I am totally switching gears on this one. I usually build WW2 armor models and the occassional figure. But I have always been facinated with the horrors of trench wafare that occured in WW1. So.. here is the basis for my next dio.



One of the most inspiring pieces of this period is Andrei Koribanics' "Eye Deep in Hell" dio...simply superb..


eye deep in hell

Hi Brian. This should make for a very interesting scene. I remember the "Eye deep in hell" vignette from when it came out, and your right ... it is an inspirational piece. Have seen both figures before but never knew Verlinden made a skull and bones set. Im Intigued .. looking forward to more.

Nice, I've always been intrigued with this series from VP

This will definitely be a cool idea!

Is there any basis for skeletal remains in the trenches during the war though? Even with the wet conditions and the rats and other critters, it seems unlikely that a corpse would decay enough to the point where just the skeleton would be intact.

Hey Kevin..after doing a little research..and I mean very little..!! I think the question would be if they bones would be intact. With all the shelling and whathaveyou they may have been busted up pretty good.

I'll need to research the idea further but a little "artistic license" is always called for. The constant battle for what looks good and what is accurate!


Did find this little tidbit of information..

A body buried in the soil.. "within a year all that is usually left is the skeleton and teeth, with traces of the tissues on them"


Now applying that rate to a body not buried or only lightly covered with wet dirt/mud..add moisture,rats and insects..a month, two maybe???

Yeah, it's hard to say how long decomp would take. I've heard very different takes on the matter at different times. Some say a buried body will completely decompose in a year or so, others have said a decade could go by the the body would still be fairly fleshy. I guess it has to do with average soil temps, soil pH levels, soil composition, average insect biomass, etc etc.

You're right about the artistic license bit though. Better to build something interesting to look at than something that would pass a CSI fact check.

Got a little further in the past few evenings. I found a link here with some very good instructions on making barbed wire.
Thanks Marty!

Barbed wire

Plus have a figure ready for priming...