WW1 Somme diorama
This is my one and only attempt at a diarama,obviously it is the Airfix 1/76 WW1 tank,I built the little tank in a weekend over christmas a few years back and then got interested in them and started to do some research and found that typically of these very old Airfix mouldings it is highly inaccurate.It is really a combination of various Mk's of this tank.Under the scratch built grenade screen there is a raised hatch which is wrong as are the exhausts and there are some details missing altogether.
The second tank painted grey and white is my rendition of the prototype,she was known as "mother" even though she was actualy a male tank ,the male had one large forward firing gun in each sponson the female had two heavy machine guns in each sponson as in picture one.
The final tank is an Mk1 copied from a picture I found,the writing says (I think) "for the people of Leningrad"
I attempted to make the second and third tanks more accurate ,notice on the prototype the headlights,and on the third one you can see some of the detail to the roof ,this is where Airfix really got it wrong,I added the viewing periscopes, the correct exhaust baffles,the round flat hatch and changed the spacing of the panels that make up the roof section,also the suspention springs are wrong but you can't see that in these pictures.It is interesting to note that these tanks left the factory painted standard grey and were painted up in the field which is why we see so many variations in the camo schemes.
I was inspired to do the dio after visiting the grave of my great grandfather John William Pearson (God bless him) who is buried in France along with his comrades.
Comments please N.
Neil...Great looking diorama even if it isn't spot on for accuracy, which you couldn't prove by me. Funny how these interests get started, often by chance, and the next thing you know, you have a whole shelf of books on the subject. I like doing dioramas, as it requires multiple skill sets, but sure takes more shelf space.
Hi Jack,thanks for looking ,I know this little dio is very VERY basic but I think it looks O.K.,I am currently working on the Tamiya Matilda tank in 1/35 and am thinking of doing a little vingnette to display it ,just something simple.
N.
Looks like a 'Mk IV to me, don't let the 'rivet counters' run it down, I built that kit many years ago, it's nice, and 'by the book' or not it looks good.
Well...having never actually SEEN a WWI tank (as I'm sure not many others have either)...it looks pretty good to me. At being your first diorama as you said, you chose a fairly uncomplicated one to do. It looks like mud from here. Nice job.
Cheers Craig,
N.
I agree with all the other guys in that it looks the part to me. I need to try one of these early tanks, all the rivets make 'em look like they would be pretty fun to do. A 10 to me!
Neil for a first time dio, I'd say you pretty well have it down. Nice tank.