15 Years Later ... (WIP)
The inspiration for this scene (which has a working title of either “War of the Rats” or “The Four Seasons”) came from a book by T. Moffatt Burriss called Strike and Hold : A Memoir of the 82d Airborne in World War II. His book describes a visit to Berlin in 1992 and how there where still city blocks left destroyed from 50 years earlier. So, this scene (when completed) will depicted an Eastern European city block left in ruins and filled with garbage from the war and dumped by the locals.
In an effort to keep these pages at reasonable size the architectural elements are described in the Statue and Street article. Starting with the garbage, the numerous palates where made using square strips of bass wood and “The Chopper”. A word of caution the "Chopper" is nondiscriminatory and will “chopper” a finger as happily as bass wood. The wood was given the aged looked using Weather it and a few where painted to give some differentiation. An addition item to note in the garbage is the jerry cans. No doubt all the metal and the remotely useful items in the heaps would have been scavenged. So to make the jerry cans look like garbage they where “damaged”. They are just Tamiya plastic US jerry cans that where very carefully heated and damaged with a heat gun. Great care should be taken when doing this because plastic items will distort under heat very quickly or go shooting across the room as a super-heated glob of goo. So it takes just the right amount of heat.
As a side note I’m sure the question will be raised why go through the trouble of making walls and cobblestones when they are readily available for purchase. Especially considering the resin, RTV etc. cost about the same as just purchasing the items. The main reason is differentiation, that is making something nobody has seen before and will never see again. Anyone who has been involved in this hobby for a decent length of time can easily spot common items by popular manufacturers. The manufacturers who make goods for this hobby make some tremendous items (many of which can be seen through out this diorama) however, to make it too the rarified air of this hobby a modelers needs to be able to create their own custom vision.
Something else I'd like to mention is the figures. The figure standing closest to the statue base is a first modest attempt at modifying a figure. His upper arm and elbow where reshaped to exhibit the classic body language of "I don't know, what are you asking me for". That little change goes a long way of helping to tell the story. The tanker standing in the street with his mouth positioned as if he is speaking might be repeating a Fibonacci sequence, but in the context of the man on the side walk body language saying "I don't know" it pretty clear he is asking a question. That with the old man in the street looking down at a map laying on the glacis plate of the tank (pictures coming soon) it is pretty clear the question being asked is "where the %$#@! are we!" Also the man on the street is looking directly at the man on the side walk, while he looks away. This give the impression that the question is being posed in an accusatory manner and man on the sidewalk doesn't want to face the questioner because he knows it is his fault they are lost.
Stay tuned there is more to come and if there are any requests for greater detail in part too please let me know. As always questions and comments are well, smart ass comments you can keep to yourself.
Manufacturer’s list:
Verlinden
Tamiya
Warriors
Plus Models
CGLaser
Calibre 35
Azimut
Aber
Dragon
Budd Super Great Model Designs
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