At last I have marshaled all the items I’ll need to begin work on what promises to be the most detailed diorama I have constructed, since having resumed 1/35 scale military modeling.

As you can see from the photograph above, in addition to acquiring a kit of the vehicle that will form the diorama’s centerpiece, I have purchased reference books, figures, and myriad add-on part sets, which will enable me to “hyper-detail” the intended scene.

The items in the photo above include a variety of internal and external parts that weren’t included with the standard kit of the German halftrack that’ll anchor the new diorama. I will explain this customization in future blog posts. That being said, here you can view one thing that I am already undertaking . . .

They may be hard to make out, but I have already affixed a total of 187 scale rivets on the vehicle’s chassis and superstructure. These range in size from 0.8mm to 1.4mm! There’s a lot more to go.

Scratch-building models is fraught with potential bad outcomes, but I threw caution to the wind and worked up this Sd. Anh. 473 “Leuchfeueranhanger.” That’s a typically complex German term for a trailer used by the Wehrmacht as a towable office, used by officers in the field. There once was a resin kit for the Sd. Anh. 473 but it’s no longer available, even on the aftermarket.

Ssssssssooooooooo, if I wished to include such a trailer in my diorama, I would be forced to make one myself. While the result is far from perfect, I am pretty happy with it; in the scene I envision, the trailer will be used as a mobile casualty station. The Red Cross placards are meant to deter the enemy from strafing the trailer.

That’s all I wanted to cover in the inaugural post on this project. Stay tuned for more of them (a lot more)!