As I see it, someone had to do it.

And if it was your dream build just say now and I'll hand it over - honestly no problem!

If not I'll be collecting a few of these (6-8) from different manufacturers and learning how to model water and build stands. A year might just be enough...

Cue the music...

Unless someone else has their heart set - I’ll give it a crack. I don’t think it’s a scene we can let go unattempted in this GB.

I’m happy to do it, but I am mindful that there might be someone who was just about to put their hand up. Or who has always wanted to do it. And if that’s the case they should do it because mine is a decision made in the moment - not a long time/bucket list calling. The RAF GB can have a hundred spitfires and that is just fine - different pilots and squadrons, marks and scales etc. I don’t think this GB needs 2 of anything particularly - so I’ll give it a couple of months, read the book again and do a bit of research to get in the mood. I’ll post whatever turns up and is interesting on the subject. If no one else comes forward with a burning desire to do it I’ll have tied up the RAF100 build by then and will unequivocally take it on!

an iconic scene for sure - if you can get the waves looking good, be sure to include Kilgore's surfboard! 🙂
one of my all-time favorite movies - love to see this done

Excellent choice! I’m thinking of doing a scene with a PBR. Don’t let that stop you from doing a helicopter scene. Different elements of the same movie, and I hope that is OK with you.

Wow Paul, At 1/72 scale, how big is the diorama base going to be?

Great thinking there, Paul.
If using forced perspective, then it needs to be viewed from an ideal (eye-level) position. Peep shows are Ideal for this, since the viewer has to be in that ideal position. Perhaps you can play with that idea too. Also, the distance from front chopper to backdrop of sky plus water (to last row of waves) is short. Short enough to have all choppers fixed to a horizontal support as you mentioned.

Using dummy blocks for experimenting perspective positions is a brilliant idea. How are you going to do the water and waves; paper mache? If so, it works quite well. Here, I used 50-50 PVA-water mix to apply on the tissues, then with a flat long haired artist brush, I pushed the tissues around to form a small wave.

Looking forward to see updates on how you work this all out.

Paul, the great thing about iModeler is that so many projects feel like team efforts. This site has been a real game changer so far as my modeling is concerned. It also makes my life a bit happier, never a bad thing.

Your Ride of the Valkyries will look incredible, of that I have no doubt. It’s great to have a longer term project you can research, play around with, and learn a few new things. Love that idea of different scales and forced perspective.