2011 OHMS Model of the Year:

Bruce McKinney's KAPITULIEREN? NEIN! (Surrender? No!) Diorama  

Bruce brought this diorama into the November 2011 meeting where it easliy won gold for the night. At the Christmas party in December it was overwhemingly voted 2011 Model of the Year by our membership. Congratulations Bruce!!!

In Bruce McKinney's own unique verbage, here is how he went about creating this detail packed diorama:

KAPITULIEREN? NEIN! (Surrender? No!) Diorama  

By Bruce McKinney

So, Larry e-mails me to do a write-up on my recent diorama of a Battle of Berlin street scene titled- Kapitulieren? Nein! I can only assume his real intent was to get some "filler" material for the monthly Larry Randel OHMS newsletter. So, I'll do my best here to fill his request without getting too "wordy" or boring.

First off - the title may need to be explained? KAPITULIEREN? NEIN! Translates to SURRENDER? NO!! My inspiration for the diorama was my fascination with the whole Russian army kickin' booty on the Germans after Stalingrad and Berlin being bombed to oblivion because Hitler refused any thought of surrender. To me, a fascinating facet of the European Theater conflict.

The main part of the diorama centers on Tamiya's JSU 152 Russian tank destroyer. It is a fairly new release that received very favorable reviews for its crisp lines and exceptional fit. However, I had problems with this kit - the FIRST time a Tamiya kit has ever yielded fit issues for me. I had some major gaps where the upper chassis portion joins with the lower chassis portion. I had to use several clamps on the front seam during the gluing process then had to fill, file and then texture the joint with Mr. Surfacer. I also had a heck of a time getting the mantlet cover to fit properly over the barrel. Again, I made the mistake of not putting the treads on when Tamiya instructs you do so and had some major headaches getting the individual treads to connect and stay put at the end of the build process - literally a whole day putting these things on. The model nearly hit the big round recycle bin at this point. Once the chassis portions were finally joined, the model was warped and rocked back on forth on the table. The fit was so bad on this kit that I was 100% positive I was doing something wrong as it’s so unlike any Tamiya kit I ever built. I used an Eduard PE details set to gives extra accuracy to the already well detailed Tamiya kit.

Once built and weathered, I only had time to add the model to a "temporary" base to enter it in the 2011 OHMS McMinnville Show. It gave me new inspiration to continue with the diorama when I took home a "Best Soviet Land Based Subject" award with the model.

So - back to putting it in the diorama. I have a "thing" about tank models that I feel they need to be displayed in a diorama setting or, at least, on a nice base with some groundwork. There is something wrong about just putting the model on a table - it just does not "look right" to me. This little fetish of mine has created some extensively long build times - and this was certainly no exception with this diorama.

I started by finding the appropriate sized base that happened to be a wooden base from Michaels Crafts that I glued to a picture frame. I knew this this was going to end up pretty big and felt a hefty base was in order. My next step was to glue the "Government Building" on the base. This is a cast plaster building from Diorama's Plus. I like this guy’s work and he has some real "tasty" destroyed buildings to work with. I started on the lower floor and did a destroyed office scene with paper laying about, toppled bookshelves, destroyed desk and a picture of Hitler on the wall. I found some photo's of a burned office building interior on the web and created a "shadow box" effect for the first floor by gluing the pictures on card stock then creating a "wall" at the back of the first floor section. There's a ton of work in the office floor - but, sadly, you can hardly see my efforts now that the dio is completed. The 2nd and 3rd floors were finished with some added flooring and more furniture and broken and failed timbers. I then burned the whole arrangement with a small butane torch - and then sprinkled in some added debris using kitty litter and broken chunks of Plaster of Paris.

Next it was off to the exterior. The burn marks on the building were first airbrushed on - but it did not have a natural look when I was done. If you look at pictures of burned buildings, there is actually quite a bit of "texturing" on the burned walls. So, I finished up the burn marks with pigments and brushed on paint and used that small butane torch to get some pretty interesting "bubbling" textures. I think it came out pretty effective in the end. To really set the tone as a Nazi government building, I found a cheap reproduction eagle with swastika badge on E-Bay and glued it to the front of the building - it scaled out pretty nicely and finished off "the look" I was going for. I added the flagpoles and flags to reinforce the Nazi government building theme.

The debris around the perimeter of the building is a pretty easy process. I used "scale bricks" I pick up at various shows along with busted up dried Plaster of Paris "sheets" that I make in a pie tin. Break up your pieces, put them in a tin can, add some pigment dust, a very tiny bit of water, stir and, wa-la, you have some pretty decent looking "dusty" rubble. Stack or pile your rubble in place and then I spray the whole mess with a hand held spray bottle that contains highly diluted white glue. It should look like milk coming out of your spray bottle - this will, of course, hold your rubble piles in place once the glue dries. I added a chair and a grandfather clock to the rubble piles. Look at pictures of destroyed streets from WW2 - you will see everything and anything in the streets and in the rubble - so, nothing is too weird or out of place when it comes to adding it to a diorama. I added some burn barrels to the exterior of the building - with paper work scattered about the barrels - as if the building occupants were trying to burn their important documents before the Russians arrived.

I added an older Tamiya kit of a German Kettenkrad (tracked motorcycle) to the diorama. It’s an older kit, but has good details and built up really quickly. I did not spend a lot of time on the Kettenkrad as it was going to be smashed by some debris and covered with a light coating of dust. I think it added some additional interest to the whole diorama.

So, at this point it was time to "tell the story" with the figure placement. I used to dread painting figures but have come to look forward to doing them. I feel my figure and face painting has vastly improved over the past several years and I can attribute this to a lot of practice and looking at other peoples work for inspiration. The two "main figures" were the two Russian soldiers leaving the building with their war booty - German weapons and a bronze bust of Hitler. I hesitate to put dead figures in a diorama, but I felt this one really called for a couple to re-enforce the "surrender - NO" theme. I found some dead figures that worked well on the web, ordered those up, and added them to the outside of the building - with the Russian victors oblivious to their fate. The tank has six figures on it - driver and commander right from the Tamiya kit as well as three Russian infantry with one officer that are hitching a ride into Berlin. I did a bit of modification on the figures with arm placement and head placement and I think I captured a good pose on the figures that makes your eye wander forward on the tank. I modified one of the figures from carrying his machine gun by removing the gun, drilling a whole in his closed fist, then replacing it with a Russian red battle flag. The figures were all MIG products. Accuracy of uniform colors was important to me so I made sure to reference the section on Russian uniforms in my Allied Uniforms and Equipment book - a great source for modelers.
I completed the scene with more additional street rubble and the remnants of a park that was across from the government building - complete with a destroyed tree.

I nearly put this thing in the trash on several occasions because it was just fighting me all the way -along with the tank model slipping out of my hands and hitting the floor on one occasion. The PE parts on the tank continued to break off and this was rapidly becoming a multiple cuss word project and I continued on only because I was not going to let a chunk of styrene plastic and Plaster of Paris get the better of me. I am glad I soldiered-on and finished it as it is now my favorite piece and I feel it has the strongest "story" quality of any of my other diorama's.

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