Re: Logistics, The Figures Updated March 9, 2012
And finally. all of them together.
I'm really anxious to get started painting these. My earlier estimates of the numbers I have built was in error. As of this, I have 54 finished, and 201 built, posed and detailed. I still have an even 75 left to build for a total of 330 altogether.
hmy:
I just can't comprehend the amount of time and patience!
The figures are great Bob - I am speechless as to your dedication to this project.
Also the Jumbo with figures is beautiful.
regards
Ian.[/quote]
Thanks all around Ian,
your persistance and perfection is making me ashamed of my mojo loss.
your will is so strong - 330 figures ... that's madness at it's finest!
not to speak of that PERFECT sherman - a perfect model!
bob-sensei!!!
And thank you Laura,
Because of our conversations, you two know why I build these huge dioramas. I was thinking some out there may think I am doing it just to show off. I hope not! Before I ever even started on the base, I knew this would be the job of my lifetime. I had always heard of this rule throughout my "public" modeling career. From 1945 to 1982, I was strictly a "closet modeler". In other words, I had entered a few contests here and there, usually through commercial companies, (F.W. Woolworths for example), but had never been part of a group of modelers or even knew another modeler. After I joined IPMS in 1981 and began competing in that forum, I was confronted with the fact that I was breaking these so called unwritten rules with my dioramas, mostly because of their size. Prior to that I wasn't aware there were "Rules". Since then, with each new diorama, I have purposely tried to prove those rules shouldn't exist. I have this strong belief that there should be no rules in an art form. If it "works", if people like it, then the hell with the rules.
As I would read books and magazine articles by the top modelers of the world, many of whom were my friends, they would be laying down tips and no-nos for building dioramas. So many have written about various things such as size, thankfully, they usually include me as an exception to that rule, but there should be no rule in the first place. When I began to plan Logistics in my mind, my thoughts were that, because of my age, it would probably be the last of the giant dios. I have built many dioramas in my life, but only five of the really huge ones such as Logistics. Of course, I wanted it to be my best and have put far more detail and time than any of the previous ones. I hope I have increased the quality substantially as well. I also wanted to break a long standing rule.
How many times I have heard that you should never put too many vehicles or figures in a diorama. That it would look like a parking lot or a soldiers convention. I understand why they have said those things, in many instances that could be true. But I wanted to prove it wasn't a universal truth. If, in real life, something exists, and has happened many, many times, then it can be modeled realistically, and military traffic jams are legendary.
By 1945, American and Allied machines, equipment and troops were pouring into the ETO from all the channel ports as well as the Italian and southern Vichy French ports. The amount of tanks and trucks were incredible. I have always enjoyed looking through wartime photographs, I can do that for hours on end. So many times I have seen these traffic jams and even several separate jams snarled in the same areas. there is so much going on, so many vignettes, dozens and dozens, that involve various groups, military, both Allied and German P.O.W.s, Allied wounded being sent to the rear lines, hundreds of refugees running away from the action, and towards the end of the war, many German civilians took their belongings, families and moved west toward the Allied lines to avoid the Russian army. Then, of course, in a cityscape diorama, there would be the residents.
That is what I want to capture, the drama of all those things going on in a single diorama. I think I can pull it off, you never know for sure until the fat lady sings, but I think so. I was really impressed when Lewis Pruneau, a buddy of mine for many years, built the "Cambodian Bus". It had over a hundred figures inside and on top and was powerfully dramatic. It told a story all in itself. Remember this?
Shep Paine, another good friend of mine, is one of the guys who have laid down those rules and he is certainly qualified to be laying down guidelines. However, a few years ago, we were driving from the airport to VLS one day and he suggested I build a diorama. His favorite military subject is Napoleonic and he said he would like to see a superdiorama of Napoleon and the retreat from Moscow, forging rivers and streams. At the time, I thought, "What about that size rule of yours"? But I didn't say anything. I ended up making a shadowbox instead called, "The Limits of Glory".
My favorite diorama of all time is his "Eve of Essling" It caught my eye waaaay back in the 70s. Enjoy!
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Sorry, sometimes i get carried away with my storytelling! I really am an old geezer I guess!
