Global Scale Modeller

In November 1965, they dropped Marines of the "7th Air Calvary" onto the lowlands of hell and left them overnight to fight a hidden guerrilla enemy that held all the high ground
Some background reading if you wish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ia_Drang
Build thread
http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 347&t=8808

Renderings of the area


Diorama overview



Getting off the Huey ASAP




Supplies delivered, ready for wounded evac


Huey Gunship cover fire for evac unit


Marking their location with smoke, so cover aircraft can lay down Napalm

Behind the cover of sandbags, the battle is on all sides


Command center and wounded


This was a fun first GB and my first diorama and helicopters for that matter
Thanks to all that participated and those I got to banter back and forth with, you guys kept me going

These were some images and paintings that inspired the diorama

Never seen "blown down" grass done before. Great idea and looks very effective.
Love the flying away helicopter.
Great work altogether!

Yevgeny wrote:Never seen "blown down" grass done before. Great idea and looks very effective.
Love the flying away helicopter.
Great work altogether!

Thank you Yevgeny, I am glad you picked up on the "rotor wash" effect on the grass
I had a longer, larger start to the dio and would have liked to make a field of grass like that, but it was overwhelming and I needed a smaller base for the space.
SO the dio was foreshortened to fit on a shelf
I saw the blow down look in a dio where the chopper was in the middle of the field off of Pinterest
There are some fantastic modelling artists who can make their dioramas museum quality pieces
"Head for the Huey"...... Just gorgeous work
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... 0b55f9.jpg

Fabulous work mate!

UKguyInUSA wrote:Fabulous work mate!

Thanks for the support!

Cracking dio action packed is what it is and I love it

Tiger131 wrote:Cracking dio action packed is what it is and I love it

Thank you
Tried to capture some of the speed and confusion of the scene

Holy moly this is freakin' amazing. Lots to learn from. Kudos to you buddy!

Skat wrote:Holy moly this is freakin' amazing. Lots to learn from. Kudos to you buddy!

Thanks for the kind words Skat

Looks good !! the Movie. "We Were Solders" is about this battle

rwsmith14 wrote:Looks good !! the Movie. "We Were Solders" is about this battle

Yes absolutely
The movie plays things up a bit with the recovery of a bugle from the VC that they took from a French soldier in a massacre in 1954, 11ish years before the Americans came to Vietnam
The final attack never happened, they were barely hanging on and on the defensive... that is Hollywood
But still a cool movie and some interesting real hero stories of daring Helicopter pilots, brave Marines and dumb command decisions

I love that mate it's simply beautiful and captures the action of the time brilliantly

I'm sorry Scott but



This is amazing work and effort and has captured every single element of the battle it would seem, rotor wash and all! This is one of the most stunning pieces of work I have ever seen! If you aren't proud of this then you are a mad man!

Thanks Nige and Leo
Ya I am happy with it, if not a little sick of working on it!
When you do some research and see dio's that others
are making there is lots of room for improvement
But I thank Leo again as he helped me keep going by following along closely
Thanks bud, hope you didn't spend too much time on the computer and have your schoolwork suffer

Awesome! So much to look at, really enjoyed the pics, just like watching a film! Winner for sure!

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Thanks Nige and Leo
Ya I am happy with it, if not a little sick of working on it!
When you do some research and see dio's that others
are making there is lots of room for improvement
But I thank Leo again as he helped me keep going by following along closely
Thanks bud, hope you didn't spend too much time on the computer and have your schoolwork suffer

Hahah, nah mate my school work didn't suffer, just got my end of year report card and I'm doing great in most things! I had fun following the build and I'll definitely follow your other builds

chief5437 wrote:Awesome! So much to look at, really enjoyed the pics, just like watching a film! Winner for sure!

Thanks Cheif, had fun building it, took on a life of its own and really made itself?
Research has changed my mind about Vietnam and the soldiers that fought there, how poorly treated they are if they return

Wow, that is freakin cool. Took me right to the "We were soldiers" movie

grover wrote:Wow, that is freakin cool. Took me right to the "We were soldiers" movie

Thanks Kane,
That is a great movie, just watched it again on the weekend

Well done buddy! I can feel the rotors over my head!

felisbarcinonensis wrote:Well done buddy! I can feel the rotors over my head!

Thanks felis, I was making lots of chopper sounds when making this

A great Diorama in conception!
Full of action ! This is Vietnam war!
You should be proud of what you achived as it is very nicely done !

rodrant wrote:A great Diorama in conception!
Full of action ! This is Vietnam war!
You should be proud of what you achived as it is very nicely done !

Hey, thanks very much You made my day!

Search and destroy! Like a scene from We were Soldiers...very very cool!!!

Thanks Patrick

That is amazing!

Thanks to both of you guys
I was hoping I could pull it off, hate to blab about doing something and then not follow through