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René Hieronymus
23 articles

Deathtrap

September 2, 2017 · in Uncategorized · · 11 · 2.1K

Scale 1:72
Building time: 69hrs

Here is my latest creation, once again what I love the most: a diorama.
After some changes I called this one “Deathtrap” for obvious reason.

It depicts a few Marines which have discovered an abandoned Nakajima Ki-115 “Tsurugi” (Sword) on a Japanese airstrip at the closing days of WWII. The aircraft has been damaged, either due to the bomb blast which went off close by or by US aircraft strafing the airstrip. Accompanying the Marines is a LVT-A1 “Water

The Ki-115 was specially designed aircraft to be used exclusively as a suicide aircraft. Because the Japanese High Command thought that Japan did not have enough obsolete aircraft to use for kamikaze attacks, it was decided that huge numbers of cheap, simple suicide planes should be constructed quickly in anticipation for the invasion of Japan, thus the “Tsurigi” was mostly made of steel and wood. Even though it was never used operational some of them were tested and probably prepared to be used in a last ditch attempt.

The entire dio base was scratch build using Styrofoam on some wooden base, the ground work was done by using several materials, some from my garden, some from the railroad department, the fence, the windsock and the table were scratch build as well. The LVT-(A)1 came from Dragon and the Ki-115 from , both were built with only minor modifications, all figures came from Milicast, some tiny bits came from the spare box. For coloring I used exclusively acrylics, lots of pigments for the dirt and dust, the rust effects were made using a material made by Modern solution.

Once again a whole lot of fun building that thing and now I only have to consider what to build next.

Cheers

René

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

29 additional images. Click to enlarge.


11 responses

  1. Fantastic job all around René

  2. Good lookin' job, my friend...nice work.

  3. Very nice René! Congrats on the build.

  4. I really like the atmosphere of this dio - and the detail and skill are just brilliant.

  5. Great looking build!

  6. Great diorama, Rene! It tells an interesting story, too.

  7. Very well done René. I don't know if you intended it this way but as an old Infantryman, the title "Deathtrap" just saturates the atmosphere of your piece. The derelict suicide plane, the weary wary Marines investigating. Is it boobytrapped, is it an ambush, are we looking the wrong way. So many ways death can come for you on the battlefield. Deathtrap indeed. Truely one of the best I've ever seen.

  8. Excellent! Love your eye for detail, and your finish work is superb.

  9. A truly excellent diorama. Really nice weed and mud work. Nice touch with the tireless rim. Rumor long had it that Kamikaze pilots were welded into their cockpits. No doubt that is what the acetylene torch is for. Still, I am wondering where do they take off?

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