Hello,

I'm going to share a collection of photos of dioramas from my friend Bob. If you don't care for the backstory scroll to the bottom for the links. I'm just posting imgur links, I hope that's alright, if not let me know.

A large reason I got into building is because of Bob. He lived down the street from me and I purchased my first Sherman from a garage sale he was having. He then asked me to bring it to him when I was done as he would like to see how I did. At this time I must have been around 10 years old, and he has been retired for a few years already. Very much a master and a young apprentice type of situation.

So I finish this Sherman, bring it to show Bob. Now mind you, at this point I wasn't aware of Olive Drab, or the general paint scheme of any armor of any era so I painted it in some random camouflage pattern reminiscent of the camo on a Micro Machines Tank. I knock on his door, he answers, takes one glance at my horribly painted Sherman and let's out the kindest chuckle and says "that's not how it's supposed to look". To which I respond "wait, it's supposed to look a certain way?" and he responds, "here I'll show you".

At which point he shows me his work shop, and a row of shelves where there are countless dioramas mostly WW2 armor, with a decent amount of planes mixed in from a variety of eras.

I will always remember this moment as the one that REALLY got me interested in building models. For the next hour or so he was showing me all of his dioramas, explaining the location, the battle, the tanks everything! I WAS HOOKED.

Over the course of the next few years, after Bob got me started with a few basic supplies, and a kit or two I was well on my way to starting a life long hobby.

But where are the dioramas?

Well I'm glad you asked, since then he has moved, and only kept a percentage of his dioramas, and they have been essentially in hiding, so I've taken it upon myself to photograph these dioramas to share with you guys.

He takes a lot of his inspiration from magazines and historic photos so a lot of the overall layout of his dioramas should be recognizable.

Jagdtiger - https://imgur.com/a/8LN9SzE?

Battle of the Bulge - https://imgur.com/a/WXsltvy

Mk III Winter- https://imgur.com/a/sZIjJbn

Panther - https://imgur.com/a/mwYNWmC

T34 and Mk IV, Kursk - https://imgur.com/a/ylTGCZ8

That's it for now, I will have more up soon.

Edit: I'm not sure what kit's were used for what, additionally some of these are quite a few years old so there will be some sort of degradation of the overall quality.

I read the whole post. Great story. Bob is a good figure builder and painter as well.

These are mainly Tamiya model kits, including the old weapon sets for accessories, etc. I note that the jerry cans on the Panther has the spout centrally located, not offset to the side and the US ones are missing the central bar - a very common 'error' of the day.... even the 'master' had his flawed moments, as do we all

Verlinden style, as were most models built in the time, Francois being the inspiration for the resurgence of the hobby back then.

It is great you have these memories. I can see how you were inspired.

It is great to see a good news story in these times. Thanks for sharing.

All of these dios look really good when you consider the kits are likely older generation Tamiya, and there wasn't the wealth of AM & PE that we have now. I think Bob did fine! That Jagdtiger dio does use an old Verlinden building, and I still have one of the same in the stash. Thanks for sharing your story & the photos!!