MILITARY DIORAMAS by Paul Asaban

Welcome graphic

This site is dedicated to my children and to all the servicemen and women that have protected us since 1776. To all of you, I humbly dedicate my work.

Panzer Grenadier, Minsk Front 1941

A hobby can be an area of interest that helps us relax from everyday pressures, or, as in my case, it can be a labor of passion and excitement. Whether it's playing drums, gardening, carpentry, photography, painting...we've all acquired certain skills in our lives, and it's only right that we should want to share the results of our hobby and also share what we've learned about how to do it well.

A-4 Skyhawk

Throughout this site, I'm going to talk about models, show you pictures of my models, talk about modeling tips, and share my love for the art and my passion and hunger for military history - especially that of World War II. I'll give a bit of history on the subject models, as well as some background on how I got involved in building models. And, of course, I'll include lots of pictures of the results of my hobby.

The key to making good models is simple. TAKE YOUR TIME. BE PATIENT with yourself and let your talents grow. Rome was not built in a day, and neither is talent. HASTE MAKES WASTE was never more true than when applied to building models.

Typically, I try to be as thorough as possible in my research and assembly. Research is usually about 4 to 5 hours for each model. In some cases, much longer. Are the markings correct? Is the dirt the right color? What does the vegetation look like in Minsk? What kind of houses existed in Aachen in 1944? Did German troops have MP-44's during the Bulge? How did the Japanese fasten wood to build docks? DO YOUR RESEARCH. It's fun, and adds a lot of realism to your model.

TAKE YOUR TIME. The average tank takes me about 50 hours from start to finish. Larger tanks can take 60 hours or more.

Each figure averages about 10 hours, especially if laden with equipment. A face can take forever, and I often do them over 4 or 5 times. As a result, some faces take 1- 3 hours.

Aircraft can take from 80 to over 100 hours. Sometimes, I make dreadful mistakes and I have to buy another kit to get parts I have destroyed or blemished beyond repair. My record is 4 kits used to build the Monogram F-14A shown on this site. Extensive modifications to the stock model were the cause of many bloopers on this F-14!

Accidents DO HAPPEN, so never give up. In building the Dauntless SBD, I spent many many hours doing the interior, and set the fuselage halves on my work desk to dry. One of my cats, Audie Murphy, took a stroll across the desk that night. I had neglected to tightly cap my Testors liquid glue and he knocked it over, turning half the fuselage into a mass of liquified plastic. This SBD was an old Matchbox kit long out of production, but miraculously, I looked on EBay and someone had just posted the same model for sale. I bid an absurd amount to get it, and the result can be seen in the photo album. Fortune favors the deliberate.

The good pictures in this site were taken by my sister, Rica (Rickie) Asaban. The lousy ones were taken by me. As the site progresses, I will add better photos!