I have been thinking very carefully about what kind of scene I would like to do next. Over my last few projects I've done Summer, and Winter both in rural or forest settings. I thought this time it would be a fun change to set a diorama in an urban setting, and focus the scene more specifically around a specific reference photo as an inspiration (with some minor modification for artisitic licence of course).
So I decided to place a scene in a city fight setting from the Chechen conflict. I searched around a lot for various reference photos that were not necessarily combat action images (of which there are a lot of Chechnya and Georgia) but were images set in between the fighting, that demonstrated the futility and tragedy of this bitter conflict, and gave it a human face. I was very certain that I wanted to avoid any propagandist scenes demonstrating the heroism or courage of Soldiers, or that trivialised the subject by being gung-ho or action packed.
In the end the two following images really stood out to me as striking images, the second image especially. This scene of a Soldier sitting by a dinner table with a freshly laid table cloth and utensils ready to have tea, in the middle of a war torn Grozny with a tank parked in the background, really stood out as a demonstration of the absurdity of war and the tragic nature of people trying to carry on with the most simple aspects of life in a battlefield. The house has been destroyed, the city in rubble, yet this soldier still takes the time to sit down by a laid table and relax in a pause in the fighting. It's this soldiers "tea" break that I decided to use as the basis of my next diorama, and the scene I would try to convey.
The image for the Diorama
The basic layout then for this scene would be to have the ruined kitchen in the foreground, with soliders seated on the chairs and damaged sofa, the T-90 parked in the background, with various ruined buildings in the far background depicting the city setting.
After some thought I decided that two small ruins would be enough, one placed in each far corner, with the table and chairs centre foreground, and the Tank just behind this. While the T-90 would be a major element I want to try and draw the viewers attention more keenly to the men sitting round the ruined kitchen with their hot drinks, soup, and Vodka.
The T-90A will be based around the old Tamiya T-72 as a core kit, with various Miniarm Resin upgrade packs to turn it into a modern T-90A. In other posts people raised the problem with modern T-90's having a different exhaust and engine deck layout to earlier T-90's and T-72's. When I opened my Miniarm set however I was pleased to find that Miniarm had addressed the exhaust issue with including an alternative exhaust component, which just leaves me to make minor adjustments to the engine deck layout myself with plasticard and filler.
The colour scheme of the T-90A will be based around these reference examples, using the modern Russian three tone camo scheme of black, green, and khaki.
I will also be using more resin modern Russian army figures in the scene, this time every figure will be resin and they will be from a variety of sources. Having already used Tank models figures in my T-55 diorama, I was keen to try some other Russian companies. In this project I will be using Evolution, Battalion, and Masterclub figures. I've been very careful to try and choose the best figures that are not only excellent quality, but also convey the scene and the story that I am trying to tell by their pose, sculpting, and expression. I will be using 4-5 figures (still not decided for sure) but they will be a mix of Infantry and Tankers.
WIP and build photos to follow later, I will also be sure to make sure that the build images in this blog are better quality than my previous blog
better camera and better photo setup (lighting etc).
