MILITARY DIORAMAS by Paul Asaban

Photo Album 16 - The First Time I Saw Paris

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Photo Album 1 - The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 2- The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 3 - The Road to Minsk
Photo Album 4- OS2U Kingfisher
Photo Album 5 - Flakvierling
Photo Album 6 - Building the Flakvierling
Photo Album 7 - Dauntless SBD
Photo Album 8 - Dauntless SBD
Photo Album 9 - Channel Gazing
Photo Album 10 - Stuka and Matilda
Photo Album 11- ME-109 and Spitfire V
Photo Album 12 - Anzio
Photo Album 13 - Anzio
Photo Album 14 - Bastogne Aftermath
Photo Album 15 - Normandy Ambush & more
Photo Album 16 - The First Time I Saw Paris
Photo Album 17- Aachen 1944
Photo Album 18 - Aachen 1944
Photo Album 19 - PT109
Photo Album 20 - "Corner Kick" Curtiss P-40
Photo Album 21 - Building "Corner Kick"
Photo Album 22 - Black Widow
Photo Album 23 - Assorted models
Photo Album 24 - Somewhere in Saudi (A-10)
Photo Album 25 - Top Gun Air Show
Photo Album 26 - Top Gun Airshow 2
Photo Album 27 - The Mother of all Battles
Photo Album 28 - The First Night - F-111
Photo Album 29 - My kids are in on the action - Christian's Dioramas
Photo Album 30 - My kids are in on the action - Nicole's Dinosaurs
Photo Album 31 - Coming Soon - Operation Market Garden
Photo Album 32 - The War Room
Photo Album 33 - Antique Ships Restoration Project
Photo Album 34 - Restoration Project II
Photo Album 35 - Restoration Project III
Photo Album 36 - Restoration Project IV
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WORLD WAR II DIORAMAS
"The First Time I Saw Paris"
M-10 Tank Destroyer
 

First Time I saw Paris - Top View.jpg

Above: An M-10 Tank Destroyer stops on the Hills of St. Cloud, just outside of Paris, on August 25, 1944. The crews of the M-10 and the Jeep are awed by their first look at the City of Light sprawled before them in all its splendor. The M-10 was built by GMC and armed with a high velocity 3 inch anti aircraft gun. The gun was mounted in an open turret, itself mounted on the chassis of the M-4A2 Sherman tank. The idea of the "tank destroyer" (TD), fast, agile and with good firepower, was borne of the superiority of German armor. The TD units were supposed to move in fast, hit hard, and get out. Great in theory, but in practice, the TD battalions did poorly in tank vs tank combat and for the most part were used as mobile artillery and for close support of ground troops. This scene is based on a real street in St. Cloud. The streets are clay, the sidewalks balsa wood, the groundwork is Celluclay and the stone walls are Celluclay with aquarium stones set in the clay while still wet. The M-10 is Tamiya, and the jeep and gun I believe are Monogram. The sign above the street reads "Happy Welcome for you Allies", and is an authentic reproduction of a sign I have in photos of that great day for France. The graveyard has names on the headstones. I was feeling a bit "humorously morbid" that day, so I named the dead after infamous French serial killers, such as the 19th century Paris killer Landru.

First_Time_I_saw_Paris_-_Overall_View.jpg

Above: A view of the whole project.

First Time I saw Paris - Closeup French Folk.jpg

Above: A Frenchman, his daughter and their dog. The man carries French bread and a miniature version of Paris Soir, a Parisian Newspaper. The date on the paper is August 25, 1944. The street is named after my mother, France Asaban.The dog and the man were easy enough to find inTamiya kits - the girl was a whole different story. I found her in a series of very poorly detailed "railroad" people sold at a train hobby store. All these figures were made of pink plastic and had grossly disproportionate body parts...so getting her to look human was quite the challenge.

First_Time_I_saw_Paris_-_M10_Turret_Rear_Deck.jpg

Above: The rear deck of the M-10, complete with a case of French Calvados wine (scratch made from balsa wood) and a case of C-rations. Note the billboard full of German propaganda posters in the background. This street is named after my father, Maurice Asaban.

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