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Yom Kippur War diorama "West of Suez Canal, 1973"


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Hi Guys,

Here is my 40 Years commemorative diorama for Yom Kippur War. This was only the second diorama I have ever done in 50 years of modeling. I've picked up a few pointers along the way from talented modelers whose work I have admired for many years. I created a scene with an Israeli Defense Force M113 "Zelda" and an M-38 command jeep are riding along the sweetwater canal in Egypt. The M-113 is Tamiya and the jeep is from AFV Club. These small canals irrigate farmland west of the Suez canal. Sometimes the area is swampy and at other times nearly dry (see the below photos). My scene also includes the tail of a MiG-17 (Trumpeter 1/32nd) shot down by the Israeli Air Force.

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I used dense foam board (insulation type) inside a picture frame for the base.

Next step was to texture the board using a sharp knife and a heat-gun. I layered the board to build up the terrain.

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Next step was to cover the board with a plaster material. I use "water-putty". Lovely stuff for making diorama I found it. Easy to mix, long working time (45 minutes) and cures rock hard.

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This is what it looks like when it is applied. It cures to a nice sand yellow color. A bonus.

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I used some Cat litter for texture in the paste. Next I used a length of track from an old Tamiya Centurion kit and pressed down into the putty on the road section to give the appearance of a well traveled path for military vehicles.

I pre-positioned the vehicles so I would have a final idea in my mind how it would look.

I cut a large paint brush with natural bristles to make the high foliage near the water edge and road. Next, I mixed some clear epoxy and stirred in some Dark Brown pigment powder for the nasty water effect I wanted the MiG tail to be sitting in.

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I made a single Palm tree for atmosphere. What's Africa without palm trees??

To do this I cut some of my wife's artificial tree leaves that was sitting in a corner being useless. I took leaves only from the back side so she won't see any difference.

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After all this I started to glue very small patches of green and Brown foliage in places that would add some more life and interest to the scene.

I have some additional work on the M-113 because I haven't yet tied all the stowage down. I did not glue the vehicle yet so I can do this without damaging it. More photos to follow.....

Ed Okun/ Frogman13

Edited by frogman13
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I wanted to show details of the models a little bit in this post as they were the reason I decided to do the diorama to begin with. Here are some photos of the M-113 and crew during the build.

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I replaced the Tamiya vinyl tracks with the Fruil M-113 metal tracks. Wonderful effect but a hell of a lot of work !

I really like the weight it gives to this model...

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Edited by frogman13
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The crew for this vehicle were "Frankensteined" together from my spares box. I wanted to use the "Hornet" heads with the US Vietnam era tank helmet but these heads are waaaay too small to fit a 1/35th scale body. So I burred out the faces of Tamiya tanker figures from a few old kits and added faces into each helmet. That is a project and a half, I can tell you..

Beards and other facial hair are made from Green epoxy putty.

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Here are some photos of the M-38 during construction. The tarps were made with "Apoxy" putty. The passenger side Browning 03mg pintle mount was typical for an Israeli recon jeep.

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The Mig-17. I wanted to include something from the Egyptians in this diorama but it was getting too crowded for another large vehicle (originally I thought a T-55 or something like that). The idea came to me after I looked at a Yom Kippur war photo album showing some Israeli soldiers posing with a MiG-17 tail section. Interesting thing I noticed in a few other photos of crashed MiG-17 wreckage was the tail section seems to frequently detach, intact, from the rest of the fuselage. I happened to have bought a couple of Trumpeter MiG-17 models for next to nothing a few years ago and decided to sacrifice the fuselage, engine and tailplanes for the greater good. It also gave me a chance to try out the "Nile" camouflage scheme on this project before I do a full version on another (intact) model. I chopped, ground, heated and bent and added control cables, reinforcing frames and the end result is definitely a crashed plane. I'm sure it could be improved but in the end I was happy with the outcome.

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Edited by frogman13
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Bringing it all together.

I painted the depression in the foam with a dark brown paint and then used clear epoxy (2-part "Super Glaze" Ultra Gloss Epoxy) mixed with pigment powder to get the muddy water effect that I intended my MiG tail to sit in. Around the puddle are water plants made from 2"in. paint brush bristles. I scraped some very bright green pigment around the edges of the water to simulate pond scum. This technique actually came out looking pretty good although I was in doubt when I did it. Some colored railroad ground-cover glued around to give an impression of sparse vegetation.

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So that's the story of this diorama. I really enjoyed creating a scene out of history and using techniques that I'd only read about until now.

Cheers :-)

Ed Okun/ Frogman13

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  • 4 weeks later...

Fantastic job !!! :thumbsup:

Do you have by any chance photos of a damaged M60 tank? I'm planning to experiment with an old 1/72 ESCI kit and I was wondering if for instance the Egyptians had succeeded to seriously damage/destroy one during this war.

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Nice dio :thumbsup:

Fantastic job !!! :thumbsup:/>/>

Do you have by any chance photos of a damaged M60 tank? I'm planning to experiment with an old 1/72 ESCI kit and I was wondering if for instance the Egyptians had succeeded to seriously damage/destroy one during this war.

Israeli M60 were exclusively deployed against Egypt in the Sinai, with Centurions and Shermans starting the war in the Golan against the Syrians. The M60 fared badly against Egyptian guided anti-tank missiles during the Israeli counter-attack against Operation Badr, and if you type `Destroyed Israeli Tanks` into your search engine you will find a lot of pics of damaged and destroyed Israeli M60 from the 1973 war.

HTH

Cheers, Ian

Edited by Ian Buick
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Thanks for your reply Ian. From what I read, there were also quite a few M48s engaged in this conflict.

The difficult thing for me when I start my experimentation will be to build the "burned" tank tracks especially in the 1/72. :dontknow:

Cheers

Sernak

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your reply Ian. From what I read, there were also quite a few M48s engaged in this conflict.

The difficult thing for me when I start my experimentation will be to build the "burned" tank tracks especially in the 1/72. :dontknow:/>

Cheers

Sernak

No problems Sernak, glad if I helped.

M48 outnumbered M60 at the start of the war and were used in the Sinai alongside the M60, Centurion and Sherman.

When Israel stabilised the Golan front, Centurions and Shermans were sent from there to reinforce the Sinai. More M60 were delivered during the war by the Americans in Operation Nickel Grass.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nickel_Grass

Look forward to seeing more of your dioramas. :thumbsup:

Cheers, Ian

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