We had our first group work session for D-Day Diorama Phase 2 – Vierville Draw. John Drye, Tom Karstens and Jeff Hammer joined me today for a long work session. I have been working on this diorama for about 3 weeks, though we had house guests one of those weeks so I didn’t get much done in that period. The group got a lot done today.
JD painted the “boat people” figures. These are figures intended to be US soldiers riding in landing craft. However, many of those will be converted to casualties. He is doing this by sanding the figures so they would lie flat on front or back. He marked the side that should face the ground with red paint – so the red is not supposed to represent blood. However, this diorama will have a lot of casualties, over 100. So there will be some blood visible.
Jeff painted infantry figures on land and obstacles. He will bring the finished figures later this week.
Tom prepped all the LCAs and tanks for paint. That involved removing marks from the 3D print supports. He them primed them. Next he airbrushed the boats after I gave him a short block of instruction on using an airbrush. It was his first chance at using an airbrush. We said, “I’m sold on airbrushing now.” It didn’t hurt that he was using a Harder Steenbeck Infinity airbrush. One of the finest on the market.
I worked on the ocean waves and the seawall. I had previously made the wooden base and terrain using foam in a manner similar to Phase 1. However, this terrain has more bluffs and a small village.
