It seems in general that there are no "bloody" military dioramas displayed anywhere. With body parts, guts, etc.
As these sights must be common in any war any time, does it mean that there is some kind of a "moral code" in modeling, and bloody dios are just something you DON´T do?
Well it´s cheap and not too stylish to play with blood anyway, this just crossed my mind because modern war movies make state-of-the art violence and it´s generally accepted.

Not that I would like too see a dio full of exploded soldiers in my bookshelf.


Toni

I think there are several reasons we don't see this. The first is that gore and mayhem is actually not easy to model. As far as I know Tamiya hasn't yet released their "Misc Dismembered Body Parts and Entrails" set yet, and I haven't seen it in resin either. Convincing blood can be tricky...getting the right shade and sheen on that liver can be a real challenge.

I suspect that most of us (in the US at least) live in "flyover country", with a slightly higher sense of taste and decorum than LA film makers. Our projects reflect this greater sense of bad taste. I also wonder if a really gory dio would be well received, at the show . (Then again, you could start a 'gore war' like in Hollywood, competing to see who could build the most shocking project...not a pleasant thought...lights, movement, and battery-powered blood spurts and exploding heads...)

I have seen some fairly explicit stuff in the large figures categories, usually horror busts or figures. I remember reading a discussion of the difficulty of getting just the right color of arterial blood, and how it differed from venous bleeding. Weird, to read a literary piece on that topic!

I'd rather not. The movies are bad enough! Have you heard of the new horror movie with John Rocker yet? Golf course groundskeeper gone crazy? Sheesh!!! Stooooooopid!

YodaMan

I thought that yodaman might be interested by a gory one :
a young jedi knight with his hand cut off...

cheers

penpen

I agree with the posts above - I wouldn't want to do one. All of the ones I have seen done on display tables were poorly done too. After seeing it in real-life, that's one aspect of reality I'm not inclined to model in miniature...

Gunnie

Thank you, GunTruck. A very valid point, which was in the back of my mind. The same reason I'm not too excited by the current popularity of gore in movies. Not interested in seeing it on a screen or in a dio. The pictures in my head pop up often enough, without inviting them! Tastefully done dios are different, as long as they depend more on suggestion rather than demonstration. I have even seen some figures (those horror movie ones, usually 120mm, 1/9, or larger) that I thought were way over the top.

I'm not sure I would call that gory. The movie was, after all, rated PG!

YodaMan

I think that, generally, blood on a model or in a diorama is a sure sign of immaturity on the part of the builder. It's such a childish thing, 'oh cool, look at all the blood and guts!'.

There are, of course, the occasional blood soaked bandages and stretcher cases used to tell a story, but these are nearly always tastefully done. The dios with lots of blood, usually have no more of a story to tell than bloodshed, and as a result are a big hit with ten-year olds, but quickly scorned by more mature modelers.

I'm glad I'm not the only one disturbed with the explicit gore in modern movies. Saving Private Ryan had quite enough for me, thanks. There are some scenes I won't watch again. I haven't seen Blackhawk down because I know it's a gorefest. Is it realistic? Sure. Do I need to see a guy get his head blown off or bleed out from a shot to the liver to understand the tragedies of war? Uh, NO.

Thankfully ROTJ was made almost twenty years ago, and Lightsabers cauterize the wounds they make, or I'm sure we'd see Luke's blood squirting all over the place.

I'm pretty new to this but would like to ask a question on this particular subject:

When you guys mention the word suggestion, does that imply that there must be no sign of blood at all when you have "fallen" soldiers in your diorama?

I'm asking this question cause I'm busy with a "battle scene" diorama and it will contain three soldiers that have been shot. What do you guys suggest in this case?

EB

I don't mean that you should sanitize the scene, just keep the blood, etc. to the minimum you need to convey the message. Real life gore is messy and graphic, but most folks have never had to witness it. So if you just use enough to make it clear what has happened, no one should accuse you of lack of realism. Just don't make it a bloodbath, and you will be fine...which of course is only my opinion, and worth every cent you paid for it!

Do what seems right, and looks right, to you.

I agree with Arengca here too. From my perspective, model building is about illusions. No one should seriously think that these lumps of plastic and resin are the real things! The best miniaturists take the observer(s) on a little tour, if you will, of the subject they're modeling. You can hint at all kinds of conditions and details on a model, without going over the top about it. I think the most successful modelers are the ones who don't try to model every single little item in a scene or a vehicle miniature, but convey the "completeness" of the subject through what they choose to model.

Dioramas are even more about illusions than a AFV model. What you want is for that observer to come up to the subject and "read" the impression you're trying to convey. You can model a fierce street fighting scene without any blood at all - if you stage the area, put subtle things like bullet holes and chips on walls, some broken equipment and rubble, and maybe even one little piece of stained gauze lying somewhere off in a corner to create an impression of a serious firefight - without having to go hog-wild with blood & guts. You want the observer to create their own impression of your scene in their minds.

If you acheive that - then nothing could ever be better in the observer's "eye" - because they become a participant in the diorama you created.

Gunnie

Just got new pics from my Omaha beach, finally had my photo equip updated!
Here´s an example of almost-blood-free-yet-battle-worn treatment for a face:



Toni

I think it depends on what kind of scene you want to depict and how realistic do you want to make the scene. I have no problems with the gore scenes in movies such as Pvt. Ryan. It makes me more "thankful" of what these courageous soldiers went through in order to win the war. Must have been pure hell and they did what they had to do in order to ensure our freedom. I would rather see a "gore-fest" movie about war and what it is REALLY like rather than a movie that "sugar-coats" war and downplays the realitys of war. Just my 2 cents.....