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This diorama was built for a Campaign for Indirect fire weapons build being hosted by Armorama.com
The base for the firing pit was 1/2 inch construction insulation foam and covered it with spackle to create the ground. The next step was to paint the ground. Here I used assorted acrylic paints by Americana (Decoart) and Ceramcoat (Delta).
The posts were created from wood dowels, stained with Minwax Wood finish. The next step was to apply the grass and the dirt. This was accomplished using Woodland Scenic's "Fine Turf" Earth, Soil, Burnt Grass, Green Grass for the grass and finely sifted dirt for the exposed soil.
The M30 Mortar used came from Tamiya's M151A2 with M416 trailer kit. The base plate was modified by deepen the holes and removing the mold on handles. These were replaced with small pieces of thin twisted wired with some insulation left on it. They were attached with superglue. The kit's muzzle piece was replaced with aluminum tubing.
I made the ammunition box out of balsa wood strips cut to size, stained with Minwax Wood finish. The open storage tubes for the mortar rounds were made from aluminum tubing wrapped with tape. The tubes were painted with flat black to represent the black water proof wrapping and a tan to represent the inner cardboard tube. I also scratch built a TA-312 field telephone in its canvas case, which was hung on one of the poles.
The diorama still looked unfinished, so I decided to add some personal items to improve the realism. I accomplished this by scanning an envelope and a Finescale Modeler magazine, photographing a 1/50000 scale military topographical map and newspaper. I then reduced each image to scale.
This was accomplished using various shades of browns and greys of artist pastels.
4.2 inch mortar and crew set, a bonus in the Academy's 1/35 scale M151A2 Ford
MUTT with M416 Cargo Trailer #
Woodland Scenic's "Fine Turf"
Minwax
Woodfinish
Testor's Master Model Paints
Personal knowledge (20 years in the US. Army Infantry
Kevin
Robert Keefe and his website: Mortars in Miniature
FM 5-103
Survivability (10 Jun 1985)
FM 23-90 Mortars (1 Mar 2000)
