SteveKrieg
Company Commander
Hello all.
Firstly, I hope all went well with your festive break and all the best going forward into 2024 (I personally hope that it goes slower in pace than the last). Secondly, another year - another project theme and this year, to mark the 80th milestone anniversary of the event, it's all about D-Day 6 June 1944. It goes without saying that this key operation by the Western Allies was on a hitherto scale (before or since it could be argued) and involved millions of people both military and civilian from all manner of occupation in what today are termed to have come from the 'Greatest Generation' (having lived the depression as a child to then go off to war as a young adult).
With all that in-mind it would be well-nigh impossible to cover every facet of the invasion so best I focus on one aspect - that of the five landing zone (beach) spearhead units whose job it was to break into the coastal crust of 'Fortress Europe' so that the massed follow-on formations had a place to land before pressing forward into the French interior, that way I can just concentrate on the uniforms and equipment of some 175,000 assault troops rather than the millions involved - American, British & Canadian in the most part. Scenes will be dedicated (with supporting narrative) to cover all the key units involved including the airborne drops on the flanks and the U.S. Army Ranger assault on Pointe-du-hoc.
As with previous showings at ScaleACT I've thought to introduce the visitor to the diorama series with an opening 'pop-culture' scene, that of the most iconic of D-Day movies - 'Saving Private Ryan'. DML released the first movie tie-in with Captain 'Miller' back in 2002 and is one of four figures based on Tom Hanks' character now in my collection with the CHE five-figure release in 2011, then DiD (two in-fact from them with the latter a more refined version) and, most recently, Facepool offerings. DiD brought out a few figures from the movie and Facepool has done likewise but no one has brought them all out in-total so the figures I've assembled are from both DiD and Facepool in order to fill the entire squad accordingly. All are out-of-the-box will little additional detailing save some weathering to Wade's medic helmet and it took re-watching aspects of the movie several times over in order to ensure correct equipment positioning (Hank's first aid kit seen to the front of the figure since moved central to the rear once I discovered that hiccup).
Given the nature of the movie's storyline, I've positioned the Facepool 'Ryan' separately on its own stand (which comes with the figure). I was looking to have the Facepool sniper 'Jackson' in the belltower diorama piece that came with the figure (as a separate purchase) but then decided the group shot option better in this case. The movie itself will be covered in greater detail on the reverse of my larger information board in order to not only go into the movie, characters, production etc but also to correct some of the factual and tactical errors seen in the movie which, as with most period movies, are often interpreted as 'fact' by some viewers given, as with my previous ventures, half of the hobby is research and education.
Firstly, I hope all went well with your festive break and all the best going forward into 2024 (I personally hope that it goes slower in pace than the last). Secondly, another year - another project theme and this year, to mark the 80th milestone anniversary of the event, it's all about D-Day 6 June 1944. It goes without saying that this key operation by the Western Allies was on a hitherto scale (before or since it could be argued) and involved millions of people both military and civilian from all manner of occupation in what today are termed to have come from the 'Greatest Generation' (having lived the depression as a child to then go off to war as a young adult).
With all that in-mind it would be well-nigh impossible to cover every facet of the invasion so best I focus on one aspect - that of the five landing zone (beach) spearhead units whose job it was to break into the coastal crust of 'Fortress Europe' so that the massed follow-on formations had a place to land before pressing forward into the French interior, that way I can just concentrate on the uniforms and equipment of some 175,000 assault troops rather than the millions involved - American, British & Canadian in the most part. Scenes will be dedicated (with supporting narrative) to cover all the key units involved including the airborne drops on the flanks and the U.S. Army Ranger assault on Pointe-du-hoc.
As with previous showings at ScaleACT I've thought to introduce the visitor to the diorama series with an opening 'pop-culture' scene, that of the most iconic of D-Day movies - 'Saving Private Ryan'. DML released the first movie tie-in with Captain 'Miller' back in 2002 and is one of four figures based on Tom Hanks' character now in my collection with the CHE five-figure release in 2011, then DiD (two in-fact from them with the latter a more refined version) and, most recently, Facepool offerings. DiD brought out a few figures from the movie and Facepool has done likewise but no one has brought them all out in-total so the figures I've assembled are from both DiD and Facepool in order to fill the entire squad accordingly. All are out-of-the-box will little additional detailing save some weathering to Wade's medic helmet and it took re-watching aspects of the movie several times over in order to ensure correct equipment positioning (Hank's first aid kit seen to the front of the figure since moved central to the rear once I discovered that hiccup).
Given the nature of the movie's storyline, I've positioned the Facepool 'Ryan' separately on its own stand (which comes with the figure). I was looking to have the Facepool sniper 'Jackson' in the belltower diorama piece that came with the figure (as a separate purchase) but then decided the group shot option better in this case. The movie itself will be covered in greater detail on the reverse of my larger information board in order to not only go into the movie, characters, production etc but also to correct some of the factual and tactical errors seen in the movie which, as with most period movies, are often interpreted as 'fact' by some viewers given, as with my previous ventures, half of the hobby is research and education.
