Darren Baker shares with us some pictures of his diorama called "Freezing Eastern Wind".

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Nice one Darren. Very cold feeling.
Obligatory question: what did you use for the snow?

Cheers,
C.

The snow is a mix of Woodland Scenics soft snowflake, Deluxe materials Scenic Shovelled Snow, and Treemendus snow.

Ola Darren

Very nice diorama.. Those masterbox figures surely bring down the temperature down a further couple of degrees.
Very well executed. And the King Tiger looks the part as well.

Darren,See?I told you the figures would look great Nice work Man,nice work. Jeff T.

Darren, great looking model and diorama, turned out great.

Darren: Very impressive!!! I am, currently, have the same kit on my shelf. I had wanted to do ambush camo, but your build has determined me to pull a 180. Great work, all around! I didn't know that Germany named their tanks.

Thank you for the positive reception guys.

Nice job Darren. You can almost feel the cold and the desolation. I built the same kit a while back (sadly since "K.O." during a house move) and used the Eduard etched Zimmerit (never again!!) and I think you got far superior results with the Cavalier set.

The only thing I'm not too sure about here is that if the tank was trundling along on its merry way, would so much snow be accumulated on and around its running gear - especially at the bottom? To my eye, as it is it looks more "parked up" than on the move. That would be my only reservation, other than to add maybe another dead tree trunk or two to add a little more interest to the groundwork.

Thanks for sharing!

- Steve

@CMOT – Darren,

I hope you do have one heck of a big smile on your face, killer job! All around excellent backdrop, foreground, figures, vehicle, composition and what really sets this one off for me is the black and white format you picked for your presentation.

~ Eddy

OUTSTANDING DARREN

Thank you for the great comments guys.

Steve I did consider this and looked through pictures of steel tracked vehicles in these conditions, and they do seem to accumalate a lot of snow and ice on the tracks as they move. I do agree that this is not always the case.

Darren, top work on that snow!

Darren,
This rocks! Really imparts a cold cold feeling and brilliant use of the background pic with the frosted tree.
J

My only possible criticism is the way you've got the tow cable passed through the U-bolt at the rear of the tank. This would only give the crew extra work to remove the U-bolt and free the cable in case it is needed, as the cable end loops are too big to pass through them. The large 'C' shaped hooks stowed on the upper left rear plate were locked onto the U-bolts with the loop of the towing cable locked into the other end of the 'C' hook (for towing). Of course, well and good if you have reference photo of that stowage - never say never!

Great looking dio

Thank you for the comments.

Biggles; I have no photographic evidence of tow cables being stored as depicted, I did however make sure they are the correct length and knowing that the Germans usually attached the tow cables to the front hitches this seemed a logical attachment point. It was always my belief that the clamp was for changing and repairing tracks.

Hi Darren,

It came out really good. Very good work with the snow too. I was planning to get some of the woodland scenic stuff. I'm happy I was able to give a small help during the build (thanks for the credit!).

spit

Pawel The data you provided was of a great help to me during the build.

BRILLIANT, Amazing, Well Done You!

Cheers

A comment relating to snow photography in general:

Just as your B&W photo looks colder than the full color version, might I suggest: Consider using the "saturation" control that is present in both the Photoshop and Gimp software to reduce (somewhat) the color saturation in your full color photos.

Snow and overcast skies intensify the blue portion of the color spectrum and reduce the intensity of any/all warm tone colors.

Reducing both the color saturation and contrast of your color photos should make them look even colder!

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The only exceptions would be dawn and dusk when the setting or rising sun projects brilliant warm tones due to being filtered through the thick atmosphere by the sun's low angle on the horizon. However in this case the light source in the photos should then come from a low, oblique angle rather than from high above.

Just a suggestion regarding saturation and contrast:

However if I have taken too many liberties with you work I apologize. I promise I will not do it again unless at your request.

As Always, Your work is fantastic!

Michael
165th Signal Photo Reenactor Comapny

Sometimes you see pics of the 'C' hooks (you called them clamps) prehooked and locked onto either front or rear U-bolts for ready use, especially on the heavier German tanks, as they tended to break down more often. But they were not used in the way you have depicted.

Engineering name for this device is a Clevis.

Michael no issues my end I will have a play on PS to see what I can do.

Biggles thank you for the information as it was a long held belief that that was what they were for.