MILITARY DIORAMAS by Paul Asaban

Photo Album 10 - Stuka and Matilda

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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
"Lunch Break" Ju-87 Stuka
"Waltzing Matilda" Matilda II
 

JU87D_Stuka_-_LunchtimeontheEastern_Frontcloseup.jpg

Above: "Lunch Break" - On the Russian Front, two ground crewmen break for lunch in front of a late model Junkers Ju-87 Stuka. This model took the shortest time of all shown here - I was done in about 60-70 hours. This is a 1/48 scale Monogram kit with a few 55 gallon drums and bombs from my "junk pile". Everything else is scratchbuilt, I built this one circa 1990. Once the scourge of European skies early in the war, the Stuka was no match for RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. The Luftwaffe was forced to use the dive bomber sparingly in the West from that point on. On the Russian front, however, the vastness of the theater and the variance in quality of Russian air units gave the Stukas another hey day in 1941-42. In 1943, Russian aircraft were finally up to the task at hand and Stukas again started to fall from the skies in large numbers.

El_Alamein_-_Matilda_II_Overall_View.jpg

Above: "Waltzing Matilda" - My first desert scene. A Tamiya Matilda II advances against a strongpoint along the coast road in Libya in 1941, supported by infantry, also from Tamiya. Note the abundance of captured German water/gas Jerrycans on the tank - a must in the North African theater. British water and gas cans were so inferior that their German counterparts were greatly sought after. The Matilda was a nasty surprise for the Germans at the time - the tank's heavy armor was nearly invulnerable to the German tanks of the period. Only the dreaded 88mm anti-aircraft gun, used in the anti-tank role, could stop a Matilda head on or from the side. However, nothing inspires technological advances like war - in less than a year, the Germans had fielded an improved Panzer IV with a high velocity 75mm gun and the Matilda's 15 minutes of fame were over. The dead Germans were my first attempt at dead figures, and posing them was more difficult then you would imagine. At first, every pose I tried just didn't look DEAD. At one point, they looked like sunbathers...but I finally got it after going through 4-5 pairs of arms and legs. Never give up.

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