Blackhawk Down (1 Viewer)

[EPGallagher]

Here are my 2 newest dioramas based on the movie and book Blackhawk Down, which are illustrations for an article I'm doing for Toy Soldier Collector and Model Figure Magazine. When I first saw the movie in 1993, I immediately wanted to build a diorama around that story, but as there were no figures, vehicles, or helicopter in scale at that time, and a busy life got in the way of scratch building everything, I put it off as a "some day I will!!"
20 years later, to my rescue comes Andy and his team. releasing great sets of both the rangers, D-Boy operators, and the Somali militia participants they fought. The Super Six Four rescue diorama I just made for General Bill Garrison, played by Sam Shepard in the movie and the overall commander of the mission. He and I were company commanders together as young Captains in the early 70's in Germany, and have been close friends ever since. As a retired Special Forces officer myself, I also wanted to pay homage to the Rangers and Delta Operators who fought their way out of Mogadishu street by street, and the incredible heroism of Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, who selflessly gave their lives to save the shot down crew of Super Six Four and the pilot, Mike Durant. In another stroke of luck, while on a family vacation to the Atlas mountains in Morocco last December, I stumbled upon Atlas Studios, where the movie was actually filmed, and many of the sets, now civilian housing, still stood. I got to take lots of pictures and get a real feel for the grittiness, which I tried to capture in both the dioramas.
The diorama buildings and walls were made from Home Depot foam insulation, and the vehicles and helicopter, although both out of scale, were kit bashed and detailed to fit the scene.
the the scene.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Fantastic work!

 

[villagehorse]

Couldn’t have been done by a more appropriate person, excellent. Robin.

 

[mestell]

Absolutely an excellently created and detailed display.

Mike

 

[bridport]

These scenes are superb!

I’ve always admired and been tempted by these Black Hawk Down figures.

Space, expense & wife mean I cannot justify opening up another collection front.

 

[Regnar Rick]

Hi Ed!

As a proud veteran of 3/75, great work!

RLTW!
Jake

 

[EPGallagher]

Thanks for the feedback guys...I appreciate it. Here's a couple more pictures of both the technical and helicopter, the 2 most time consuming parts of the project. As the 1/30 scale is hard to find for either, I had to use a 1/24 metal truck, "nicked" from my grandsons toy chest, and a 1/35 Academy Blackhawk kit. By extensively providing battle damage to both, the scale difference was a lot less noticeable. The K&C figures are highly detailed, and make the scene really come alive-thanks
Pat

 

[GI_Jigsaw]

Wow! Well done. Fantastic!

 

[Horus]

Outstanding work Pat, thanks for sharing the photos with us and hope it gardens you some commissions.
If you do the same scenes for other customers, you might consider getting the Helicopter and pickup 3D printed, so as to be in same scale. Just an idea.

 

[BHogan]

Incredible diorama! Thanks for sharing.

Brendan

 

[Mike97]

A Spectacular and moving dio

 

[paxtoysoldier]

So good you should sell it to them to use for advertising

 

[villagehorse]

Simulating the battle damage on both the truck and helicopter has been done to perfection. Robin.

 

[Panzer ace]

These dioramas are the type that go beyond superlatives or description.

Thanks for sharing your work.

 

[EPGallagher]

Outstanding work Pat, thanks for sharing the photos with us and hope it gardens you some commissions.
If you do the same scenes for other customers, you might consider getting the Helicopter and pickup 3D printed, so as to be in same scale. Just an idea.

Thanks Horus. I actually have several of my customers inquire, but I'm afraid my skill set doesn't include 3D printing, Any idea how I ight start? References?

 

[29 Let's Go]

A fantastic diorama paying honored homage to some brave lads.
Steve

 

[Horus]

Thanks Horus. I actually have several of my customers inquire, but I'm afraid my skill set doesn't include 3D printing, Any idea how I ight start? References?

You might contact Paul Bell, ho you can contact at Bellarus6666@gmail.com. He is a forum member.
I've had him print several buildings and a couple of tanks.

 

[Woodyskysolo]

Here are my 2 newest dioramas based on the movie and book Blackhawk Down, which are illustrations for an article I'm doing for Toy Soldier Collector and Model Figure Magazine. When I first saw the movie in 1993, I immediately wanted to build a diorama around that story, but as there were no figures, vehicles, or helicopter in scale at that time, and a busy life got in the way of scratch building everything, I put it off as a "some day I will!!"
20 years later, to my rescue comes Andy and his team. releasing great sets of both the rangers, D-Boy operators, and the Somali militia participants they fought. The Super Six Four rescue diorama I just made for General Bill Garrison, played by Sam Shepard in the movie and the overall commander of the mission. He and I were company commanders together as young Captains in the early 70's in Germany, and have been close friends ever since. As a retired Special Forces officer myself, I also wanted to pay homage to the Rangers and Delta Operators who fought their way out of Mogadishu street by street, and the incredible heroism of Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, who selflessly gave their lives to save the shot down crew of Super Six Four and the pilot, Mike Durant. In another stroke of luck, while on a family vacation to the Atlas mountains in Morocco last December, I stumbled upon Atlas Studios, where the movie was actually filmed, and many of the sets, now civilian housing, still stood. I got to take lots of pictures and get a real feel for the grittiness, which I tried to capture in both the dioramas.
The diorama buildings and walls were made from Home Depot foam insulation, and the vehicles and helicopter, although both out of scale, were kit bashed and detailed to fit the scene.
the the scene. View attachment 348510View attachment 348511View attachment 348512View attachment 348513

Absolutely brilliant