Model Builder International Pilot Issue Model Builder International Pilot Issue | Page 28

HLI Quartlerly Contest
Winner - Kapitulation
March 7th, 1945, and World War Two is all but over.
On the Western Front, the Ruhr district is held largely
by Volkssturm and Hitlerjugend with scattered
remnants of the Wehrmacht and a few SS training
units. After cutting the Ruhr off and surrounding the
Germans, the US 1st and 9th Armies cleared
the Ruhr Pocket section by section.
By April 21st more than 300,000
German soldiers and civilians had
surrendered.
This diorama features
point men of the 9th Army as
they come across three
members of a

war weary SS unit who have long since given up
their will to fight. The German soldiers are standing
around smoking cigarettes and have left their
defensive positions unmanned. The American GIs
have just come into the picture and one is leveling
his M1 Garand, ready to shout commands for the
Germans to surrender.
The figures are a mix of Dragon and Tamiya. The
destroyed building is Verlinden plaster with a
scratch-built interior made up of balsa wood and
masking tape. The 20mm Flakveirling is Tamiya’s
older offering. The barrels are drilled out and a tissue
paper Zeltbahn in the splinter pattern was placed
on top and secured with white glue to camouflage
the platform from Allied air power. Sculptamold
and pink insulation foam make up a majority of the
groundwork. Squadron white putty was used to
sculpt the cobblestones where appropriate.
Chris Whitfield

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