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Brave Little Belgium

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by btavis, Apr 24, 2005.

  1. Guy A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Fantastic Bob......I look forward to your progress.
  2. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Since it took me too long to sculpt a whole horse and I want to finish this piece in my lifetime I decided to convert the remainder of horses with heavy conversions on the two downed horses. I chose Airfix 1/32 horses as the Historex were a tad too small for the look I wanted. There is obviously a lot of work left to do all the way 'round. Another two months at least but I think it is shaping up nicely.

    I have done a preliminary layout as shown below. The dowels will be where popular trees will be situated and marker lines show where the roadway will be. The back is curved to allow for the backlight cyclorama of a Belgian landscape. The cork is just temporary for layout purposes.

    [IMG]

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    ChaosCossack likes this.
  3. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    I wish the Airfix horses came without the horse head harness straps molded on as they will have to be sanded off. I like the sculpting of the Airfix horses as they show nice musculature on the horses.

    I did quite a bit of parts casting on this project and that is going to come in handy for future projects. For those who care to know, I have settled on Smooth-On for RTV rubber and resin. I tried many other kinds and was not as impressed as with Smooth On. The belgian Mauser carbines were first converted and then cast as were boots, horse parts and figure mannequin parts.
  4. amherbert Member

    Another nice little project in progress, eh Bob?!!!

    Looks like another show stopper in progress.

    Andy
  5. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Thanks Andy. During my research for this project I found an excellent WWI site with many fabulous links. It is here.
  6. captnenglish Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Yet another reason to look forward to the month of March.
  7. yeo_64 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Singapore
    AWESOME,Bob,just AWESOME !!! Looking forward to the next step in the diorama/shadow-box. Cheers !
    Kenneth.
  8. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    Thanks for the link Bob,

    I missed this since the pc crashed.
    Keep going on your great work at the vignette.

    Marc
  9. rej Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Malta
    Wow........ Great project Bob.......... daring and dashing piece :eek:

    Thanks for that link re WWI site..........saved it!!!

    Keep it coming Big Man :)

    Take care,

    Ray ;)
  10. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Thanks Ray. Yes, that WWI site is quite interesting both in terms of pictures and some very interesting text of eyewitness accounts. I have spent considerable time there and keep finding all kinds of fascinating tidbits.

    Another site that I found very helpful was the one Bill Horan pointed out - the Kaiser Bunker.

    For those interested in historical stuff the combatants in this dio are the 3rd Belgian Lancers and the Thüringisches Ulanen-Regt. Nr.6 (Hanau) attached to General Georg Von Der Marwitz' German XVIII Corps. The site owner of the Kaiser Bunker has been very helpful in clarifying German uniform details in addition to the wonderful examples he has on his web site. If you know the units involved in a particular engagement he can tell you exactly what they would have worn. I was under an erroneous impression that the German Ulanen wore the traditional blue tunics in the early stages of the war but in fact that was not true. I have seen illustrations of them in these uniforms and it is either fancy of the artist or just plain wrong. The Ulanan wore feldgrau from 1910 forward, well before the outbreak of the war.
  11. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    Thanks again Bob,

    This is gonna be very helpfull for painting the Prussian officier from Elite.

    marc.
  12. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    A little more work on this piece. The horses are 95% completed (need to add ears and some cleanup) and most of the riders are near completion.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]

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    ChaosCossack likes this.
  13. Dan Morton A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Bob - Your post of 30 July re the uniforms of Ulans in 1914...that's neat the support you got from the Kaisers Bunker guy. The 1914 - 1918 forum is another example of a site where you can get answers like that PDQ.

    The diorama is coming together beautifully! [Of course!]

    All the best,
    Dan
  14. rej Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Malta
    Beautiful Bob, just beautiful.......... :eek:

    Ray ;)
  15. yeo_64 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Singapore
    FANTASTIC JOB,Bob,just FANTASTIC !!! I'm REALLY looking forward to the next step now !
    Kenneth. :lol:
  16. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Most of the sculpting is nearly finished and here is a dead German horse that I have started to paint. He still needs ears and some other touch up. I sculpted most of this horse but the side saddle bags were casts I made as were the rifle holsters. The reins were done with lead foil in strips and horse shoes made from flattened lead wire bent to shape.

    The horse is painted in oils with an acrylic undercoat of chocolate brown.

    [IMG]
    ChaosCossack likes this.
  17. Roy New Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Great work Bob...all those additional little details that you add make such a difference ...You must be really enjoying yourself with this once again...it's a real pleasure to watch it all develop..

    All the best.

    Roy.
  18. Dan Morton A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Excellent! Have you done any of the ground work yet?

    All the best,
    Dan
  19. btavis Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Dan, at this stage I have not touched the groundwork. I will wait until all of the figures are painted first. It will take a couple of weeks to finish painting six horses and twelve figures.
  20. yeo_64 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Singapore
    WOW,Bob,GREAT STUFF !!! Looking forward to the next installment in the series. Cheers !
    Kenneth.

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