Operation Reforger was the US Army's plan to deliver forces from bases in the US into Western Europe to counter the mass Soviet Invasion they anticipated. Exercise Reforger was an annual wargame based on this principle - rapidly conveying US soliders to depots of armour located mostly in West Germany for maneuvers.
During the 1982 edition, the crew of a US M60A1 tank sit with coffee and await instructions for the morning's deployment, while a detachment of Bundeswehr soldiers march past.
This diorama started life as an excuse to play with a technique for concrete slab pavement that I saw on a Youtube video from Uncle Nightshift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSBMUJ3nd6A
It was initially a Chrismas weekend Blitzbuild on Britmodeller, but I was only able to finish the base during this time - tank and figures came later.
Some very thin cork sheet was cut to shape (on my classic 10x10cm base) then painted with concrete paste. When dry it was cracked and painted with weathering products to highlight the gaps.
I cracked open the M60 next. The U-star kits are rather strange - highly detailed plastic with a little etch sheet too, but without any decals or paint guide. They are from Taiwan and not regularly available in the UK - I picked this up at Telford 2023 for all of £3.
On some previous models I have drilled out a hatch or two, but the odd shaped hatches on the M60 would make this a lot more work.
After adding the nicely detailed etch, I had painted the tank in all-over green before discovering that the tank actually needed the four colour Verdant Summer camo, which took rather more work than the three days of the Blitz Build.
I always like figures on my vignettes, it adds scale and life to a scene. I recalled that I had some Cold War era German soldiers 3d printed from Panzer-Shop.nl who were ideal for this slice of Cold War exericse.
I don't have any specific 1980s tank crew figures with the right headwear, so I found some Red Ball Express drivers at rest from eBay seller 3djson who are wearing knitted caps and drinking coffee, who seemed well suited to a crew at rest.
To add a period flavour, I found a picture of some 1980s Munchen grafitti
This was copied onto a cork piece to make a concrete wall.
Tulle - usually used for wedding dress veils, can be combined with brass poles to make a nice chainlink fence
This was the scene at the end of the Christmas weekend. Subsequently I painted and decalled the tank base on reference photos and put all the figures together to make this slice of Cold War life. Topped off with a nameplate from Name It Plates.
