My ball-tank diorama is now featured at MiniArt Models!
For the last five years, Patti has encouraged me to get back into model-making, and my office ceiling has become festooned with mostly World War Two aircraft. In January, I received a surprise birthday gift (thanks, Nigel), which inspired my diorama.
This 1/35-scale kit – MiniArt Models 'Soviet Ball Tank with Winter Ski' – was a mind-bogglingly complex depiction of a fictional Soviet WWII vehicle, variation on the Nazi Kugelpanzer experimental 'ball tank.' It sent me down a rabbit hole of research.
I noticed the kit was made in Ukraine, so I decided to make it more contemporary. I added a couple of figures, also Ukrainian-made at Master Box, with proceeds going to the war effort. Patti suggested illumination, and this became my first LED installation.
My concept: two Ukrainian infantrymen commandeered this old relic and, as they were rolling about the frozen tundra attacking invaders in this Soviet-era death-ball, they noticed a wonky signpost on a tree. Ukrainians had removed most road markers to confuse the Russian advance, but I decided there could still be a few small signs that had been forgotten. And so, they stop to check their GPS to plan an attack on their occupied home city. Meanwhile, a stray cat from a farm comes by, looking for a handout.
Slava Ukraini.
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