Painting Party 2

 

L-R. Jeff Hammer, John Kephart, John Drye, Keith Rocco, Mark Franke, Tom Karstens

The crew was reinforced today with two more workers for another successful painting party.  John Kephart continued with land infantry. John Drye loaded the boat people into LCVPs in accordance with Keith's design. Mark Franke painted and applied decals on two  Sherman Deep Water Fording tanks, Tom Karstens began painting another group of land infantry. Jeff Hammer worked on weathering the steel hedgehogs. 

Jeff is new to our group. He has experience with painting figures, mostly Sci Fi and Fantasy. Welcome aboard Jeff.

At first, Keith Rocco and I did some planning on where everything will go.  Keith approved the colors of the sand and water. Everyone liked the TP waves. So, we moved on to other work.

I dug the antitank ditch. Keith provided a photo that shows the anti-tank ditch was lined with wooden log revetments. So I painted a bunch of toothpicks to use for those.

Capsized LCVP in primer

Next, I modified a LCVP to be capsized. John Kephart made a good point about the LCVP sinking aft down because that is where the engine is. So that is how I cut it. This kind of synergy is making the project better. 

Command Villa after laser cutting

Then I drew the plans for the command villa and cut it on my laser.  The villa is reduced in scale as it will be farther from the normal viewing position and we didn't want it to dominate the hill. All of the German soldiers and weapons will be in 1/150th scale (10mm). 

Keith improving the surf 

Keith improved the surf by painting the thin layer of water that the receding waves leave on the beach. He also worked on the white caps a bit. Those simple additions really helped bring the water to life.  The next step will be to add some gloss layers.  It was a treat to see Keith in action painting. 

All in all a great day with some excellent chili and wings for lunch.

The water is looking good.

The LCVP isn't finished, but this shows the look we are trying to get. 

A Painting Party

The crew

We had a very successful painting party today to prepare models and figures for the Rocco D-Day diorama. The crew included John Drye, Mark Franke, John Kephart, Tom Karsten and myself.

JD and Tom worked on the “boat people” aka soldiers.  They finished all of them- about 150 total figures including a few I did.  We filled up one boat with 32 infantry and 3 crew. We think it looks pretty good.  The plan is to proceed with 4 more boats full of ”boat people.” 

John K. worked on the US infantry on land. He will have about 50 done in a week. Some of those are casualty figures. We expect we will need 300. Mark Fastoso and his crew will also be contributing figures. 

Mark Franke painted the 2 DWF Shermans, and several boat hulls.  They are not finished but are looking good. 

I finished painting all the boat hulls after Mark left. JD stuck around to about 10PM finish all the boat people. Devotion above and beyond!

I also primed 75 hedgehogs with rust color. We probably only need about half of them for this scene. Still need the other obstacles.

Down in Florida, Rob is painting the Sherman DD. I'll get it when I go down there in 11 days.

I had previously trimmed out the diorama with a ¼ inch hardboard trim. I also added bolts with tee nuts to make assembling the diorama easier.

We made a lot of progress today. Scenery and structures on tap for next week. There are lots of details and additional items to add.

We also started planning for the next diorama which feature the 29th Infantry and Rangers at Vierville. 

Bocage Hell - Ambush at Colleville-sur-Mer

A few months ago, before we started the dioramas for Keith Rocco,  I began  work on a diorama set on June 6, 1944, D-Day. I was inspired to try this project by some very nice WW2 figures from Speria Miniatures from Sweden.  I have used several of their figures for my 1/48th scale Civil War layout. However, this project would be in a larger scale, 75mm or 1/24. I originally planned just a small 3-figure vignette  centered around a soldier dragging a wounded buddy. However, I decided to expand the scope of the model when I saw a painting by Keith Rocco of soldiers advancing past a dune at D-Day. So I ordered 7 more figures. I thought that would be more interesting than the beach scene.

Before I started to painting the figures I did some research on D-Day uniforms. I realized that the Speria figures did not have some of the special D-Day equipment that the soldiers wore. Those items were the life belts, gas mask and gas brassards on the upper arms. Adding those features to the figures at this point would have been quite time consuming. 

So I decided to move the diorama to a point further inland because the US soldiers would have discarded the special D-Day equipment as they moved off the beach. I had read an account of how C Company of the 26th Infantry, First Infantry Division was ambushed by a German machine gun team about one mile from the beach. The ambush occurred at the start of the bocage terrain. The US lost seven soldiers, while the Germans lost one in this ambush, but the whole US infantry company of about 200 men was delayed by the ambush. Such was the fighting in the bocage. It is terrain that favors the defenders. It's a little appreciated fact that the US Army lost about 10 times as many men fighting in the bocage as they did on the beach.  The bocage fighting was a brutal, bloody slog.

The diorama depicts the lead elements of the company trying to fight their way through the ambush in a sunken road in the bocage country. In front there is a US casualty lying on the ground at the intersection of the sunken road and a cross road. The US soldiers would quickly  learned that those were danger areas.  One soldier is returning fire, while the squad leader is directing the others.  In the rear of the diorama there is a medic treating a wounded, panicking man while the assistant squad leader helps control the panicking soldier.  Next to them is another soldier dragging his buddy to cover. 

I think the diorama does a good job of depicting the chaos of combat with soldiers running in different directions. The expressions on the figures are really well done, especially the wounded man being treated by the medics and the soldier running forward.

I am almost done with the diorama. These are some photos showing the figures once they were secured in their final positions.

D-Day Diorama Project Planning Meeting

A sample of Kent Rocco's D-Day artwork

Mark Fastoso and I visited Keith Rocco at his home and studio in the Shenandoah Valley to continuing planning for the D-Day Diorama Project. (I mentioned this project in an earlier post here.)   

Rough cardboard mock-up of the first diorama 

Keith had assembled a very rough mockup of what he planned for the first iteration of the diorama.  I brought some of my 1/100th scale figures, plus a new 1/100th scale model of a LCVP that I printed to use in the mockup. With those we were able to finalize the basic design of the diorama. Keith will send me a drawing showing the exact terrain features that will be included so I can start building it as a fine scale model.

  Keith has recently completed two large murals depicting the 1st Infantry Division on D-Day for the First Infantry Museum in Cantigny, IL. He wishes to continue working with this theme in a diorama format. Keith's vision is to build a series of dioramas depicting the action on Omaha Beach on D-Day to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day this coming June. He plans to make them a traveling exhibit that he can take to various locales to display along with his artwork. 

The first diorama section will focus on the 1st Infantry Division on the east end of the beach near Colleville-sur-Mer. This was the area where some of heaviest fighting took place.    Eventually there will be 3 more dioramas depicting other areas of Omaha beach. The dioramas will feature 1/100th scale figures in the foreground and will reduce in scale as one approaches the dunes and cliff.  Keith plans to paint a backdrop for each diorama with the correct geographic features.  I will be building the diorama bases and the terrain. Mark will be producing video segments that visitors can watch on their phones using QR codes. The videos will help tell the story of what is going on in each diorama.  We also have Michael Akkerman advising us on details. He is an expert on the D-Day landings. 

It should be de a first class exhibit.  

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

This is where you can help contribute to the project. To build this and the subsequent dioramas will require a significant number of 15mm scale US figures in the D-Day uniforms.  We are looking for people that have painted or unpainted 15mm US figures and vehicles appropriate to this battle and would be willing to contribute to the project. The figures should be US soldiers in D-Day appropriate uniforms. Sherman tanks with deep water fording kits, landing craft including LCVP, LCA and others.  We also need figures in unusual poses such as soldiers wading with weapons overhead, prone, and wounded. We will be doing conversions on some figures to match the scenes.   If you wish to contribute to the project please send an email to me at bkempins@yahoo.com

All contributors will be acknowledged. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to fascinating project.

A French cavalryman that Keith
 is almost finished painting 

PS. I also had a chance to visit Keith's art studio. Wow, it is amazing. 

Keith and Mark by one of Keith's latest work.

Keith's studio would rival many museums with original uniforms and artwork