Now, this is a real piece of my modelling history. This is perhaps my first real model (there were few attempts before, but I wouldn’t count them) and first diorama that I have built.

The year was 2006 and I was still rather new to the country. I picked up modelling shortly after my arrival, but the real eye-opener was the Box-to-battlefield course I took in Hornet Hobbies and led by my now long-time friend Dave Brown. This model was the outcome of this course and was really a learning piece for me.

My intention was to create a scene where, the crew of this mammoth got lost and suddenly found out that they are on the wrong side of the line…

There are a lot of aspects (composition is relatively weak, ground is flat, mud is not that convincing, etc.), which are let’s say, not at the level how I would do them now, but overall I think this is not bad piece. I used quite a bit of photoetch parts, metal barrel and Friul tracks. This was also the diorama with the highest number of figures I ever did in one piece. They are OK, I haven’t painted that many figures since, so I cannot say whether I am any better now.

Thanks go to Dave Brown, who dug this piece from the dark corners of the basement in his store…