here's a shot of some fire foam damping down after my friend crashed his brand new robbinson r44 raven

he escaped with a bruised arm after being thrown out of it !!

Water Effects= runoff from fire retardant foam and the after effect of fighting a (perhaps) aircraft that exploded on take off. Absolutely beautiful.
This is so somber and poignant. I know I sound like a broken record but you have the ability to say so much with so little....quite a feat.

Cheers,
Charles

PS - I really like Charles' map

Hi JB,

still following your build with great interest. I still like it very much and it is very useful too. I'm a bit suprised however by the large amount of blood spilled on the beach. Not that I like it in the way of good taste, but more when you compare it to the quite intact body of the gunner... and even so with the quite large amount of water. You made some spills which is I guess due to the sea washing it away, however I guess most will be washed away when the first water runs over the blood. I would reduce the blood only to the ball it self and not so much on the ground.



Jelger

My mp3 player is so slow to load I have some time to answer just right now

Paul your friend got lucky! Thanks for sharing the picture -actually i made a bit of research concerning the foam. the one i use is the older one called "protein foam" apparently an American invention just in time for WW2. Since then there are other types of foam appearing on the market which are more efficient etc...

That's exactly that Charles, the water effects are just this: spills of water and some fire retardant foam on the top..Thanks again!

hey Jelger thanks! Actually absolutely no part can be made off the gunner now the ball is closed, just a bit of intact foot, he could be sort of jelly inside as far as I know.
That's just not blood or the run offs would have been different -and red only while you can see there is water also. That's water been spilled on the turret that sort of diluted the content; like says the poem
"they washed me out of the turret with a hose"

Brilliant work JBA, stunning.

Let there be water .

The water looks good I would until its dry to decided on the colour.

Sorry JB
Busy with the baby boy my own work here
Well you start the thread in July and it reborn in september difficult for me to follow you


But really great piece of work congrats
Seb

Hi JB,

thanks for your explanation. The line of the poem is then well depicted, nice to see how your interpretation of the poem is been worked out by you. Looking forward to see more of this nice project.



Jelger

unsure of the exact foam used , i took the photo about 4 hours after the accident so it would have died down a lot , it was the local fire brigade who put out the aircraft fire

Hello JBA
I have followed all your diorama builds with interest. You have a wonderful feel for atmosphere and I admire your work. This setting creates a tremendous sense of emotion. The basework is very good and the depiction of the crash site is excellent.

I am interested to see how the foam works out for you.

Regards
Garth

JBA: This is simply one of the most incredible dioramas I've ever seen! I hope that all of the effects work out for you as you wanted them to.

zaltar

for tose that don't click !! and maybe through difficult translation , this diorama will work on so many levels when finnished .

firstly the sadness that the gunner obviously took a high powered round doing obvious high body damage ( probably chest area !! )

seccondly the crews decission that it was too much risk to extricate his body for a crash landing , because of he risk to living crew
thirdly the gut wrenching realisation as on landing they left a friend they had grown attatched to to his own devices ( even though dead

fourthly the fire crew .. even though detatched in some ways , by the aircrafts codes they usualy knew exactly who they were dealing with

this is such a strong dio and dealt with so realisticaly and with respect on all fronts works so well it is shear genious !!

I must agree, the story of the diorama was what drew me to it in the first place. The diorama displays the idea of the tragedy so perfectly.

zaltar

Superbe Jean Bernard !

The turret with the blood running down! Wow, great effect!
The sea, i don't know if the colour changed in the meantime, but for now it looks a bit to much grey for me. Also the shape of the waves could be more finer, more bubbling.
First impressions from someone who dd not any water effects forsix years, so take it with caution.

Salut
Claude

Hi Martyn thanks and nice to see you here too!

hey jaymes you are pretty right, i did that over a few days time, color correcting again and again until I was more or less happy with the result

Aha Thanks Seb Good luck with the little one! In july that was just a teaser

hey Jelger, either tomorrow or wednesday I am going to post completed pics, the end is just around the corner now

You nailed it Paul, That's VERY hard to get the right texture for foam and I have been indeed hesitating a lot for it.. But in the end I made something which i think is okay -until I find a better way that's it!

Thank you Garth, it all comes from reading a paper when i was 15, about Sheperd Paine, it was written that he was "famous for his atmospheres", that sort of set the path for the next 25 years
As for the foam it worked like below..

Thanks james, I hope it works as well as your enthusiasm tells, it's appreciated

Yep Paul (again). i think the worse is that the hole in the cockpit as well as the 2 missing plexiglass bits (blown up from the shock?) are taken from A to Z from a real picture. The guy who wrote the poem was in the US Air Force too.

Salut Claude, uh no, no sea. Come on that would indeed be pretty ugly for sea
Just foam, dirtier and shaped in small blots, the texture is quite different more on that just now.

despite more or less managing to get the colour okay, i was still not very happy with the texture, it really looked "acrylic gel", this is why i got the idea of actually mixing it with Andrea microballons (that stuff that is sold to make snow)


Here I am using this stuff on a big run off to put a bit of failed photoetch that I used as rubble near the plane


After a bit of hesitation on where to put it, I finally made my mind to add canopy, Browning and those great GrumpyOldMan full bullets in some empty corner.. (warning, I have been lighting up the pic pretty much)


While the spent cartridges I put close to the plane itself, just like they just fell down from the burning carcass.

let's be clear this is now mostly completed, just one hour to add some shadows on the foam, a bit of colour correction here and there, and I will post the final pictures tomorrow

BUT, just one thing about the base. What to use? if I want to play what I am not, i am going to buy a 4 inches high wooden base, and will write the poem on it in golden letters
But I am not sure if I really care that people get the thing, they can think it's a Gundam for what i care. so that will just be a small wooden frame bought in a DIY store

Of course foam, it was 7 this morning when i wrote this and i have a bad cold, so "sea" was the only word coming to mind.
The foam is now just what i expected, bubbling and so..

Claude

JB, my friend !
BRILLIANT , just BRILLIANT !!!!!! Finally, the end is in sight and what an end !!!! I can now see how it all comes together and I must say that I am IMPRESSED ! Thanks for a wonderful visual and mental "ride", my friend; I really enjoyed it . I really can't wait for the final, final images . Cheers !
Kenneth .

I have been looking again at this work JB my friend and something struck me about what you have done...
Most people who would have attempted to portray the peom in a diorama would have probably gone for a full a size aircraft on the base with lots of firemen and even a couple of fire engines and jets of water/foam being sprayed about to make a dramatic scene, basically a very busy dio...

You on the other end have manged to cut out all the crap and get straight to the point, you manage to say so much while using so little. Thats what makes this a classic piece of work mate.

All the best mate,

Steve

Jean-Bernard,

I looked at your recent updates, and I have an image in my head of a piece of glass with smoke across it (like your original teaser image) and the poem written on it, all in front of the turret opening, slightly masking it and making it more difficult to actually see. The font of the letters and their coloring/tint (translucent?) could contribute to conveying the horror and waste. A film in front of your eyes. Lovecraft-like. But maybe it should be at the back of the base, so as not to cover any of your superb work and make the obvious even more so.
As for the base, what about something that looks like stone? But simple black border would probably be best.
You are the Artist, and I'm sure you have a far better idea...

Bon your Jb.
I just want to thank you for allowing me to enjoy this great work.
everything you do has a special touch.
I love the solution of the microbeads to simulate snow bubbles in the water you let me use that technique in the future?

I look forward to more pictures of this marvel, it is incredible that in such a short space and with so few pieces are being transmitted

Domi

hey Claude thanks, you know the main thing was that it would not look so much like acrylic gel, I needed a bit opf sparkling but with very few gloss. So that's okay, But i think there might be a better way to do render this effect..

Thanks Kenneth friend, that's it the ride is over just well, now

Steve you are perfectly right. Model making is so much a question of details that it often bares no meaning. Cut the crap yes, a diorama should never be bigger than its idea. thanks mate

Jeff I have been noting that some people using too visible bases distract from the diorama they put. maybe the reason why I won't put the poem is that my diorama is in fact not about this poem.
I have this idea of ripples of blood ever since I saw my wife at the hospital during the birth of my first son. I found it incredible that my kid may be born in such a blood bath, and I thought I had to do a diorama about it.
Then i had that idea of a GI in sunglasses washing out a blood covered Hummer in Irak, (Cronenberg -'Crash' style) but thought some people could be hurt about this and *then* I found this poem which was too good to be true, I mean, blood, womb, this parallel between the mother and the place, a real great piece of poetry, and that was indeed sounding like my life, this is why I used a B-17 instead of a Tupolev!
So well, the poem provided a great setting for my idea in fact..

dear Domi, nobody is a owner of techniques, they are all in the air If I wanted people not to pick up my tricks I wouldn't show them here and there!
I would be flattered honestly if you would consider picking up my own tricks
And thanks for your comments as usual

Now time for the real thing, hide the kids (gerrof Chas )
So as usual (now) no effect, just a grey paper on a grey day, last pic is slightly underexposed























Thanks to everybody who watched and helped

Amazing diorama JBA, it has that dark atmosphere that makes the difference. No average but just professional business here !

Congrats Guy.

Hi JBA. Another piece of beauty. I really love the surf and the colours used for the sand and the contrasting blacks/greys of the water.
Have you considered adding a comrade or US soldier watching the scene in despair ... or would this be just too obvious?

Plenty of material in his biography already to make a nice book, isn't it ?

I really appreciate the choosen colors here. The metallic effects, but also the yellowish beach color offering a superbe contrast.
Let's not forget the Blog itself, offering a lot of techniques and also an effort by itself to update regualarly and with such clear pictures.

Thanks and well done
Claude

Congrats my friend for masterizing such a projet, from the tease picture to the final shots.

It's been a real pleasure to watch your daily updates.