Iraqi diorama-River crossing

So I decided to make a diorama based on a large US platoon attempting to capture the other side of a river:

here is the story:
23rd June, August 2003:
An AC-130 is en route to a small US miliatary base just outside a recently captured village. Unfortiantly it was shot down just before it flew over another town.

Two days later a U.S special forces squad was sent into the area, they radiod back saying they had found the C130 and were heading across the bridge to look for hostile activity, They were suppressed by heavy fire and were all killed by Afghan terroist's.

7 days later a platoon of 4 heavily armed Bradley IFV were sent in with a bunch of US troops. They found the crashed plane, yet no-one was shooting at them. However, their orders were to defend the plane until it could be dismantled and took back to the base.

The next morning the platoon were pinned down by by terroist laying heavy fire on them from the other side of the river. One of the tanks got hit by a RPG round and was forced to be abandoned. Although they still had 3 tanks they were heavily outnumbered and had to call for back-up.

2 hours later, a convey of 5 humvees, assisted by a STRYKER arrived on the bridge, however 5 minutes before they arrived a RPG team crippled a section of the bridge. The convey had no choice but to continue and take point on the bridge until a bridgelayer could be sent to the scene.

The 2 abrams joined the bradleys on the shoreline while two US helicopters lit up the 2 appartment buildings on the other side, one was hit and caught fire in the cockpit.

So I think that the story pretty much says it all but heres a actual plan:
-There will be a river going width ways across a large piece of MDF wood
-The river will have a few civillan cars in it rusting and loads of rubbish.
-So the river in the middle will leave 2 sections of land:
1 side will be where the Us and the A-c130 will be:
there will be 4 bradley IFV's on the shore (one that will be blown up)
-The a_c130 will be crashed and heavily weathered.
-behind the plane will be a platton HQ and snipers on the crashed plane
-Along the shore will be lots of US infantry in IOVT body armour.
Going across the river will be a bridge that is broken halfway across the river.
-on the US side of th bridge there will be 5 HUMVEES assisted by a stryker.
-Along the shore next to the bridge there will be a small 1 storey building with a Javalin team on the roof.

NOw onto the terroist side:
-There will be 2 apartment buildings by the shore with terroist on the balconies and the roofs.
-on the roofs will be RPG teams and a few mortars.
-On their side of the broken bridge will be a RPG team and a technical.
-Driving up to the bridge will another technical.
-behind the building will be a small road with terroists running towards the bridge and patrolling the area.
-Hiding in the shadows will be a small squad of US men with Silenced weapons,
-Flying over the river will be 2 US helicopters (one firing at the buildings and one spinning on fire

The other day I brought a revell M2A2 Bradley for 10 pound:

it really is a great kit. There was no flash to be seen and I had no issues with the fit whatsoever I think i will buy the dragon equivelant next to see what one is better.




I am going to spray it with my airbrush this week-end unless I dont have the correct paints>
JOSH

Smart looking Bradley Josh. What scale are you going to do the diorama in? Ping me a PM with you email, I'll get in touch with some suggestions etc.

Sorry, should have said but the diorama is going to be 1 72

Right, here are the pics of the bradley. the reason it is so weathered is because it got hit by a RPG and suffered interior fire. The crew could only get out the back as the other hatches were damaged and would not open. I am now looking for some US casulties for the back to give the impression that one or two did not survive the fire.





JOSH

Very nice work Josh

Regards, Bernard

Cheers Bernard

I decided to re-paint the Bradley as it looked a little odd. I brought the Ak Interactives 'Modern US weathering set'. It consisted of 1 acrylic base colour, 1 enamel wash and 1 enamel streaking effect. The set was great and is worth picking up for 10 Pounds. I have also decided to make some adjustments to the diorama itself as the plan is too cramped. I am going to drop the number of tanks and have a platoon of 4 Bradleys still, but scrap the 2 Abrams. I am Also only going to us 3 HUMVEES assisted by a stryker as 5 was too many.

Here are the pictures:







I will post them in the gallery as well

JOSH

I have brought the US figures form Elheim Figures, I also picked up three Dragon Bradley's from SMW Telford. As they are a little different from the revvel kit, I wont be using the revell one and I will buy a Dragon Lineback Air Defenve Bradley,

Pictures:

Not much progress on this one lately, I've built one of the Bradleys (2 more to go and another which I have not brought yet ) and cleaned the flash and mold lines off the figures. Also, I ordered the four Hummers from ebay, they may be a week or so as their coming from Belguim,


JOSH

I have changed the location of the diorama to Iraqi

Sounds good, I'm sure your new changes and ideas will look great Josh. Hope you get a lot of modellling done in the next weeks.

Thanks Parabat

JOSH,
Merry Christmas

I am starting the Humvee's today,, for the colour schemes I am going to do two of them camoflauged and one in the sandy desert colour,

JOSH

Made a start on the Humvees
Here are some pictures of the Humvees so far, there are also pictures of the sprues and instructions:





































JOSH

Wow, there is certainly some excellent detail, I almost can't believe they are 1/72!
I foound this walkaround of a fully loaded HMMWV, hope it is useful.
http://www.cybermodeler.com/armor/humvee/m1151_walk.shtml

Cheers for the link, I was a bit stuck for the interior as one of the Humvees is going to have all of its doors open, I wanted to put things in it to make it look good but I did'nt know what. These pictures will really help when I get round to doing it,

JOSH

Here is the dragon bradley, the first model that will actually feature in the diorama, this could take a while :shocked3:




JOSH

That looks great! Nice, atmospheric shot there. Slow and steady wins the race, it would be bad to rush and not he entirely happy with your work.

Cheers Parabat,

JOSH

Bradley Linebacker (dragon 1 72), a very nice kit but like the other Dragon kits there is ALOT of parts (many of them tiny) and therefore took several days to assemble. However, the painting is fairly simple, airbrush it a sandy colour, give it a wash, only around raised details (Bolts on the side panel ETC) and then use the streaking effect. This is a green wash sort of paint, you paint thin vertical lines and then 10 minutes later you dip an old brush in some white spirit and lightly brush the streaking effect off (but not completely). This gives a nice faded effect. Finally, you paint the details on and (drumroll please)....you have yourself a bradley tank.

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JOSH

Very impressive, those Bradley's do build up well and your painting and subtle weathering bring out the best in them.

Cheers mate,

They really are a great little kit (Just as well as I've got four ),

JOSH

Great work Josh

Regards, Bernard

Thank you Bernard, much appreciated

JOSH

Sorry for a lack of updates, work will resume on this project once I have finished the three german halftracks that are sitting on my desk primed, the weathers been to bad to get the airbrush out. If it continues to stay cold, I will put them to one side and start building a HUMVEE, fancy a change from bradleys.

Also, I've been thinking about the AC- 130, with it crashed, surely it would have destroyed the bridge and probably the riverside houses . Sadly, I don't have the skill, or confidence, to try and decipt such a scene. As well as that, with the size of it, there will lots of empty space. I'm condsidering a crashed helicopter , I think I will use a Chinook as there are a number off pictures of crashed ones on google.

So there is not too many helicopters on the diorama, I will not have any helicopters in the sky. Not having the hercules also makes the diorama a more practical size, I can decrease it a fair amount both ways. I did think about having some buildings on the US side, Just some simple 1 or 2 storey houses. This, I fell will make it a bit more of a realistic warfare scenario, as the US troops will have some cover and will not just be standing out in the open. Some walls will be included this side, just low chest height ones, and maybe a few cattle or sheep.

Next time I go into hobbycraft I am going to purchase one or two sheets of foamboard. I will try and make some walls and small buildings. For the walls, I will cover them in plaster and engrave details on it. For the buildings, I am going to attempt to make a walled compound, In here will be a few animals and possibly some civilians. The Humvees will be split up, two will be on the bridge with the stryker, and the other two will be in the walled farm (compund) where the command group will be.

Finnally , I think that the eight storey flats may be a bit overkill, so I will change it to three storeys (possibly also scrathcbuilt as they are quite simple).

I hope that you understand my changes, I feel that they are for the best.

JOSH