Thanks for looking Patrick,
The shell blasts are cotton, glued down and then pulled with a tweezer.Added some gel for splashing today.Waiting for it to dry.
Hard to do small splash's with the gel.
A real learning experience on this.Playing it most by ear.
More to come.

Tom

Happy New Year

Hi Tom ,

beautiful project there , i like the watersplashes around the boat , looking very realistic to me. And the way you put the figures is also good . It's a very dynamic scene which is not an easy way to make a diorama .

Great respect for that ! And please keep posting ..

Happy New Year !

Kurt

Hi all,

Really a short one today.
Built the Sherman and added stowage.Cut the commanders feet off to lower him in the turret.Thinking he is under fire and isn't going to fully exposed.
Waiting for some MB figures to add.Added future to the others legs for being wet.Still need to weather the craft more.
Turned out to be a much longer build than I expected.

Tom

Lots of progress ! Very dramatic scene so far. I like the rope bumpers. Few people know about how the Atlantikwall was so thoroughly festooned with giant model paint tins from Germanys' ally.

J

That’s right Jerry - and it looks like even if the GIs made it onto the beach, they faced the giant airbrush. When Rommel said the Allies had to be blown away on the beach, his engineers sure followed orders to the letter.

But seriously Tom I really admire your mastery of the water-effects too – very convincing. As you say much weathering on the tank & LCM to come, could I suggest some bullets kicking up sand around the figures too? Not quite sure how that could be done but if anyone can find a way, I think you’re the man.

Cheers, Tim

Hi guys,
OK,no more photos without a backdrop.
Tim,you read my mind about the sand.Still thinking the best way to do it.
Thanks for the comments,update soon I hope.

Tom

Hey Tom, great project you have going. Water and waves are not the easiest thing to do, personal knowledge, lol. The one thing I noticed that is missing is foot prints and wind blown ripples. Not like you leave in snow, but shallow depressions were the sand has been pushed out from weight. It might be do-able with a small layer of more sand. Aside from that I think you have a nice dio going on. I have that kit and yea, it takes a lot of water and beach to do it justice. But, you got it down real good.

Tom, re bullets hitting sand, strangely enough I was shaking some ground cinnamon onto my toast this morning and the heavenly choir started up...it may only be half the answer but it's the right colour and scale - obviously using real sand at that scale would be like small pebbles.

Maybe mixing cinnamon with sand-coloured watercolour or powder paint, soaking some cotton wool or similar in it & then drying it, and then fluffing it out into small "splashes" might work?

Amazing where inspiration occurs... cinnamon on toast. I used dried cilantro for some of the ground cover on the Japanese beach!

Looks great and I enjoy watching this... I think my only comment about the waves is the sets look too even and not every one would be whitecapped... just saying that the landing craft would disrupt that flow... that close to shore waves lose their caps... I don't know. I could be wrong and probably am...

But great work none the less!

You may be right Patrick,but I really don't want to add anymore to the waves,may start to look over done.
Attempted bullets on beach and footprints.In hindsight should have done these at the start.
This whole dio is a learning experience and I greatly appreciate all you comments.Going to take a break from it till the other figures arrive.

Tom

And learning is what we do here at Armorama! I know I learned a ton with my first project!

Thanks for being tolerant and it looks great!

Works for me !
J

The effects are pretty convincing. Seems to me that the beach may be a bit too clean. Compared to all the "action" in the water with the waves and splashes it just seems to be missing something.

I think the beach would be clean as it hasn't been used.Thought of rocks,but didn't make sense to me.
Need a wounded guy on it.Have to work that out because I want him starting up the hill.

Tom

Tom , nice work man , like the water and bullet effects .
I honesty haven't seen this till I saw your post on my build and then your getting wet build on the next line .
Glad I checked it out .
I think the scene is very cool just the way it is , but a wounded GI would add even more to it .

Hi guys,
Been away for a week, but back at it.
Did some more weathering and figures.
Will do figures from this MB set to finish them.

Tom

Hi all,

Back with the near final post on this one.
Added more figures and weathered some more.
Jerry,made a quick backdrop with just a little spray paint.
No more Tamiya barriers .
Still need a wounded guy on the beach,but this is going on the shelf for bit.I get restless and have to move on to something else.Bad habit.
Sorry for the repeats.

Tom .

Tom,

most impressive! Splashes are something I tried ONCE, long ago and decided I just couldn't pull it off. They looked aweful. Your's look marvelous. Great work!

This is looking awesom for sure buddy ! If I may make a suggestion. I saw another guy on FB doing a beach scene and the wet uniforms,specially pants look a lot better if you paint the wet spots very dark brown or gray and then add a bit of semi-gloss clear. Check out any cloth if you get it wet it gets darker. It will look more convincing for you.
J

Thanks Frederick,
Not so sure about them,but have a couple more smaller size builds to with water to use what I've learned from this.
Jerry,that is such an obvious overlook on my part.

Tom

Tom I just love this!
Great effort all around I think, really looks convincing.
I learned some very useful tips and techniques too, so thanks to all! And thank you Tom for creating a nice diorama of an epic confrontation.
Cheers for completing this!

Dave