The Last Piece of the Exhibit

We finished the last piece of the Omaha Beach Diorama this week. Mark Franke constructed a 1/350th scale model of the USS Frankford. That was one of the US Navy destroyers that provided direct gun fire support to the troops pinned down on Omaha Beach. By many accounts, that gunfire was crucial to helping the Allies break through the German beach defenses. 

Mark used a ship model from Dragon with a set of photo etched parts from Gold Medal Models. Mark said that he did not anticipate how difficult assembling the tiny etched parts would be. As a result it took him several months to finish the kit.

To expedite the construction process, I offered to build the diorama base and scenic treatment. That job went pretty quickly.  I used a piece of oak I had on hand to make the base. To that I added a piece of 1/8th inch hardboard that was precisely cut to hold the acrylic case. Then I added a slightly smaller piece of foam to create the water surface. 

I cut the foam on my chop saw. Then I used a small blow torch to create the wave troughs. I used the bottom of the ship model hull to create a space in the water to house the model. 

Then I used the same toilet paper mache technique as before to add texture to the waves.  Various shades of dark blue paint and several coats of acrylic gloss finished off the waves.  I set the model in the hole in the base and used heavy acrylic gloss gel to tape the waves along the hull. 

The final touch was some puffs of smoke from the 5-inch guns.

The back drop is a section from a painting from the US Navy collection painted by an eyewitness at Omaha Beach.  We installed the diorama at the Museum on Friday. 

D-Day Diorama Team Members installing the last diorama at the WW2 Experience Museum
L-R Rob Kempinski, John Drye, Bernard Kempinski, Mark Franke