Blissful Ignorance, . more pics page 2

Great dio drop the bl and add a p to the title and you nailed it.

Super job Bodge

The figures look great and I really like the wet road....   Very nicely done!

Mostly,,,       thanks for sharing

Haven't done many dioramas myself but can definitely appreciate your unique and creative approach. Well done Lad!

Nice work! I like the leaves and wet road especially.

That is quite a unique theme! That GI must be sleeping like a log cause that patrol must be kind of loud. I hope Joe won't snore! 

Really well done, sir.   Just one little thing that I noticed...  given how wet you've made the roadway, wouldn't GI Joe be damp/wet as well as he's on the downhill side of all that goopy wetness?   A little staining of the blanket edges might suggest a nice, cold wet night's rest.

Just a thought.

Cheers guys

, Dre ,noted buddy

Plasticjunky, They can be as loud or as quiet as your imagination wants them to be, Maybe he,s been up most of the night, maybe they know Americans are in the area and i dont think in that case they would be making too much noise? Let your imagination think of positives as well as  negatives. 

Love the idea and the execution of it is bang-on! ...fewer and fewer dios tell real stories anymore and yours certainly does...

Thats one amazing Dio. I wish my ground work could look like thta. My favorite part of the terrain is the rocks, how did you do those. I am thinking its something simple, like real stones.

What an excellent tale told there. And some fantastic work all around on the figures and groundwork.

Great piece of work, Bodge. Groundwork is stunning, very very convincing. Only thing I noticed, maybe, was a lack of footprints or boot  impressions in the muddy road. Maybe I just missed 'em. Your figures are very well done, especially the camo.

I like your realistic painting style- I'm not one for too much high contrast shadowing and highlighting. There are people who are master figure painters but their figures look, well, like paintings. Your faces look like real honest-to-God human faces. Nice work.

I also really like the variety of vegetation you used. It truly looks like a forest...

SteveM

I like your realistic painting style- I'm not one for too much high contrast shadowing and highlighting. There are people who are master figure painters but their figures look, well, like paintings. Your faces look like real honest-to-God human faces. Nice work.

I'm glad i am not the only one who has noticed that. The faces in particular just don't look real. They look to me like some sort of 3D image.

As for the boot prints, i have thought about that when doing wet muddy dio's. I think when you have a large group of people all walking through such a terrain, i am not sure you would get proper foot prints left behind.

Thanks guys , means a lot.

As for the rocks, they are pieces of slate from the garden painted and weathered.

Steve i know what you mean about those faces on certain models looking like an exzadurated oil  painting, I personaly hate them. Shows in the uk are full of painted figures that well if you saw someone looking like them walking down the road you would think whats wrong with him. they take highlights and lowlights to such an exstreme that its just not realistic.Here are some examples that won at Euro militaire this year. The german grenadiers in winter dress look like they have been on holiday in Africa for a month, I thought they would have to be pale looking with red nose and cheeks in winter but hey what do i know.The last one is a bust i entered but got nowhere as it looked to real for it to win anything there, LOL

This is where art seems to take precedance over realisim. Before i read the post, i looked at the photos. Nad straight away i thought the last one is the only one that looks real. I am not 100% happy with the faces on my figures, but even so i think they look more realistic then what the 'experts' produce.

I totaly agree Bish, I thought if something looks real that thats as good as it gets. I will not be changing my style to try and win medals in certain shows, If thats what they are looking for then they are not for me.

Here are some more pics, you will notice there are plenty of footprints and tracks and general muckyness in the groundwork  to answer a previous question

Nice work, but the wrong time of year.  The Germans moved in December, 1944, not earlier in the fall.  

Again Bodge, super job.           About how large is the entire dio?    One pic offers a decent perspective,,,  I was curious though.    And, using real slate, about how heavy is it?

Any chance of some face / fig close-ups?

Bill

easy Mike this is winter mate, certain trees still keep their leaves untill January although they are brown and this i have shown as the other tree has shed all its foliage.I know this because i have loads at the bottom of the garden and need to keep cleaning them out of the swimming poole until the end of December - early Jan.

I agree with others that this is a successful diorama because it does a really good job of telling a story. Bravo. However, because leaves have fallen everywhere on the landscape, I feel the only thing missing is a wet leaf stuck to the top or sides of a boot on one or more figures. Maybe a few that have fallen and stuck in the soldiers' gear. Also on the GI's blanket. Unless, of course, the leaves haven't been falling for a while. But the soldiers on the wet road would still be getting some stuck to the tops and sides of their boots, because they'd be kicking some up as they walk.

Bodge

...easy Mike this is winter mate,...

Sorry, but based on your colors, look like fall to me.

No worries Mike, also in modelling you need a certain amount of artistic licence to help things along.

Lets say that it is late november then , somwhere, either way i like it and thats the main thing.

Taken on board about a leaf or two stuck on boots. I will sort that.

Bill thanks buddy. The dio is about a foot square. The pieces of slate are only small chippings from the garden and dont weigh much. i will take some close up pics of some faces as soon as. Cheers.

Bodge

No worries Mike, also in modelling you need a certain amount of artistic licence to help things along.

Lets say that it is late november then , somwhere, either way i like it and thats the main thing.

Taken on board about a leaf or two stuck on boots. I will sort that.

Considering that: Winter does not start until December 22,  that the Ardennes Offensive began on December 16, and that photos from the opening days of the battle show matching conditions, I think it works just fine for the orginal posting.

Cheers Stickpusher, I thought i was going mad. I have several pics in various books which match what i was trying to achieve very closely.. People have said to me ,oh you need snow on that. Well uhh NO i dont need snow on it? its before the snow fell.   doesnt matter what you do sometimes or how well you try to do something you will allways get negativity thrown at it along with possitivity so its one of those things.

Mike you are quite entitled to have your opinion mate no worries

Glad most off you like it

Thanks Malone, Sort of good to be back

This photo is dated 20 December, 1944. 325 Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division in the Ardennes. I think it matches close enough to your work Bodge. 

Cheers mate

While i see no problem in the tree's in Bidge's Dio, ain't the trees in that photo all firs stik. Hence coniferous and not deciduous