Need help: True to life or censor

No, none of that. Most of the wounds were caused by bullets or RPG fragments. The most gruesome wound was CWO Calvert who nearly had his hand removed from three AK-47 rounds. In the diorama, his position would be in a hard to see area behind the cockpit. He was also wearing flight gloves, so the wound will be even less noticeable. Petty Officer First Class Robert's body will probably not be depicted because of his distance from the helo and due to his wounds he recieved from the al-Queda fighters. This diorama will be true to life, but it will not be anything like the movies ("Saving Private Ryan" or "Black Hawk Down" in particular).
I'm still struggling with how to portray this battle and be true to what happened while telling a story at the same time all frozen in one instant. Before the crash, immediately after the crash, some point during the battle, while they're waiting to be extracted, during the extraction, or when they've landed at Gardez after they were extracted? A lot of things happened during this fight. Many heroic acts were performed, other times it was quite humorous in an unusal type of way, but the important thing about this was that the Rangers were called upon to do a very important job, they found themselves in the most dire of circumstances and they ultimately prevailed, living up to their creed, "I will never leave a fallen comrade..."

just no fountains of blood, with guys limbs falling apart, just liitle hardly noticable wounds. (if that makes any sense)
-DJ

True to life is always best in my opinion. I doesn't have to be ultra gory to be realistic, sometimes just a smattering of blood etc. is sufficient to present the desired effect.

Ok, let me say that from the accounts I read of the battle (Not a Good Day to Die, Robert's Ridge) it really wasn't like Omaha Beach or Black Hawk Down kind of gory. The kind of gore I'm looking at including are spilled blood in the cockpit and cabin floor (both are black so the blood would look more like a wet spot than anything else), blood in the snow at the edge of the helicopter's ramp (unfortunately this would be quite red but appropriate) and blood on the soldier's clothing (subtle and quite dark). All wounds would be true to life (nobody was blown up and the most gruesome wound was the pilot, CWO Calvert, who nearly lost his right hand, but since his postion at the moment I want to depict would place him in a hard to see area of the forward cabin immediately behind the cockpit). I'm not looking to show the horror of war with a bunch of torn-up corpses. I do want to take this model to a show, so I am not going to be building something that would be inappropriate for a little kid to see.
However, thank you all for giving your thoughts and feelings on the subject. I will take everybody's advice to heart on this project.

there are ways of doing it true to life, while still being acceptable. you can give hints at wounds and death with damaged equipment, gear, or the way the soldiers are posed.

keep in mind that gore doesn't tend to be all bright ketchup red. often it darkens down, and is absorbed into the earth and debris, making it difficult to pick out. ive seen a diorama of a dead soldier with one leg missing. the wound is totally exposed and can be easily seen in the dio, but its hard to pick out. subtlety tends to be more powerful than open guts, body parts everywhere and blood covering the ground. that just makes it look like a scene from the movie From Dusk til Dawn, (horror flick). for instance, take a look at the movie Black Hawk Down. granted it is a movie, and is subject to all kinds of hollywood influences, but in the one scene where a man is blown out of the back of a truck from an RPG, and he lost basically his whole lower body, the gore is very limited.

my point is, you don't have to pour blood over your dio to be true to life, and you also dont have to take the gore out completely either. this might sound very weird, considering the subject, but being subtle with it can actually add to the drama of your piece, and the realism. my best advice is to take a look at picturesof actual firefights, and their after math. base it off of that. Im not sure how much this has helped, but i hope it did to some degree. NEway, post up some pics of your work when you get it going.

-Matt

HA-I guess I wasn't clear on this. I don't mind an inert figure on the ground with coagulated blood on it. I just resent the superfluous use of ripped up bodies or slaughtered civilians as a modeling project. Yes-I think it can be done in taste-maybe.

You guys need to lighten up. It is only plastic and paint. This comes up every once in a while. You get the two sides, those who are appalled by any show of dead figures or blood in modeling, and those who want to portray warfare as more than just a bunch of cool machines and happy soldiers. The fact is, people die in war. To have only sanitized models shows only half of the picture.

There is nothing wrong with it as long as you don't go overboard. There doesn't have to be blood all over to portray dead and wounded soldiers. Keep it to a minimum and remember that blood turns very dark, almost black when it is exposed to oxygen. Bright red blood splattered all over is not realistic and does detract from the model/dio.

I too am a Soldier, I have been in combat and had other Soldiers die in my arms. Not fun. However, I see nothing wrong with building a model/dio that realistically portrays something like this as a memeorial to the fallen Soldiers involved. I say build it as you want to and don't listen to all the naysayers and politically correct modelers who tell you it is wrong, horrible, aweful, etc.

I personally feel that gore has no place in modeling-there are other ways to honour the fallen. I saw a beautiful model of civilians being lined up to be shot and the rationale was that it revived memories of the suffering these people endured. I feel that their suffering should be the sole property of their relatives or religion and should not be the sensational depiction of a ghastly scene by a modeler.

As a former soldier, I personally would not want to see any reminder depicting this kind of situation, i.e., the suffering and wounding/killing of my brothers. I can imagine the reaction of family members or parents who lost a loved one in the engagement staring at your diorama. IMHO, pick another way to honor those who have provided your freedom. I think as time wears on, something like this would be OK, but, not now.

Respectfully,

Steve

Be the most real as you can,be true.
Pedro