Burned Mercedes diorama

A burned Mercedes diorama
Original: The Historama collection has a huge storage of treasures. This diorama somehowe got damaged and depicts an everyday scene in occupied Europe. A devasted truck litters the street.

Model: Italeri 35th scale, Mercedes on a picture frame with the half of a Italeri gate and a railroad tree.

Build: March 6 2023 - April 1 2023. How to keep the magnificent paint job and make a solid diorama? How to make the vehicle details correct? Quite a strugle....

March 30 2023

The coat of the peasant got a little strip to mimic the sides. The check pictures of the painted figure reveal some little touch ups needed.

March 28 2023

Final colour check for the truck and the total of the diorama. The little peasant and the Mercedes star are to be added.

March 26 2023

The base and the vehicle are made to fit together by the black paint sprayed on the base and the low part of the chassis. The gate and it's post have been cleaned, and some of the expert diorama builders convinced me it needs a figure. From 3 scrapped figures and some filling sheets a little Dutch farmer evolves. His hands firmly in his pockets. He probably is checking the Mercedes for usable parts. The bumper is a sheet of aliminium tin with the very recognisable strips and distance keepers in copper wires.

March 21 2023

I drilled holes through the base to prefent future mishaps. The chassis is bolted to the base with 1 mm wires. The drilling made me find, (just in time removed), the original glas sheet of the picture frame that this base is made from. As the Mercedes has a much bigger diesel engine that is partly visable, I need some convincing props.

March 18 2023

It starts to look like a cab. The oppend bonnet wil leave the firewall exposed so it needs a closing sheet and the openned door needs the bottom of the cab extended. The floor in the kit is the floor of the Blitz!.

March 12 2023

Decisions are made. it comes nose to the left. The dash is keeping a 3 mm gap to the bonnet, so while fixing the rest of the cab parts it must be adjusted with preasure.

March 8 2023

Diorama is not really my cup of tea. The check pictures are to decide how to put the truck on the base. The cargo has impossible holes, but a little shift in placing makes it ok. The first fixes on the vehicle include brakedrums in the wheels, and a differend wheel center in the frontwheels. The cab parts are made to fit together again.

March 6 2023

The remains where not viewable. This picture is a step up in the proces of getting it viewable again. The cab is the biggest problem. Besides the damage in the storage it has 2 problems. The original builder was crafty with heat but made some impossible damages, and the Merceds is in fact an Opel Blitz with a new cab and bumper. The left side bonnet is replaces with a tin version. the radiator has a new edge and the left fender has the huge holes filled. The bumper is a problem. that is not fixable. And the massive steel U-beam would have stayed straight, regardles of the inflicted heat.