Hi Carl

Sorry for the late reply!
Although not a dynamic diorama (they are just sailing in close quarters, with no real action other than that) it's very well accomplished, and I must say, that it reminded me of some of the exercises we made (last century, when I was still in the Portuguese Navy). In model form this may look "boring", but in real life, going side by side with another ship (replenishment, man transfer, or any other situation) is a very stressful situation and could turn into an accident (depending also on sea conditions).

Very well done, water very realistic and flawless ships!
Bravo Zulu Carl


Rui

Thank you for your comments, Rui! "No real action" is right. For future reference, would you have any suggestions as to what you would have liked to have seen in a diorama like mine? What about 1/700 figures or a helo landing or VertRep'g like a Sea Knight dropping a cargo load on the helo pad?

We all know that ships didn't always travel so close together and that it is almost impossible to portray them in a more realistic setting with them farther apart, size of the diorama base being the limitation. We try, though, don't we?

I did have a morbid idea of incorporating and painting an F-14 in Iranian colors as an ironic suggestion of the fact that the USS Vincennes thought that the Iranian airliner was an Iranian F-14. I could not consciencely go through with this idea. I did not want to commemorate the shooting down of a civilian air liner, but the operations in escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz while Iran and Iraq were duking it out. There were many incidents of Iranian small boat harrassments to oil tankers, of many nations, during this time.