Installment II folks - The dio is complete except for rifles, straps and buckles and, maybe, a raven or crow or two. Lots of pics! As always, your critique and comments are very welcome!

All the best,
Dan

British Grenadier Guard



German Saxon private






Diorama




Diorama – “On the Wire” – Shell-pocked no man’s land with extensive barbed wire, papier mache’ base with pumice paste applied for earth, debris, field equipment and weapons

British private Grenadier Guards – machine-gunned and hanging on barbed wire
120mm or 1/15th scale
- Cap in khaki with brass Grenadiers cap badge and brown chin strap
- Tunic in khaki with brass buttons, ‘Grenadier Guards’ red and silver insignia strip on shoulder
- Breeches, puttees in khaki puttees, boots
- Equipment – M1908 brown canvas ammo bandolier with brass studs
- Light khaki 1908 webbing and utility bag
- Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) MK III 0.303 caliber rifle

German private 79th Regiment, Saxons – killed by artillery while repairing wire, partly hung on barbed wire (after published WWI photo)
120mm or 1/15th scale
- M1895 Lederhelm mit Spitze ‘Pickelhaube’, cotton cover on helmet and pickel, pickel is brass
- M1907/1910 Feldrock field service tunic, dark grey-green with red piping and eight brass buttons
- M1866 hobnailed infantry boots
- M1895 Koppel belt and brass buckle with steel engraved center
- M1887 Brotbeutel or ‘bread sack’, hung from belt
- M1895 belt and M1909 Patronentaschen, leather ammunition pouches
- M1898 Mauser Gewehr 7.92 mm rifle
- M98/05 Seitengewehr, bayonet with leather and metal cover hung from belt, with Troddel in infantry white with black bands
- M1887 entrenching tool, looped to the belt, M1898 scabbard in steel-reinforced leather
- 2 sandbags, shovel

Hello Dan,

very hard, but very good stuff. This one is going to become a really horrible scene - more and more! It makes me freeze... baahhh, the rat (I would add some more rats)....

Keep up your good (horrible) work.

Best regards,
Markus

Dan, Though some folks may think it "over the top" no pun intended, this illustrates one of the many horrors of war without sugar coating it some how. I raelly like your equipment listing and the way you've broken the scene down into specific equipment models, nice to see someone going the extra mile to do some research.

Though the figures represent decomposing human beings the guy laying on the wire looks a little flat in the torso. I've never done a figure laying on the ground let alone suspended on top of barbwire so don't take the coment too critical, this is a gutsy piece to make, both in terms of subject and amount of work required.

Keep it up, you learn something new with EVERY piece.~Gary

Dave,,
As in the pictures. Great.
Now all can see that a life of a human was nothing in those madness.

Marc

I just read thru my replies and I don't mean to offend anybody if they seem too "light-hearted". I'm just happy with the way this piece turned out.

Marc and Markus - Thanks for your comments! More rats? Two aren't enough? I may have one or two more that I can put in - I'll go dig around in the parts box. Or I may try sculpting one. Stay tuned for the ravens. I found some excellent images on the web and I'm looking forward to trying to sculpt one next weekend.

Gary - Thanks and I have to agree about the shallow chest on the Brit figure.
There are several reasons why. The SOL skeleton used as an armature is not ideal - to say the least!!! The first time I put the rib cage together and put a layer of putty over it, the chest was ridiculously huge, I let it set, thinking I could sand it down, tried it and had to give up in frustration and buy another skeleton. The second time I tried making the putty layer much thinner and that didn't work either, but thankfully I saved and reused the skeleton. The third time I finally pressed down on the rib cage and maybe I over-compensated, and you see the result. (Sigh!) Lessons learned. That's the real reason. But if I'm asked again, I'm going to say that he's a decaying corpse whose chest tissue has collapsed against the wire. Hey - it's an equally good answer!!
With the German, I had even more trouble. The one you see is the result of 5 separate tries - no not 5 different skeletons, but putting on and taking off putty 5 times. Sometimes it pays to be stubborn. Practice, practice, practice. Just lots of lovely practice.

Couple more things. You may be able to see a figure pin or two in the photos. Those will vanish under pumice paste.

Two questions for all -
(1) You've seen the size of this thing. Is the base too big? It's about 8 inches by 14 inches. I could cut off both the left and right sids and reduce to 8 by 10 inches. Should it be reduced?
(2) Bones - I have parts of one additional skeleton. Opinions - should I sprinkle bones about?

All the best,
Dan

Dan, The overall size should be what is required to display the piece. I would reduce it only if the areas that could be reduced do not contain anything vital to the overall composition. If it's just open space with some barbwire you could probably stand to lose it. More bones or parts are another consideration. Would they help, take away, or do nothing for the piece?~Gary

Hi Dan

I love this, this is going to be harsh to the eye, but its going to tell the true story...

Just brilliant

Dave

Thanks Dave - Much appreciated! I'm looking at it in the flesh and, yes, I agree - it's 'hard on the eyes'!

All the best,
Dan

Wonderful project so far, Dan! Personally I would leave the base as is. The dead space still tells a story....Vast devastation. This no-man's-land of your piece suggest the scope of the war and the total waste of it.

Either way, great storytelling!

Can't wait to see it painted.

Jason

Thanks Jason! We'll leave it as is for now, I think. I hadn't looked at it that way.

Basically - I have to admit it - I'm tired of working on the thing!!! I seem to have a reasonably good attention span on figure projects, but they all reach a stage, where I'm more ready to go on to something else than complete the last few things on the present one.

All the best,
Dan

Brilliant, don't change a thing (ok maybe some more carrion)!!!!!!

Awesomely gory, Dan! Death during war time isn't suppose to be pretty and your dio captures that wonderfully so far. Can't wait to see it painted!

Nancy

AWESOME WORK,Dan;WELL DONE !!!! Keep the base as it is and add more rats,bones,scavenger birds !! It's going to be one HELL (literally) of a scene when it's finally finished. Cheers !
Kenneth.

Thanks Nancy, Kenneth and Matt - I appreciate your kind comments very much. A raven and a rat yet to come, some sanding on the figures, rifle straps. I'll get those done next weekend and hopefully get the piece packed and in the mail to Kreston.

Monday and I have to put my nose back to the grindstone. Traveling on business again. Until Friday afternoon then!

All the best,
Dan

Great work Dan!
I love your idea and composition your little diorama.
Congratulations and best regards

Jacek

Many thanks, Jacek. Hope to finish it this weekend and get it in the mail to Kreston to be painted.

May I say again how much i've enjoyed your many past figures and posts?

All the best,
Dan

FINISHED! I managed to sculpt two ravens and re-do four Verlinden rats. Sometime this week I'll get it mailed to Kreston. I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing completed! I'd offer some pics of the ravens, but the ravens, though they are a reasonable facsimile, aren't any prize-winners either. I'll get several pics of them posted after they're painted. IF - I can get them mounted!

The problem is the very small size of their claws. I used braded wire to make their legs and, when painted, that should look OK, but never could determine how to make the claws or, once those were done, how to mount them on the fenceposts or shoulder of the Brit soldier. Anybody have any ideas?

I need a combination of stiff wire tensile strength with malleability so that it can be sculpted to look like bird claws. I tried both Magicsculpt and Duro unsuccessfully.

The only thing I can come up with - possibly?? - is soldering together some fine stiff wire in the shape of the claws, bending them into position, and then overlaying a thin layer of Duro. Unfortunately my meager skills do not extend to soldering...

All the best,
Dan

Disregard the previous whining about the raven's claws! My wife took one look at it and showed me what to do! Honest! :lol:

Yet another reason why I love the girl!

All the best,
Dan

Hi Dan

Been out a while so I've missed this one until today.

I have to say I admire your courage in tackling something like this, and you are making an excellent job of it. I know the photo you have based the fallen German on - the poor guy would no way have imagined he'd become such an iconic image of that terrible conflict.

Just been reading (for the umpteenth time) Alistair Horne's "The Price of Glory" - the story of the Verdun battles. Boy, does that bring home to you the sheer horror of trench warfare.

Nice work Dan


Regards

Phil

Many thanks Phil! Very glad you like it! Looks like I'm going to MMSI in Chicago and will pass over the diorama and figures to Kreston Peckham there. I plan to wear my Planetfigure tag so he can identify my ugly mug.

As far as being 'courageous' - no not really. More like too dumb to know better! :lol:

"On the Wire" turned out to be much more work than I ever imagined and I'm glad Kreston is taking over!!!! The nicest thing is that it really 'stretched me' - know what I mean? In the 60s [OH GAWD do I feel old!!!] when I was playing drums in bands and was challenged by a rhythm or a combination that I'd never played and got it about right, I had the same feeling. Cool.

Right now I'm working on a 1904 RJ War Japanese soldier in khaki uniform. Back to real play!! Wheeee!

All the best,
Dan