Crossing the Dnieper

I was working on this 1/48 dio in tandem with my Getting Some R & R dio. The basis is the June 1944 Red Army crossing of the Dnieper River as part of Operation Bagration, which destroyed Germany's Army Group Center and brought the Russians to within striking distance of Berlin.

This is the first time I tried sinking a tank in mud and water. The kits are Tamiya, including its recent excellent T-34-85. The basic groundwork is VMS Smart Mud applied over insulation foam formed by a hot wire cutter. The sides are wood veneer. The water and mud were made with AK 2-part resin, AK Still Water, Liquitex clear gloss gel, Vallejo Splash Mud, Brown Mud and Mud & Grass along with various Tamiya earth tones. It was a great project to try work with new materials and techniques.

11 additional images. Click to enlarge.