"Holland Falls Under a Rain of Darkness"
Small and simple. DML and Track Model figures. Wood base with scratch ground work and details. All manner of finish media used. Hope you enjoy! All comments,critique,thoughts are always welcome.

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Rick

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Thanks for looking! Happy New Year!
Rick

I really like this one

Looks good to me!
Yes, small and simple...

greetings and happy new year!
Soeren

For me a diorama is first a story and you nail it, I really like the fact that the hotspot is on the kids more than on the Germans who are on their way and almost out of the scene. the nun getting her arm like if saying "that's all very well, but you should better hide "etc, really good story.
My advise or critic is that your diorama lacks in shadows/highlights, and knowing some of your previous work, I think you could have done better with the wall and with the err, flower pot or something, hard to say
and happy new year too!

Hello,

This is a very pretty scene. Alsmost like a scene from a movie, nice!

One little thing however: there are no stone walls in Holland. Simple reason: we have no stone. Plenty of clay in the river beds, so brick is used instead.
The only 'hard' mineral we have –very little, in the very south of Holland– is 'mergel', which is used to make... mortar!

You can see some 'blue stone' being used in holland. That's imported from Belgium and used for steps, skirtings and pavements. Also imported granite and marble are used, mainly in buildings.

The wall you depict could be Northern France, Belgium, Germany, but not Holland.

But you can easily change the name of your vignette! ;-)

Yo Rick,

Nice story, small but effective!

Nice little story, good work.

Greetz Nico

Hey Rick,

It is I again... With the risk of being called a school teacher (see above post), there's yet another little mistake, just a spelling error though: your vignette is called "Holland Falls Under a Rain of Darkness". The word 'Rain' should be spelled 'Reign'.

Rain: Wet stuff that falls from the sky sometimes. (Not to be confused with Fallschirmjäger )
Reign: The dominion, sway, or influence of one resembling a monarch.

Just trying to help! :-)

Small scene with a big impact. Looks great.

A big thankyou to all you guys for the views and comments. I truly appreciate the input and would have responded sooner except large amounts of work and life have only allowed quick occasional peeks until now.
Jan, that is amazing that that a country that has such rich earth for living color(Tulips,etc.) has no natural native stone?! In this instance I will plead to the ancients as the wall and nun belong to the Holy Roman Church as a school or Orphanage. Indeed, His Eminance, the Pope, can deem this outpost of God worthy of simple imported stone. (It helps the local economy too!)
The spelling of 'rain' was intentional as the Fallschirmjaeger and the dark stain of evil they bring did come from the sky in a man-made malevolent storm. The invasion was sudden,efficient,deadly,thorough, and fatal to Dutch freedom and Sovereignty. I remember photos of citizens weeping on the sidewalks as local newspapers announced that they were vanquished and subjugated almost overnight. The invasion was that well planned,the troops that well trained, and the execution of the plan was near flawless.
I believe it is still studied in military schools today.
The nun is trying to explain the depth of this event upon their lives. The girl seems to have a start of understanding but the boy is too young, he is lost in the exitement and novelty of it all.
Jean-Bernard! You are quite correct about the lack of detail/attention I should have given to the wall,flowers, and groundwork. I have no excuse but haste and lack of organization. The idea of portraying the immense shock of the sudden invasion and fall of Holland was the goal of the project. The execution of it just fell together somewhat piecemeal and I just called it 'good'.
I will not make that mistake again,I hope! The base is a study I did using a cap for a stairway ballustrade as the base. I bought several from a DIY store near my home. I made several small scenes/layouts of various types and eras just to see what could be done with a very small display area. Tried to auction these cheaply on eBay when they were finished,but no love. The Germans were leftover cast standins for 'Dumbasses' and I just finished them though independent of a plan. I then ran across the Trackmodel figures while searching for something else and then.....serendipity! I staged them all together and liked what I saw then. My error was believing I had the easy'lucky shot'.
Oh well, I learn from you all and I thank you all for it.
May you all have a happy 2010! Cheers!!!
Rick

Hey Rick,


It could have been just like that! I like the way you think!

As a matter of fact, Vatican City actually delivered the huge mosaic floors for the building of the International Court of Justice in The Hague,the so-called Peace Palace that was built shortly after WWII. It was supposedly made by Vatican nuns, who glued the little tiles on sheets of paper, which were then sent to The Hague. Anyway...

School teacher it is. (Not wise guy, I hope.)

As for Roman Catholicism in Holland: there isn't much of that, except in the southern part of the country. And in the deep south of that, mergel is actually quarried too! So: your scene COULD be somewhere near Maastricht, province of Limburg.
(But I onkly know of Fallschirmjäger around The Hague and Rotterdam in May '40...)

During the Liberation of the South of Holland, september 1944, there actually WERE Fallschirmjäger in the province of Limburg.

Should you want to go for historic accuracy and 'replace' your scene to another area, another period, a nice detail would be to paint the flowers orange, for during the war a lot of Dutch grew orange Marigolds to annoy the Germans: our royalty is the House of Orange.