Hello,
My name is Matt and I am brand new to the boards. I will be uploading a huge basemet dio project witin the next few days. I started working on this in late 2001 and I am finally near completion. I have been patrolling all the sites(here, joecustoms, generaljoes and other amazing sites) for the past few years and have seen that many of you are amazing at 'dio stories.'

I, however, am not good at the dialogue thing and went with an all-out war theme. The one I'll be uploading is the penultimate armageddon-level war between the Joes and Cobra led by Osama Bin Laden. I took aspects of the TV show, comic books, the scene from the battle of Stirling in the movie Braveheart, and modern warfare ideas and fused them together. The only undercurrents of the story that needs to be prefaced are:

-Stormshadow, beachhead, billy, kamakura and Snake Eyes are a small band of infiltrators storming into the base of the terror drome

-Cobra has 2 nuclear missiles, 32 suitcase nukes and biological agents stored inside a non-descript new york city warehouse,

-Zartan assasinates a deckhand on the Flagg on his way to the bowels of the ship to destroy the flagg by exploding it's own ammunition.
Other than that, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Highlights to whet your appetite before you see this:
In addition to many original figures/vehicles/playsets, I have personally customized joes and cobras(including more than a dozen crimson guards) and numerous custom vehicles(including a crimson rattler- I really like that custom). My favorite custom figures I made are the Cobra de aco, Cobra Mortal, Cobra Invasor, Billy and of course, Osama himself.

Included will be a 7' long custom Flagg aircraft carrier I fashioned out of a shuffleboard table, wood for the deck, and the huge rolling command center thingy adjusted, painted and propped as the control tower.

two mountains(one an arctic battle)

a 7' winding waterway with 50 pounds of sand on the sides for the beach, and a bridge being traversed by Cobra artillery and viper forces

a custom 3-leveled base(disguised as a NYC warehouse) that the terrorists use to launch the nuclear strike

a terror drome fully stocked with the cabal

ravens, a whale being overrun by eels, 2 morays(1 customized), 2 custom cobra mini-subs,

original Joe HQ


BATS cutting through fences and overwhelming the defenses of Joe HQ

barbed wire, roads, fences
trees, grass, weeds, a swamp,

numerous ninja,

literally hundreds of figures in real-time, battlefield snapshot action


numerous planes(rattlers, skystrikers, etc) and trouble bubbles and fangs and dragonflies engaged in aerial combat and/or bombardment

BATS, old vipers, new vipers,

mobats, vamp, wolverines and numerous ground attack vehicles

and intricate placement of snipers, hand-to-hand combat, artillery shelling, and many minute features which add to the realism of the battle.

Needless to say, I have used more than 20 tubes of epoxy and have become quite comfortable with a dremel in the past 5 years.

My brief Joe-Bio:
I started collecting in 82, stopped in 86 and started again in 1997. When I got back into it in the late 97 a friend of a friend was selling all her son's joes. I bought everything she had and, amazingly, her son started where I left off in 86. I have scoured eBay in the past years and have picked up boatloads of figures/vehicles/ weapons, etc and customized alot of the less-perfect ones and amassed an army both sides of the war would be confident to go to war with.

There are at least 600 figures and at least 100+ vehicles engaged in this melee. I have to display the last few dozen figures that are floating and will start taking photos in the next 24 hours. I will upload by the end of the weekend all of the shots taken.


I really hope you enjoy the battle as much as I have enjoyed putting this together for the past 5 years.

Man...
I've just had a heart attack.
You'd better be doing it in chapters, as it sounds like too much to take in in one go!

7 ft long flag!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE MUST SEE.

This should be awesome, can't wait !!

I can't upload anymore pictures. What should I do?

Amazing how much dust I have down my basement. I can see it on the Flagg's deck and on the strafing rattler. Also- sorry for the wires in the pictures- they are metal and hold the aerial vehicles from the ceiling to the ground.

Is there anyway for me to get more space to upload more pictures?
I took over 200 pictures tonight and really want to share the detail with all of you.

That pretty much sums up the dio. If you happen to see 2 figure of the same character(like 2x cobra commanders in the terror drome)The original figure is the commander and the battlefield black version is just some random battallion commander. Also- there are 2 storm shadows in proximity to each other. The one with the dragon pants is just some random ninja.

Please let me know what you think.

I haven't finished the mountain with the holes in it(it's actually a desk). Eventually I'll get around to it. I didn't get a cahnce to display about 70 figures and when I do I'll re-take the photos with them in it.

I have identified some things that I want to enhance on the diorama:


1. The garage area of Arbco/Adeqa is in need of inside garage doors and more vehicles and figures. I was so excited after I finished that i really wanted to finally, after 5 years, take pictures and upload. Also- the front windows require trim to hide the epoxy shine around the glass. In addition- the fire escape broke off and I took th photos with the epoxy still curing. It needs some sanding and painting to sharpen it's look. I also made laaptops and files from the file repository to enhance alot of the goings-on inside.(the dude sitting at the table is just chillin' out and needs to get his sorry ass back to work!)

2. I customized 20+ vipers with mirage's body. they need to be put on the battlefield.

3. I also have many more figures to be displayed- Oktober guard, many other vipers than the ones customized, and joes. As I said- I was really excited to finally upload this project after 5 years.

4. The Flagg needs to have the stickers re-glued and Shipwreck placed upright. It looks crappy as-is.

5. The gold BAT at the entrance to the Joe HQ is an Overkill with a gold bat's head- hard to see in the pictures.

6. The infiltration team(Snake Eyes, et al.) to the Cobra Terror drome photos need to be re-taken as the detail of the hand-to-hand is more in depth than visible. I have many photos from a few years ago on my other computer and will upload them asap(as long as I haven't changed the scene too much since the original photos).

7. As I said earlier, I need to finish the larger snow-capped mountain.

8. The video monitor of Cobra Commander interviewing with Chris Matthews was actually fun to make. The look of disbelief on Chris Matthew's face as he learns of the terrorists' plans through the commander.

9. Unfortunately, the camera flash highlights the wires that suspend the aircraft. To the naked eye, the wires are barely visible and it looks more realistic that they are in flight.

10. The custom crimson guardsmen in the terror drome were those weird new versions of the alley viper. Amazing what a new head, some red paint, and a cool weapon could do to enhance a relatvely innocuous figure.

11. After further review, I am going to switch the storm shadow to the original and not the 2nd version is is now. I never really liked geometric camoflauge on an otherwisely white ninja.


12. I want to make more of the rock formations as they truly stand out in the figures.

13. The photos of the bridge on my old computer are more in-depth and will be sure to upload them.

14. The stationary raven is atop a non-descript fortress. It was actually a computer styrofoam packaging but the geometric features of the facade reflected a very secure fortress. The paint and highlights make it look like 6 foot thick solid steel. I want to swap the raven with a soon-to-be-customized rattler(the bronze one soon to be a crimson rattler) as the physics of the raven taking off are unrealistic. The rattler, however, can navigate the VTOL from the top of the building. I just really like the displayability of the raven on the runway and am temporarily keeping it this way until I finish customizing the rattler.

15. The generic beach heads(not the original) are just random green shirts. If anything seems convoluted to a purist, please suspend your disbelief and assume I used the figure for a reason as a generic fighter(for either joe or cobra).

16. About the Ninjas- Storm Shadow and Snake eyes are brothers in the ephemeral view of the word. The Cobra Ninjas are in support of Cobra. Storm Shadow is no longer under the command of Cobra. Any random Ninja Slice figures are just non-descript ninja assassins hired by cobra. I never knew Slice's story or alignment nor am I about to give character to any ninjas other than snake eyes , billy, kamakura and storm shadow. They're all aligned for the same cause. 'nuff said


If you want any info how I made any of the features, please feel free to contact me and I'll post them for all to see.

Some other questions you may have about the author:
Contrary to first impressions you may have of me, I do have a life- a wife, 2 kids, friends and a career. I started this in 2001 and will go down the basement every so often in spurts of creativity. I often take long breaks and return with more ideas, figures or vehicles. I really enjoy customizing the landscapes, figures and vehicles. If you see a figure or vehicle with variations from the original, odds are I found them in a lot on eBay and completed with my own notions of what was needed for them to be complete.

I will also try to take a more panoramic shot to give you deatil of the overall display.

My thanks goes out to joedios file submitters for ideas and files used here.

I increased the max space you can use. Your stuff is sweet!

__________________


Read Hammerfel's Dio Story, "Disciple" here

• My Want List - Help me complete my Dios!

Thank You. It's an honor to hear that from someone whose work I have admired for years. It's been a long 5 years since I started this project and it seems I'm finally coming to the end of major construction.

I just finished the bottom floor of the warehouse and it looks cooler than in the original photos. I'll upload as soon as I'm done with it.
Matt