“Entering Germany” ( 1/16 Greyhound diorama ) by modeller Greg Cihlar caught the eye of Modellers Without Borders VP secretary Rob Booth at the MMSI Chicago show, which brought him the MWB WOW Factor Award.

he Kit is from Andy‘s Hobbies with the only modification being a set of tires with chains from SOL. Built straight out of the box with some heavily converted figures from SOL along with replacement heads from Alpine and Royal. 

Greg wanted to create a sense of drama, as if somebody was sneaking up on them from behind, so he started out with the machine gunner swinging around to see what they were looking at, followed by the two infantry on the back also, noticing something wasn’t right along with another crewman turn around to look as well.

He used mil-a-put to re-sculpt the arms and legs to create the scene he was thinking of. Everything was airbrushed with a mix of Tamiya brown/black to create the shadow effect. The greyhound was sprayed with multiple layers of olive drab working his way to a faded green, then washed with multiple layers of AK track wash, Kursk and winter streaking finishes. Pretty much the same goes for the figures, although after airbrushing to create the shadows and highlights, the figures were finished off in Vallejo acrylics with all flesh tones finished in oils.

He wanted to create a rough terrain, so Greg manipulated the suspension which also created a more dramatic appearance. The groundwork was created using Great Stuff spray insulation foam, then carved to create the uneven groundwork, covered with Cell U Clay, small rock, rocks, and sand, static grass and roots from Greg’s yard. It all came together pretty quickly as he’s been doing this for a long time. Greg started out with dinosaur models when he was a kid, then a whole lot of armor diorama’s, but nowadays, he’s mostly doing smaller figure based vignettes and dioramas.