because details do matter,
I hate trim Carpentry, Good on ya tundra!
I dunno about that. I bet a diorama of the Hansen brother’s first game would hold your patience.
I just couldn’t get the bloody ice right.
Ahh, the Hanson Brothers.
To be honest, I don’t think I’m very good. There are some amazing miniature painters out there. A college buddy could paint irises on these guys’ eyes. He was that insane.
that’s where i draw the line, Detail= scale to me, I really don’t like the scale I’m working with, 1/35 I can do some cool things with. OTOH it would cost me 3 times as much..
Isnt it more insane to expect them to have properly painted irises ?
I like it, notice it’s hard to find places for more than about 7 colors of paint? That’s one of my peeves about 1/72
So, what do you do with the diorama when you are done? Store it, display it or blow it up with some binary compound?
Yes……
We stored the old one in Boxes and put the Boards in the Warehouse, this one will get the same treatment.
If I score my AZ house, I will set them all up and leave em there til I die…
Hopefully AZ works out for you.
We are going exploring this weekend while seeing The G kids, Thanks for the encouragement,
McCain should be dead soon. Not that his corpse wont still be voting in the senate; I mean RBG is still on the bench. But you have that going for you.
Good luck- there’s always a room for you in Ohio
*SLD- Ill send you to JB’s house
I did Snow in Colorado for 3 years, I don’t do snow……
Unless it’s driving up to the Socal Mountains on a beautiful 70 degree winter day,where I can snowboard in shorts
I wish I could’ve made it down near you this trip, but I only got as far south as San Jose. I’ve never been to SoCal before.
Snow out there isnt Midwest snow, as Im sure most of the Glibs will co-sign on. Mountain snow is all light, puffy, and powdery, and you can hear the soundtrack to “Sound Of Music” when it covers you.
Midwest snow is wet, heavy, damp, cold….and you hear something more like Yngwie Malmsteen .
Other than the Bullshit of living here, Socal is the Best place on Earth, to bad the Commies have destroyed it….
I’m fascinated by this project. If I had any talent at all, I’d try to do up the first battle of bull run since we live down the road from the battlefield. I just don’t have the fine motor skills to make it look good.
That would be Cool and easy, 2 colors for the troops, no camo….
Just finished part 6 of this podcast on bull run. Wish I had better knowledge of the geography there so I could visualize it more accurately.
https://mises.org/library/first-battle-bull-run-part-1-hoke’s-run
Some regular here lives there….Manasses. I’ve seen it mentioned generally…not the battle site which I’m told is all townhouses.
I don’t wanna visualize the battle of man asses.
I’d be happy to snap a few pics next time I’m over there.
There are a few pics in this article, but they’re not very descriptive.
I’ll have to get my atlas out and do a few annotated side by sides.
You might like this, it has topographical maps of the battle, along with more than the usual recitation of the events.
https://history.army.mil/html/books/035/35-2-1/cmhPub_35-2-1.pdf
Lots of WTF to choose from but Christ, what an asshole.
You can judge a society by how often it tazes geezers with dementia.
Continuing with my rare music linky madness, from the same 80s:
Fine, Fine Day
I remembered the Name, Great Song!
thanks!
I can’t be the only one who saw the newspaper at the begin of the beginning of the video and thought “You fargin’ iceholes!”
Fargin war
WAR, What is it Good For?
Building Dioramas!
/Good God Y’all
Good.
This farce should have been nipped long ago and the adults involving in perpetrating it should be curb stomped.
Can I join the lawsuit as a plaintiff representing “the entire United States population except for the shit weasels involved in this lawsuit”, then file for dismissal of the case?
Thanks!
I’d appreciate it if you would.
Uhhhhhh
For my Latin class this year, I had all my students paint pretty sizeable armies of Romans and Gauls and had them recreate Caesar’s campaigns for a break from translating the Latin.
Coincidentally I also won teacher of the year haha kids can be bought, it would seem.
I’d rather be translating Latin 🙂
The Zen of painting Army Men, coming soon from Best seller Yusef the Psycho
I’m a language nut so translating Latin is actually fun for me. We all have our hobbies 🙂
Agreed, I’m on the road from here til Monday,Have a Great Weekend, and Thanks for all the kind Comments!
Cheers
Greek would be okay, too.
More spank material for Bob “I love
taxes‘user fees'” Poole.Was on the beach today, so still catching up.
Is it Hat or Hair that’s the retard? Or Trump freelancing? Hopefully Sessions listens to the “suggestion” just as seriously as he does everything else Trump has requested. Hah! Who am I kidding? Sessions would never let an opportunity like this to let his get those evil addicts flag fly.
Uh, whisky talking. Sessions would never *miss an opportunity like this.