It looks fine Nigel. I think a new layer of clear ,a couple of millimetres thick would do the trick. I've always intended to do something similar myself so Im grateful for your pioneering!

This is superb work Nigel! Well done sir!

Cheers,
Ken

This is turning into a superb piece of work Nigel, love the painting you have done on the figures.
Cheers
Steve

Outstanding work so far, it's a pity it didn't go how you wanted it but the overall look is great. If I had seen this without knowing what you'd planned, I'd still think it an amazing piece of work. Good luck with the ripples.
Scotty.

Thanks Neil, Ken, Steve and Scott, much appreciated. I've been tweaking the groundwork and am feeling a bit happier with it. I hope the ripples will add that final touch.....

Nigel I thimk you are being way too harsh on yourself.Your vignette is amazing ang the illusion of depth is successfuly conveyed by the fact that the lower half of the unfortunate sodiers's body is totally submerged.

Oda.

Fine work, Nigel, fine work indeed!

Well, the ripples have been a complete failure. I have tried four different water gel products and it's been impossible to get the effect I wanted. Part of the problem is that the depth of the shellhole makes it hard to to work on the surface of the water to get the right texture, but the main problem is that it was impossible to get a combination of ripples around the feet of the French figures and some gentle movement actoss the rest of the water. The effects were all too extreme, they would have worked if the figures were in a stream or river but not in a shellhole.

I'll accept what everyone else suggested, that mostly the pictures of shellholes show the water as very still. Watching clips from 1917 and All Quiet, even when the characters move into the shell holes the ripples die down very quickly.

So I've done another thin layer of resin to hide my botched ripples and I will post some completed pics when that has cured I'll post some completed pictures.

Nigel, have you dug through YouTube to see if anyone has a tutorial on water works in tight spaces? Might be worth a try.

Oh yes, I have spent the last few days looking at every video and tutorial I could find on making water and ripples. Many helpful ideas, I tried several but the effects are always too pronounced for a shellhole (great for a sea or river though). All of the available tutorials are for seascapes, rivers and streams, I couldn't find any good WWI dioramas with the effect I was looking for....

Although having said that, I found a Night Shift WWI video with an effect I might try to replicate. It's still a bit OTT. I have poured some test resin to try it on......

Ahh mate that sucks, the pools would be so thick with mud and stuff that they would look still. One method I saw a long time ago, was for falling rain and was done with varnish. Basically painting the circles the rain made in pooled water and building them up slowly, I don't remember details but I would imagine thick varnish like Humbrol enamel or proper varnish for furniture would work. Probably could be adapted for making slight ripples and the like but would be slow. Just a thought, I have them now and then.

Cheers Simon

That's kind of what I tried first time round. I tried to "paint" the ripples with water gel from AK. The problem was you could see the brush marks on the resin underneath. That approach would probably work best on a painted surface because the brushmarks would be less obvious.

I was quite subtle in my approach. I've just had another go on a test piece where I slathered the gel on, rather like NightShift does in his video. Looks awful when it's first on but may look better when it's dry.

So I guess I'm still experimenting.....

It is annoying when you have a picture in your head of how you want things to look but they just don't! Good luck with your experiments, you've still got a peach of a scene there.
Scotty.

Sadly this project is not going to make it over the finish line. The new layer of resin reacted with the gel product I had used to attempt the ripples and now the whole thing is a cloudy mess. So that's it for this one.

This was an ambitious project but as the shellhole was so central to the concept I should have practiced the techniques I was going to use first. There's no going back once the first resin pour happens...... Oh well, as they say, every day's a schoolday.

I'm going to do something simpler next.

No that's a real shame after so much work went into it and it really is (was) a lovely diorama. Any chance of just painting the surface to rescue what you can, maybe at a later date. I know these things happen but it really does suck.

Cheers Simon

Thanks Simon, but sadly it's beyond saving. If the shellhole wasn't so central to the strory and the diorama then maybe, but it will just be so obvious that it's been bodged. I'll never be happy with it so best to move on and learn from the experience.

Soul destroying ending for you on what was an excellent project, I feel the pain, I am sure most of us have had issues with having a nicely painted almost finished figure and wrecked it with a coat of varnish or wash that didn't work out F,F,F it, but you have the skills to paint figures and your ideas for displaying them on groundwork are brilliant so dust yourself off and march on to the next project which I will be watching out for.
TERRY