The Ship Model Forum

Hey everyone! for a year now, I've been planning on a harbor diorama. It would be a WWII Allied (American, British, etc.) harbor. It was only 3 months ago that I decided to incorporate a nature scene to go with it. But as there really is no harbor located that close to a mountain, I gave up on the idea. I ws sooo disappionted about this. I spent that year collecting rare kits that were necessary to do it. Some of which are included in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47759&start=30
In dispare, I searched for hours online for some setting to do - then I found these three threads:
- viewtopic.php?f=59&t=47211
- viewtopic.php?t=33122
- viewtopic.php?f=59&t=43042
Yes, these are all by the famous Kym Knight!
Other inspirational dioramas are:
- http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
- http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
- http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
- http://www.modelwarships.com/features/c ... index.html
and we can never forget ---
- viewtopic.php?f=59&t=33372&start=0
Jean and Bruno!

Thank you all who's work are shown here. there were others though too. people like Jim Baumann and Peter Fulgoney, as well as Mike McCabe have helped salvage my dream.

I forgot to mention though, started doiong the diorama before i got my account here, so most of the ground setting is done, but buildings need to be painted.

Enjoy!

the first picture is the sneak peek of part of the barracks quarters (I painted the officer's jeeps blue-silver, even if its not accurate.)
The buildings are the officer's quarters and the local motor pool.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

I actually forgot to tell you why I chose Truk.
1. truk was the only harbor that close to mountains
2. Kym Knight was sooo inspiring
Also, It is called the 'what-if' because I love the WWII US Navy, and I loved my original idea of a mountain in a harbor.

Now, what do you guys think would have happened if the US Marines had crashed the beaches of Truk Lagoon ( in 1943) ? This diorama is my depiction of about a year later.

Now, the section of the diorama in the picture above has been taken away, and in place of it is a large workshop.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Please see this link for how to post pictures:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1261

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De quoi s'agit-il?

By the looks of the poll, you guys don't know how to fight a war!



I got my camera working! Pics are on the next page.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Pics on the next page

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

I don't know about that. The most popular answer was the one that really happened. There was no use in invading Truk. Bypass it and let it wither on the vine. Once it was cut off, it wasn't a threat to anyone. Fighting a war doesn't mean getting a lot of people killed needlessly, particularly when they're your people.

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Any ship larger than a Destroyer is a waste of metal.

Sorry for any offense, but it was a joke.

Also, if it was capured, Truk would have been a good staging point for almost all future campaigns. And bomber attacks during the middle of the war were harrasing the USN in the area, and a danger to campaigns that were to take place around it. But, I see your point. Once all of the Zeroes, Kates, and Bettys lost their fuel, the base was of no use.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Using the Tugger set from Hasegawa, as well as a 1/700 Dragon PT boat and WEM 1/700 P-39 Airacobra, I decided on two scenes.
1. A PT Boat coming back from a scouting mission damaged, tied up to a tug with two high speed fireboats coming to its aid.
2. Another Scene of a damaged Airacobra in the Lagoon, with an crane boat, landing craft, and small speedboat rescuing the pilot. There are 3 figures on the landing craft, 7 on the crane boat, and 1 each on the plane and speedboat.

Both would be taking place within meters of each other.

I have also modified 7 6x6 trucks and 1 Sherman from the Skywave beachhead set.
1 truck has had the ridges sanded off. 2 others have been modified as a fuel truck and workshop truck (On the GHQ site, it mentions both were in every service unit). Another has become a flatbed truck with a single 20mm cannon and holding about 7 figures. The last 1 has had the ridges sanded off and a hole drilled behind the cab, making a "what-if" patrol truck.
The Sherman has about 9 figures sitting here and there all over the hull and turret (inspired by footage from the time period). The last two have been painted a blue/silver color, marking them as executive transports.

I apologize that I still havent gotten a good camera for taking pics. Could be a while though.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Okay, now I've assembled all of the buildings from from the following kits from the following companies:
Tamiya
-IJN Harbor set
Verlinden
-Military Shipyard Building set 1
-Military Shipyard Building set 2
-Military Shipyard Building set 3
WEM
-2 storey building x 2
-1 storey building
Skywave/Pitroad
-European Buildings
-Military Factory x 2
One of the small sheds from Verlinden had fallen apart (it was my first try) so I made it an AA mount, with a gun tub and twin 40mm bofors gun from Skywave - Thank you DML for all of the spares (thats how you make money)

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Now, I am home sick and I have made progress. I am waiting for a shipment to arrive and I have decied that this area of Truk will be a semi-developed dockyard (No gantry cranes or drydocks) filled with amphibious assult ships. The shipments will include kits from Loose Cannon and the Niko LST - no skywave sets available from US retailers, and I don't trust Ebay. Figures will be supplied by Eduard and vehicles a mix of Skywave, Niko,H-P and scratch. The docks are supposed to look like they were assembled quickly, by the Seebees, so they will be thin, wooden ones cut from the Loose Cannon Wood dock sections. In the area behind the docks, will be quarters for civilian workers - 3 hotels from the Skywave European Buildings set. Also in that area will be a Barracks, 2 different Warehouses and a motor pool building from Verlinden, as well as well as two of the longer warehouses from WEM. I'm still figuring out the arrangement of these structures.

The base has been started as well. There is a mountain in the top left corner, and on the left and bottom edges, flat terrain. At the left base of the mountain, there is a small hill containing:
Fuel tank - Tamiya Harbor set
a bunker - from a scrapped Airfix 1/600 Suffolk superstructure
5 AA guns - 2 twin bofors, 3 3 inch guns
At the base of the hill, a rocky coastline, a beached What-if Japanese Merchant Ship, and an aviation scrapyard - a mix of US and Japanese Aircraft.The AA guns are in the following locations. 3 inch guns are:
-on the fuel tank
-1 on either edge of the hill, facing out
The Twin Bofors
-on the bunker
-in a gun tub hanging out of the forward corner of the hill
On the left edge of the base, is a Barracks complex for the enlisted men comprising of 5 of the European Buildings, both of the WEM single storey buildings (acting as small motor pools), a communications complex, and boat repair station. These still don't have definate postions, but are going to fit in a courtyard that has the rocky coast, and is sealed off by a wall and security checkpoint to the south, as well as a scratchbuilt searchlight tower.
On the otherside of the wall, is a repair facility, made of 3 of the Skywave Factory buildings lined up in a column. At the bottom of the column, are 9 smoke stacks, as well as a Warehouse from the Tamiya Harbor set. To the bottom right of all of that will be the whole dock area.

At the base of the mountain, I hope to have a practice amphibious operation - vessels/vehicles undecided. Also, from the hill, a path will go throught the mountain to the Amphib. Practice Area.



Total Work time - 1 month

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

OK, I know I'm the only one posting things here, but my ideas aren't really that bad are they? Now, those shipments I was talking about in the last post have been canceled (No Niko LST available fromo Pacificfront), so instead of spending $40 on 4 loose cannon landing craft, I've decided to take a first leap - and order from e-bay. I am getting a skywave diorama set or two (Not telling my sources to get everyone I can. Muahahaha!), but I will say that if I got all of the Skywave Amphibious sets I found, it would be well over $100. I plan on getting, if possible, 2 LSTs, 2 LSMs, 2 LCIs (both types), British LCTs, and two sprues of the Beachhead set. I still might get the Loose Cannon LCTs though.

Anyway, I have also built all of the craft in the Tugger set. The two longer speedboats are now makeshift patrol boats, with twin MGs from the MTB set, and a depth-charge ready to roll off the back. The two shorter ones are now the fireboats I mentioned in my third post, only now, they are pulling 1 and 2 waterline whaleboats that came in the set, and they have a fire nozzle pointing of the port or starboard bows. The cables pulling the boats and firehoses are paintbrush bristles. The crane ship is also mentioned in the third post. I have replaced the boom with one from Verlinden. The small tug from the set is now a makeshift floatplane carrier, with the boom from the original craneship in between the two
funnels facing aft. To go with this, I have made a F4F-3S "Wildcatfish" - a spare from a scrapped Hornet. Floats and supports were made using torpedoes from the MTB set and spare PE. (It was my first researched build). I hope to also add a Kingfisher under tow by the ship. The water carrier and torpedo freighter have been modified as What-if Yard Minesweepers (After just a few months, and with Japanese still in the area, I don't think dedicated ships like that would have been shipped there right away), both with scratched masts, rigging, msc. details, and armament.
Torpedo Freighter: Hedgehog Launcher, 4 inch gun (fore), 3 inch gun (aft)
Water Carrier: 4 inch gun (aft), depth-charge racks
The medium tug has been little changed, wit the exception of a 20mm AA gun on the bow. The Large tug has had the deck gun from the IJN No. 13 Subchaser on the bow. The 3 large landing craft in the set have had PE 20mm guns put on the rear(what's that called again), and oine has had a 6x6 ambulance placed on it, heading for the PT boat mentioned in the third post. . The most changed was the Fuel Oil Carrier. Ths has had one of the Gato deck guns added in the center, with a 20mm on the bow and rear. Also added were the life raft assemblies from the Rudderow set. All the other vessels included have been little changed, with the exception of armament and other small details.

Using the subchasers from the Tamiya Gato set, I have made two variations:
1) a normaly built No. 13
2) the other being modified with US armament (ie, a 3 and 4 inch gun, and a twin bofors on the fantail. For the same reason for the "Minesweepers", I doubt any dedicated subchasers would be available, them being needed on the West Coast, in the Atlantic, and at other Amphib. ops.
The regular No. 13 is of no use, and has a lot of holes in it, because it is now being used as a target for dummy boms and torpedoes. The range is located on the far side of the mountain. I have taken some modellers licese in being that all of the equipment is still on the boat, except the mast, which is slipping off the side from a previous hit.

The What-if beached Japanese freighter mentioned some time ago was made using the full hull from the Trumpeter Liberty ship, cutting and placing 5 cm of the bow with 7cm of whatever the back is called. I have cut off the rudder assembly and propeller assembly located there. I made a deck out of balsa wood, a crane from a scrapped 1/1200 Enterprise from Revell, a spare bridge from the Rudderrow, a mast assembly from the Gato, and spare gun mounts from the Dragon Laffey and San Diego. It has 2 MGs in the bow, and a spare 88mm from the MTB set. I painted areas of the keel a faint silver, showing paint chips from its time on the rocky shore.The central section has the hold, with supplies all gone, but with boulders thrown down there to prevent the ship from getting loose in the harbor.

In the scrapyard, I have placed 3 Zeroes, found in the freighter, damaged from previous attacks. Also in there, are some Japanese tanks, and a bunch of old, rotting aircraft. Most of the scrapyard is on the rocky shore, next to the freighter, with boulders lining the edge for the same reason there are some in the freighter.

Also, with one more upgrade for the GMC trucks, I have fasioned a fuel trailer seen on the GHQ site, using PE from a DML 1/144 tank, wheels from a 1/700 Liberator, and a wheel from a failed attempt at upgrading a 6x6 truck (which broke in half).

Like I said, I hope I won't be the only one posting, and I'm working on a diagram of the layout, but I just need to know how to post a Powerpoint document here.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

I'm quite sure we all like the idea, but we like pictures more

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De quoi s'agit-il?

I think you are missing the one type of building that the Seabees built all over the Pacific. The Quonset Hut

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Russ

Actually, I was looking to contact either Loose Cannon or Don McKeand, who has made quonset huts for his Londonderry diorama. Both have amazing quonset hut designs. Loose Cannon has it in the "MacHale's Navy" Special Series set, and Don's can be seen @ finewaterline.com (http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/gall ... erry14.htm)

And thank you, Russ2146, for the excellent reminder.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Once again, I've cancelled the e-bay order. Now, I'm going to rely on Loose Cannon, and wait for the Skywave LSTs to come back. These sets (the Loose Cannon ones) are better detailed anyway, other than the reails they lack. Anyway, I hope to acquire these ship types:
LSM
LCI(L) - both types
LCT 6
LCT 5
LCS
LCI(G)
LCM(R)
LCI(R)
LCM
LCVP
and hopefully, if theres room in the budget, a Haskell or Artemis. Army and Marine aircraft have been painted either aluminum or olive drab. Aircraft include:
4 P-57 Thunderbolts
4 P-51 Mustangs
4 P-38 Lightnings
5 Hawker Tempests
9 P-39 Airacobras
2 B-24 Liberators
8 B-25 Mitchells
10 F4U Corsairs
These aircraft will all be positioned around the scene, and some in the water.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Since the last post, I have done 4 major things.
1) Paint all of the vehicles and Aircraft
2) Rebuild the USN designed type 13 IJN subchaser
3) Make the boat repair station
4) Question if this should still remain dedicated to amphibious ops.
All of the Barrage Balloons, Shermans, LVTs, 6x6s, Jeeps, and 2 corsairs have been painted using Testors Enamel paints (olive green). What makes this sooooooooo special is the way I painted them. The procedure:
-dunked them into the small jar and let excess drip off back into the jar
-placed them on a small, protective sponge
-sandwich the vehicle in between, leaving a coat on, yet showing every last detail.
The USN type 13 subchaser underwent an entire refit. The only parts kept were the bridge and hull. I used parts from one of the scrapped 1/700 Dragon Benson destroyers. These parts were: the top 1/3 of the forward funnel, two K-gun mounts on the stern, Twin 20mm Oerlikons, Foater net baskets on the bridge wings, a 20mm director and mount in between the guns, as well as the top of the mast and the flagpole (or whatever it is) from the rear. Other parts inculde a 3 inch gun, 5 inch 38 cal. gun, a spotlight, life boats, and a splinter sheild for the 5 inch gun out of PE. From Bow to Stern, this what I did: 3 inch gun, spotlight and main mast on bridge, floater net baskets on starboard and port sides, 20mm director and mount behind bridge, life boats on starboard and port sides. Behind that, the second mast, two 20mm twin mounts - starboard and port, funnel, 5 inch 38 cal with splinter shield facing aft, and the K-guns, both on centerline, 1 each facing port and starboard. The area of the bridge looks like a modern destroyer.
The boat repair station was fairly simple. I used parts from scrapped Dragon San Diego. These were the boat deck and crane. A PE crane cab from Verlinden made a workshop for the area. This was placed on the rocky shore, and now, I cleared the rocks in front of it were cleared, I dug two ditches and threw sand at the base. The holes are kind of drydocks that dont open, a boat will be seen being pulled ou by a landing craft.
Now, I question my decision of this being dedicated to amphibious ops., mostly because of the pricetag that comes with the idea. Other ideas in the works are a normal dockyard with a crane and liberty ship, and also, an Torpedo boat base, shared by British and American craft.

Anyway, thank you all who actually READ my progress, and please, if you have suggestions, post them or send me a PM. Any would be helpful and replied to.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Never saw an olive drab or a silver (Other than prototype) F4U. Olive drab was never an authorized color scheme as far as the Dept of the Navy.

There are quonset huts and then the Seabees came up with variations. I just found this picture.

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Russ

Oh, I'm sorry Russ2146. I dont know if I said this before, but this is a joint base used by the US, UK, and Austrailia. The Corsairs are only being painted with a green tone for now, waiting for a darker gray tone as used by the Corsairs of the HMS Formidable, and the 1842 Sqdn Fleet Air Arm. Still researching if the carrier ever went to the pacific with its aircraft painted in that scheme.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

I finally can post pics! Here are the painted vehicles.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

More pics! This is the current progress on the ships and craft. I've decided - unless I see those LSTs back out within the next month, This is going to be a torpedo boat base (For PTs, MTBs, and other craft). Oh, I fprgot to mention, all MTB, and PT parts that are shown have since been taken off, and they are undergoing refit.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines