An awesome WWII diorama.

Starting with this post, and continuing with various posts over the next several weeks, I'm going to be featuring the work of others in the kitbashing and 1/6 diorama hobby. There is some awesome work out there. We see the pictures on Facebook and other places, but very rarely do we get the story behind the figures or of what inspired the dio. 

They're not my works, so it's not my story to tell. I'm going to let those who have done them describe them in their own words, so here we go.

The photos above are of a dio by Rob Field. Here's Rob's story on how and what he did:

"My first 1/6 scale Diorama

 

I did this diorama recently. I have been collecting 1/6 scale figures for a while, mainly 21st Century with a couple of Dragon figures thrown in there when I could get them cheaply enough. About 5 or so years ago, I won an eBay auction  where I got 50 figures of various head sculpts and body types (although all were 21st Century). Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, those figures came with no clothing, supplies or accessories, which led me into the world of kitbashing.

Several years later, I have about 6 figures or so left to bash and have enjoyed the heck out of kitbashing these guys. All my kitbashes are WWII related and they are pretty evenly split between GI and German, with an uneven smattering of paratroops and infantry on the US side and Afrika Corps and regular Heer on the other.

I came up with the idea of the wounded Lt when my youngest daughter, who was two at the time, broke the arm off one of the figures. My first thought was that I was just going to have a guy for parts, but as I collected more stuff to bash with, an idea formed in my head.

I re-enact WWII (that is my main hobby, kitbashing on a 1/1 scale if you will) and I always notice that there is a dearth of medic impressions. Just like in 1/6 kit bashing, rarely do you see dios done of the medical arm of things. So I started to look for medical items, beat up clothing and equipment and of course, the jeep.

That led me again to ebay, where I saw the medical jeep from SOTW mis-listed and cheap. I snapped it up with the outrageously low “buy it now” of $25. It included two stretchers and another figure so it was a steal.

From there I took my busted figure and dressed him in a ratty shirt that I cut the arm off of and tattered the short end. I wrapped his arm in a real gauze bandage and dressed it up with fake Halloween blood. I dipped the end of the arm into the blood, with the shirt on to get the effect I wanted, a battle field casualty that the medics need to get to the field hospital ASAP!
From there it was a straightforward bash. Two troopers with M-43 gear and a medic helmet later and it was off to the back yard!

I have a ring of small pine trees around my patio that are perfect 1/6 scale. With the uniforms on the medics and the fact they were pine trees, I set the scenario as October/November of 1944, somewhere in Western Europe. From there it was just a matter of snapping pictures!

I hope you like the results!

 

Robert Field"

Awesome! I love it! They don't get much better. I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope to be able to share more like this.