Wanted to share my latest vignette group project (another artist has painted the figures and determined the composition)

You can almost feel the misery of those poor bastards , trying to fight in the cold mud. Very nice diorama. Thanks for sharing............Al

Wow, that is one seriously juicy, and cold, looking vignette you have there Ivan! Well done!

On a side note this would make a nice tutorial project if you've taken the appropriate photos along the way. I for one would certainly enjoy learning from your techniques

Simply amazing. I think most of us could learn from you. Makes my figures look like manequins.

Top notch project, great techniques. The whole composition is great right down to the dark base that brings the mud down to the bottom

Inspiring

Rather opposite of most "in progress" works, I'll post in-progress photos of the dio - in reverse!



In this, rather overexposed shot, the howitzer (fully painted and weathered) has been set in the mud, the "water" has been poured via cast resin and near melting snow has been recreated by mixture of baking soda and Future. Waiting for the crew and the shells (note - I did not paint the figures, but chose rather dynamic and off balance poses to portray fast action, when placing the figures into the scene).

Note that the cast resin water is poured in excess - it will later be covered by mud as to give underlying water soupieness to the whole scene.



Painted and weathered, howitzer is being tested for fit on the preliminary "mud" base - Future with crushed pastels, dried out coffee grounds and black tea leaf (both consumables were first thoroughly enjoyed days prior). Two clear slivers of acetate will catch cast resin from escaping the base when poured - set in place by CG and followed by Future mud mixture to fill in the gaps.

Assembled, primed and base-painted howitzer is tested for fit on prepped mud:



Mud at this point is pretty coarse and used to layout the pockets into which resin will be poured. Because I don't use any acrylic resin (I like Golden Gel medium from a local art store for volume and price) in the underlayer mud mix, it tends to crack and gives extra areas for final and much finer mud layer to grasp onto the surface.