yet another blast from the past with Dan Capuano, again one of his earlier Dioramas full to the brim with detail.



Spring Cleaning

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Fantastic work. Great attention to detail. The US tankers might be a little relaxed being in the middle of a firefight, but that does not distract from the great diorama.

Thanks for sharing

I love dioramas, especially ones that have all round detail and interest. Time consuming I know as I try to do mine justice.

A well thought out beautifully detailed diorama.

Thanks for sharing, keep them coming they are an inspiration to us all.

Keith

Enormous amount of detail, and skill -it's truly impressive. (And I like the "old school" painting.) But at this size, the dio looses focus, I think, and becomes convoluted. It looks like the details are there for their own sake, and not for telling a story. Nevertheless it's great; you can keep looking at the photos and find new and new stuff you have not noticed before.
Just my 2 cents. (Which, by the way, is worth less and less Gotta switch to EURO...)

AWESOME DIO.. Great paint and detailing work, I especially like the buildings placement and construction. Very cool... .......milvehfan

Great to see this again. Seeing Dan's work makes me want to attempt a huge dio but better finish what I've started first.

The detail work is impressive, but my one "knock" on it (and many dios) is the shortened perspective. European streets simply aren't that narrow. The claustrophobic sensation I get has made me experiment with realistic distances, but then the dio seems to look empty and "small."

Any thoughts on this problem?

Huh? I can assure you that streets, especially ones with building created before the motorcar made such an impact on planning requirements, can be that narrow, and as this is near a canal perhaps this would be of interest

http://www.craigatk.ca/2006/04/09/amsterdam-canal-houses/

Alan

Wonderful Diorama Keith!
I love the story and detail you portray. Very realistic to me. It shows the fluidity of battle and that so many "independent worlds" are going on in one single skirmish/battle. Battles never run from a-b-c..... You deserve a real hearty handshake and a well done. You have impressed me totally. Keep up the good work.

Best Wishes from an average modeler,

Walter

Walter

It's one of Dan Capuano not Keith's although his are excellent. He's just introducing it.

Alan

yep as Alan has pointed out these are Dioramas from Dan Capuano, all have been built over a period of years (although I could not put them into chronological order). they all but disappeared when the old WW2 modeller site went belly up a couple of years ago.

Luckily I had due to my continued fascination with dioramas saved a copy of all the pictures to my hard drive( something i still do when they stand out) and so with Dans permission I have been republishing them here so that again they can be shown in all there glory and still have a place on the net. There are still three more to go which will be published over the next few months.

Dan dioramas stand out as he has a very unique style, very clean yet very natural looking, which is one of the reasons I and other enjoy them.

so again thanks for all your comments, I am sure Dan enjoys reading them, and hopefully he will look at us to promote some of his future work as well.

cheers

Keith Forsyth

I will give you Amsterdam, but what about Berlin?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Destruction_in_a_Berlin_street.jpg

City planners made wholesale changes during the Enlightenment because of esthetic objectives, not to accomodate cars (or carriages for that matter).

But you haven't answered my original question:

Why do realistic street dimensions make 1/35th scale models look small and puny?

I'm sorry its not just Amsterdam, it's anywhere. Have you ever been to Europe and travelled around any of the countries? You said and I quote "European streets simply aren't that narrow." which apart from being a very broad statement is simply not true.

If you are talking big cities you'll find both wide and narrow streets. Off of the main roads in all cities the roads would be narrow anyway. But as regards towns, certainly taking the two nearest to me as a quick example, both the "HIgh Streets" (which is what we regard as the main street, shops etc. in town) are so narrow two lorries passing each other have to take care not to clip each others door mirrors. So your comment that these are wrong in dioramas is not correct. Unless of course its being based on an exact street and location which is wide in reality and can be directly compared.

What you will find as shown in both our images that buildings can be very tall, several floors and as a consequence the vehicles will look small in comparison.

The only area where I do see modellers changing things in dioramas to fit in better are trees. In most circumstances people model them much smaller than they can grow to in real life. Probably to keep the diorama height reasonable, and if making them from individual elements, to stop them going bonkers at the thought of sticking all those branches and leaves on.

As I don't see the building, streets, as "scaled" incorrectly I didn't see the need to answer your question about "shortened perspective" which isn't being done anyway. Nobody is changing the scale of objects within the diorama to change the perspective view, such as making objects smaller to appear further away for example.

If my memory serves me correctly the standard width of a single side of a road in the UK was seven feet, so a normal road would be about 14 feet wide. As part of the driving test you have to do what is called a three point turn. This means turning the car around to face the other direction, which can in most roads only be achieved by forward and reverse movements a minimum of three "turns", so that shows how narrow they are.

In any case when all said and done we are creating a scene, it's an art form. We take inspiration from real life then use our artistic interpretation to make any change needed to the scene for it to work best from a visual aspect as well as a technically correct one.

In the same way that a painter when creating a drawing or painting will compose it so the viewer is drawn into the scene.

Alan

I just fell of my chair when I saw this diorama, beautifully done. G.

Alan,

For starters, I'm going to overlook the condescending tone of your question "have you ever been to Europe?" I have traveled extensively there through most of the countries we call The Western Front.

Second, I find it hard to discuss this with you because you can't seem to focus on any one particular aspect, mixing together English town streets with avenues of the major capitals of Europe such as Unter den Linden or the wide boulevards of Paris. Besides, English streets have little or no bearing on the discussion of dioramas, since I don't recall any street fighting taking place there.

I will be happy to revise my statement about European streets not being uniformily this narrow, but there also is the question of whether a large AFV could navigate them, especially in the presence of rubble. I have seen a number of photos of tanks caught in debris that had to be abandoned.

Making a crowded diorama makes for a great photo. But my question is how to handle the challenge of rendering the wider boulevards of say, Kharkov or Berlin? If you check out some of the photos, you'll see the streets are a good deal wider than 14 feet!

Even in some of the villages of the Eastern front there is a challenge. I refer you to the series of photos in Tigers in Combat I, pp. 180-1 where a Tiger II is taken down by a hidden anti-tank gun. The distances between the houses on each side of the road are 10x the width of the AFV or greater.

So if you can lose the scolding tone and focus on the question at hand: is it preferable to forgo any large thoroughfares in a diorama for smaller streets that will fill the "canvas"? I appreciate it that you feel the diorama maker here has remained true to the Amsterdam canal-side. Let's move on to a wider discussion, if that's possible.

Im always amazed with criticisms about street sizes or how could rubble end up like that or why is the guy looking over there,etc...Its like the critic has seen every possible outcome of a fire fight or the layout of every city in Europe or Russia and know "that could never happen". I have seen actual photos of tanks,planes,trains,AT guns and many other things that are in odd positions and one wonders how they could have gotten like that. The short answer is that in the chaos of war,things end up in weird,twisted positions and not every street,bridge or building is cookie-cut in the world. Besides,its too late to change it and the best thing to do is just observe and keep the critcism to yourself. Im sure that Dan is his own worst critic.

Bill

If you regard my tone as condescending and scolding then that's something you have created in your own head, It was a straightforward enough question and I felt I needed to ask because of your statement "European streets simply aren't that narrow." and remark "I'll give you that one" about my Amsterdam reference.

I quickly used Google image search to bring up images of a European street and Amsterdam was one of the first to appear so I used it. I could have shown many more, and if you want to do the same I'm sure you'll see plenty more. That's not to say that there are not wide streets in Europe but I never made a statement to that effect in the first place.

As for quoting the UK, first it is part of Europe anyway, and secondly it shares very similar aspects to the rest of Europe, both in its architectural heritage and its landscape.

It is you that is being condescending with remarks "Besides, English streets have little or no bearing on the discussion of dioramas, since I don't recall any street fighting taking place there."

A diorama can be anywhere and I guess images of the Blitz etc. in Great Britain have or dioramas depicting such events never been seen by you.

This started as my challenging your "knock" as you called it on this excellent diorama and as you said on "many others" that they modelled them incorrectly. I think I've proven my point on that subject and feel in that regard I've no need of further comment otherwise I feel you will wrongly accuse me of some behaviour or tone that is simply not true.

As for the other subject I can't honestly see what point you are trying to make. The diorama to me is an art form, and in that sense it can be as complex as this scene or as sparse as one soldier by a wall. It does not have to be judged by its size but by the image it portrays and the impression it gives in the mind of the observer.

There are no rules other than the ones we want to create. I've seen brilliantly made model tanks set in a scene of no interest at all, passed over once I've admired the modelling skills and I've seen models made which are not so good but the scene, the message and the composition was superb and I've remembered and revisited them.

Which is better is for the individual to decide, as I did. That is unless you are building purely to enter and win competitions. I prefer to do it for pleasure,enjoyment and personal satisfaction not for competition.

Alan

Alan,

It appears that in all things, you are right and I am wrong, LOL.

Again, you have failed to address the question I asked about dio-ing large streets and how one overcomes the appearance of the vehicle being "dwarfed." Instead of addressing the issue, you wax prolix about the art of the diorama. Well, I guess it is an art. I don't pretend to be an artist.

I'd hoped some of the experienced dio builders here would offer some ideas. But you're right: our portion of the conversation has become a mutal waste of time.

Hi

That is outstanding work. The amount of time to make these huge dios would be huge. I dream of doing one but I don't think I would ever finish it. That's why looking at others is so great.
Love it

Ryally