Here is a diorama of the Tet Offensive made by Todd. The central piece of it is an M-48 A2 Patton Tank.

My thanks go to Todd for this terrific submission to the website and he tells us about how he made it.

The Tank and the Accessories:
I started out with the M-48A2 kit, I think it was a Revell kit, and I ordered the accessories from Verlinden Productions--the four NVA, a bag of pre-painted sandbags, some ration boxes, and all the extra logistic cargo for the track.

I used a base and much of the diorama materials from SceneArama, purchased from the local crafts store.
I formed the physical features of the base with cardboard sections, draped with the plaster and painted with base colors.

Using glue, Elmer's, I attached the gravel, potting soil, debris (leftover bits of flashing for RR tracks and broken wall, etc.), bits of activated charcoal, and fake grass, and brush etc.and then spritzed it with watered down glue to coat and seal in place.

The white stone work was laminated cardboard that comes with the diorama set, and by simply cutting out one side of the outer sheathing of cardboard, it exposed the underlying foam interior--it looked like damaged masonry, with a little sculpting help from my trusty Exacto-knife. A little dry-brushing gave it a weathered and smoke-stained effect. The really interesting part was the fire from the flame-thrower. For this I glued some pulled apart cotton balls to small sections of toothpick, cut to fit the openings of the bunker.

After forming it, I lightly sprayed it with aerosol adhesive, (again, Elmer's Brand). Once it was mostly dry, four hours or so, (you really need to use rubber gloves and handle the sticky surfaces of cotton very carefully when shaping or handling) I painted it a base yellow color. But, before it completely dried, the glue and first coat of yellow, I dry-brushed it with a red--and then dabbed yellow again, for the final napalm-esque look.

Revell 1:35 M48A2 Patton Tank

• Features include: opening and closing hatches, movable turret, cannon, machine gun and tank treads
• Includes two crew members and six military figures
• Authentic waterslide decals
• 152 Pieces
• Illustrated assembly instructions

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