This is the fourth kit on my Aurora want list. I really want to add this kit to my collection. It was issued in 1959-60. You cannot tell it from the first box art, but this one has a bas-relief lion in a cage behind the gladiator. Here is an image of the first box and the later box which was used when the Gladiator with Sword was re-named Spartacus, which is all I have until I find a copy of the kit.
Diorama Diary
I have really started to put together the overall diorama in my mind, so it is about time I started some work on the overall display. The backdrop is three buildings in France in 1942. From left to right, a grocery store, cafe and a German headquarters plus the sentry box and traffic rail. The buildings are only about an inch deep. They are mostly just fronts.
Vehicles include a BWM motorcycle with side car and an Sdkfz 251/1 from Tamiya plus a couple of bicycles.
The figures include the guards and civilians which came with the checkpoint. The French civilians, the crew of the halftrack at rest, several ladies queued up at the grocery store waiting for food, a German pilot describing a dog fight to a pair of ladies, a German officer getting a shoe shine, several German enlisted men just walking on the sidewalk or street. It is a very busy design with three buildings, a couple of lamp posts, the vehicles and somewhere between 30 and 40 figures. The most important thing about the entire diorama is there is no violence anywhere in the scene. This entire diorama was inspired by the below photograph of French civilians queued up for food.
Once I saw some of the non-combat figure sets currently available from Master Box, MiniArt, Tamiya and others, I just had to start building.
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