Small Diorama for one vehicle, WW II

[Scratchman]

The vehicle is the M-18 Hellcat U. S. Army Gun Motor Carriage.Used at the end of WW II.

Built and painted by Scott Gentry. Scott will go into the building and painting with a little history.

I will start the Diorama from ground up. And once I get going I well start it over on the MIG forum for help from those guys as will.

Here are my first Two images of the Hellcat.





Gordon Birrell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77318580@N00/

[marc_reusser]

Wow that is one ugly tank  ...not the model work/build...but the prototype. Interesting subject/choice though.

Look forward to what you come up with an put together for the diorama.


MR

[finescalerr]

How did Scott build it, from a kit or from scratch? Nice job. The weathering and finish have some subtlety. Be sure to post updates and the final diorama. -- Russ

[didiumus]

Hi everyone - Here is some information about the M-16 Gun Motor Carriage I did. The (eventual) owner of the model has a real 1:1 model - and this replica is marked for his actual hull number. He specified that the piece have the canvas cover on the mantlet, and the side skirts, which were almost always removed during combat.

This particular tank destroyer is modeled as a vehicle of the 705th Tank Destroyer battalion, which was a part of 3rd army in WW II. This unit landed at Utah beach on or around June 18 1944 and fought pretty much non-stop through the end of the war. They were fighting in Brittany with Patton, heading for the German border, when the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive, the famous "Battle of the Bulge." The 705th rushed to Bastogne and actually spent some time attached to the 101rst Airborne after this action. (Incidentally, Bastogne is where almost all of the 705th combat casualties occurred)

The model is 1/35th scale, and is actually an accurized kit-bash of two (2) Academy kits and 1 AFV Club kit. Both the Academy and the AFV Club have serious flaws, and neither is truly very good.

Painting and weathering were done with several layers of different shades of OD green, gloss, and dull coats. I also used acrylic paints to chip paint and replicate fuel stains, and artists oil paints and enamels for washes, filters, and shadows.

[didiumus]

The vehicle is weathered to represent a Tank Destroyer in early 1945, one that has seen a lot of action. Dust, dirt, and mud are missing as these will need to be added by the master, Gordon as he completed his diorama base.

I also failed to mention that the interior featured some rebuilding, kitbashing, and accurizing, and the stowage is a mixture of plastic and resin items from my extensive spares box. Whip antenna is stretched plastic sprue.

If I were to do it again for me, I would remove all of the skirting, use metal individual link tracks, a metal barrel, and remove the canvas mantlet cover. I would probably add figures as the open topped gmc vehicles really need figures to bring them to life.

Hope y'all like it. I am just an amateur compared to you guys on this forum.

Scott

[finescalerr]

You ain't no amateur, Scott. Thanks for the info. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Very nice work!