Blissful Ignorance, . more pics page 2

Kiweed you made me LMFAO Thanks.

bodge this is a great looking dio,its just that the branches are not at the right angle for the slight easterly breeze that was blowing that day also you forgot to wind one of the soldiers watches and tie another ones laces.....lol get where im going with this?

i hope you had fun making it,dont let (anal detail) posts take any of that fun away.

Thanks Stikpusher, this is one pic from the Kaletrail  in the Ardennesthat also inspired the terrain for the dio.

Thanks for your kind words, Andy.

Weather is a fickle thing. What is true one year, is not the next. We had a VERY mild summer where I live this year, while much of the country sweletered or was flooded by major rainstorms. In the past we have had those long hot summers too, but not this one. 

 Being that the Bulge is one of those battles that I find so fascinating, I enjoy studying it and the related aspects for many years now. I really like your work on this piece here Bodge and seeing the posts regarding 'that's wrong' when it's not is what gets me into my "show the pics" mode. You have great skills with figures and dioramas (better than mine for sure), and I do hope that you keep up the great work and continue to post it here.

Here are two pics from Belgiun in the Ardennes in December, I think i matched the tree in the top pic quite well.

thanks for those pics mate, yes there are loads of firs there but like you pointed out there were tree,s with leaves still on them as you can see in the hedgerow you put up along with a lot of trees that had already shed their leaves as i also modelled in the diorama. Infact i modelled three tree,s without leaves and one about to shed its leaves so i tried to depict both scenarios.

Its posts like this that sort of put me off posting to be honest. I love constructive criticizem  but when you basicly get thats wrong when its not it does put a downer on the posting. Heck this year i saw loads of leaves along the side of a road in mid summer but if you put that on a model you would get thats wrong there are no leaves on the ground in the summer months. Also a couple of weeks ago i was walking in town with the wife and noticed some people walking along in short sleave Tshirts and shorts whilst other people had on coats and hats with umbrellas as it had just started to rain. I said to my wife if i put that on a painting or a model it would be slated straight away but it is real. 

I did see the difference in the trees. I am referring to the lack of snow and the muddy conditions in the opening days of the battle. There are plenty of photos of deciduous trees that are  in the Ardennes as well. it all depends upon the particular locale. Many folks think that the entire Bulge fight was in deep snow. This is not true. While there was snow in a few areas at the opening of the battle, in most areas is was that wonderful wet cold weather that Germany is so noted for by GIs (and I bet Tommies as well).

This image from Life magazine taken during the Bulge matches Bodge's terrain and vegation better...

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

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

Thanks Malone, Sort of good to be back

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

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.

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.

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.

Bodge

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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

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.

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

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.