Waiting for Wittmann

[Coen]

This is a diorama that I finished recently and in a bit of a rush for a local (and the only) model competition a few months ago. Then it got packed away into boxes with the rest of my kits and tools in order to move to the house we were building.

The subject is one of some debate involving the last day of German tank ace, Michel Wittmann.
Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters and his squadron of The Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment, 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade are stated as being one of several claimants for the destruction of Wittman's vehicle on August 8th 1944 near the farm of Gaumesnil.
This is my take on Rad and some of his men that morning behind the wall on the property of the chateau.

The base is two pieces of 1' square plywood that I bought at the craft store "Michaels". The basic ground is celluclay with beach sand and raw umber acrylic paint mixed into it. The section of wall with the gate and door is a Mini-Art kit that I bought a few of for a few dioramas. The section of wall next to the M4 is a piece of gator foam with a sheet of stick-on brick wall texture that I got from Historex. I covered that in a thin skin of hydrocal and beat it up and stained it with oils and some light green acrylics to look like an old stucco wall. The dirt is... well dirt. The best looking dirt in a diorama that I've found so far is actual dirt. I made a short stretch of garden path bricks for the man door with a silicon form that I have kicking around and some hydrocal. The grass is static grass of various colours.
The vehicles; the firefly is a nice Tasca that I had been saving for ages for just such an occasion. Wow Tasca makes beautiful kits. The Sherman III is an old Dragon kit that I modified. The figures are a mix of Mini-Art, Dragon, and Ultracast.

Normandy - Canadian Firefly and Sherman M4A4 05.JPG

Normandy - Canadian Firefly and Sherman M4A4 03.JPG

Normandy - Canadian Firefly and Sherman M4A4 01.jpg

[Lee]

That's ace mate, love it!

[Paul]

Yeah that's a fantastic diorama, some great attention to detail

[bullgill67]

absolutely stunning

michael

[Tiger131]

superb work bud the level of detail in all areas is quality love to see more of the figures bud get some more pics the dio is worth it

[Coen]

Thanks for the kudos.
I would have put more detailed shots up but I've only figured out how to upload three at a time. I'm not new to reading forums, new to using them though.

[HamilkarBarkas]

lovely work! i like the realistic look of the tanks in particular, nice sublte weathering and some nice stowage.

[ww2hispanomodels]

What a diorama!! Really cool! This dio is, more or less, what I imagined when I read the book "The D-Day" of Antony Beevour when he explains this ambush

[Coen]

I haven't read D-Day. I've read probably 15 other books on the subject but not that one. I see amazon has a copy... and it's apparenlty their last one. I may have to pick it up.
Thanks for the tip. I'm glad that you enjoyed the diorama.

[HWGuderian23]

Another amazing diorama! Very well done!