I sold the first diorama I ever built back in '89. After that, I made a practice to never sell my work and have never regretted it. The collector simply bugged me for so many years I finally gave in. I still regret it because it meant so much to me. Back then, the amount of money he offered me was hard to resist. Seriously, it was really bad, (Remember your first project), but it was significant in so many ways. At the time I remember being really excited about it. It made the covers of model magazines all over the world, what magazines there were at the time, and every TV station and newspaper in St. Louis. It was on display for years at the Soldier's Memorial Museum in St. Louis.
Although the quality is embarrassingly poor by today's standards, it was built in the early seventies and when finally publicly shown, there had never been anything like it in size. Also, back in those days, there was only one how to book, no PE, no resin, I had never heard of drybrushing or washes. The hobby at that time was practically a barren desert. The only figures available back then were Tamiya very poor quality plastic figures and some Monogram race car figures that I converted. All vehicles except an Opel Blitz and motorcycles were model cars in 1/32nd scale. Compared to today, it was like doing brain surgery with stone knives and bear claws!
I started building this more than 40 years ago!
The collector had recently read about my finding all those old photographs and I had told him long ago I had absolutely no photos of my first diorama. He sent these to me today. Don't laugh, just remember your first attempts at this or that.
The dio is 7 feet X 4 feet in size. All the rooms in all the windows had little vignettes goin on, some very risque!
The period was in 1938, just prior to the war. I know about the Book and TV movie of the same name, but, honestly, the book was probably out and the movie wasn't until several years later. The name was just a coincidence. Also, At the first show I took it to, people thought I was some kind of Neo-nazi! :evil: :evil: :evil:
The huge building at the rear was loosely based on the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, (Main train station). OMG, check out the lychen on both the tree and as grass. Nobody had ever heard of static grass back then! I did make a clear resin pond. Absolutely cutting edge technology back then. :hmmm :hmmm :hmmm Little did I know then that soon resin products would become a major part of my life.
Well, here it is 2017, and I found a photo I did have of the Winds of War! It was in a stack of photos given me by the Post-Dispatch newsroom. It was taken in July, 1982, I had just turned 41, 37 years ago!
[
That's it,
Bob
