Raul,

Wow, just spent ages reading this thread then noticed it ended short, felt gutted it seemed this brilliant project was lost..... Till I read the last post! Dude, your cool, I like a man that thinks outside the box and that's what this is. Strangly im in the middle of planning a rotating dio myself that although is different, has the same 'wow' affect when all is shown. Anyways back to you, its spot on, waiter looks just right and the addition of cats give a real 'lived in' feel, WWII dios rarely grab my interest but this I love! You so better finish it lol best of luck!

Bronzey

Raul -

Your initial message puts this diorama in a political framework, and I am curious regarding something about the resistance movements against the Nazis in general. I had the impression that whenever something was done to them personally or to German property-equipment, there was usually a rapid reprisal that killed dozens or hundreds of people who lived in the area of the incident.

I can appreciate the resistance fighters feeling that they needed to take some activity against the situation of their country being occupied by a foreign military presence, but how did they balance doing that with the knowledge that their action - as courageous and noble as it might be - would result in the executions of so many of their countrymen?

I don't know if this aspect has ever been studied or written about, but I wonder if you know anything about it. I should think that the PTSD of killing the enemy is nothing compared with knowing that your actions are responsible for the horrible deaths of hundreds of your countrymen. It may make that individual feel that he has accomplished something, but at what cost, and does it really advance the cause?

Charles

Charles,
The French Resistance for a whole range of groups that resisted Nazi occupation. The FR was involved in a whole range of operations ranging from publishing underground newspapers ("Combat") to espionage and intelligence gathering to armed resistance. There's been alot of debate about their effectiveness but their intelligence gathering was important in the years before D-Day. FR was also very useful in rescuing downed Allied pilots. They did partake in alot of sabotage actions, mostly involving railroads and communications. So if my diorama was going to be more representative of their actions, it'd probably be of a few guys listening to a radio or put some dynamite on train tracks. FR went into overdrive after D-Day and there's evidence that they did a good job of slowing down German units headed to the front-lines.

FR did partake in armed resistance and there several well documented cases of them throwing grenades into lorries full of German soldiers, laying ambushes for convoys, and a few assassinations of high value German targets. Thereby my own diorama.

As for your original question, yes the Germans did partake in some pretty heavy-handed reprisals against the local population and one at least one case, they razed an entire town because of resistance actions. I can't really argue for or against the ethics of it. I tend to think that a people always have the right to resist an occupying force and that the moral cost of reprisals falls on the occupier. If the FR would have let it known that reprisals would deter them, that would have been tantamount to surrender. On a more strategic level, the Germans weren't really helping themselves with the reprisals. Such heavy handed tactics usually create more resistance fighters than it kills. Part of Guerrilla tactics is getting the other side to overreact. FR found an easy foil in the German forces.

Osprey has a pretty good book on the basics of FR entitled French Resistance Fighter: France's Secret Army.



http://www.amazon.com/French-Resistance-Fighter-Frances-Warrior/dp/1846030765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361845752&sr=8-1&keywords=french+resistance

Thanks for the kind words Bronzy!

Raul -

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I wasn't judging either, but had just read of most of a Polish village being executed in reprisal for a failed assassination attempt, so the issue was fresh on my mind. The moral cost may fall on the occupier, but the more palpable one often impacts the innocent. I realize there's the "with me or against me" card, but I should think many people in an occupied country are mostly interested in daily survival.

Charles

New Update:

So I went out yesterday and got the base I'll be using for the diorama. It's a medium sized 7" round base. A tad smaller might be better the but next smaller size is much too small at 4".

I ordered a 4" spinning "lazy susan" base online so it should be here soon. I need the spinning base because I don't want viewers to be hesitant to spin the base around.

As you can see in the pics below I started to get all the actors in place, just to see how it would look.






The officers are drinking, reading relaxing. Both have their backs turned to the approaching waiter. If everything works, the viewer will concentrate on the officers and the cats and think, "oh, nice diorama about two officers partying in Paris".

But...




If we spin the base, we find that the diorama is not about the officers at all; the main actor is the approaching waiter with pistol behind him. Hopefully, the viewer appreciates that they've been fooled...like the soon to be dead officers.

Mocking it up like this, I noticed the empty spaces to the left and right of the waiter. I hadn't anticipated this problem but the dead space bleeds energy from the scene's tension. I'm needing to load it with something. I'm thinking flower beds? Small cafe trees? Something that takes up space and helps give context. Blooming flower beds springtime in Paris?

Also you see I've started painting the darker colors of the 2nd officers as well as his face here. Nothing yet, just a little flesh and shadows. The real painting in oils will start once I find the hour to commit to it.



Next up, painting the officer and face. Paint the cats and then get a nice round sheet of styrene to do the pavement on. I'm looking to just use a round thick styrene sheet with some lines scored into it as the sidewalk. With some good painting it should work fine.

Comments always welcomed! Thanks for reading.

Raul,
What a nice scene you are creating there!
The waiter figure is top notch!
I will look forward to your updates!
Cheers.

Pablo

amazing job!!!

Raul thats really starting to come along nicely. I think you could get away with that base. You could always have a cat sneaking off, a load of pigeons.....

Paul

I can't wait to see more.

Where's the fast forward button on this thing.
Why is it I can have all the patience in the world when working on my projects but just can't stand waiting to see other's projects next step.


Great work so far.

What a extrordinary way you caught the drama in this dio. Chapeau!
One can really feel the tension: two German officers, absolutely unaware of the fact that they are having the last seconds of their life!
By using all sorts of common day items and a relaxed, civil setting, you change the whole into drama by "just" showing a pistol at the back of a civilian.
Looking forward to see it finished.
Great job you are doing.

a brilliant idea, and so far excellently "excecuted"... nice work, please do show more!

I am very happy to see this project"resurrected"!
J

Raul:

Great vignette! I love the "surprise" ending!

In regards to the size issue, I think you could step the edge of the groundwork back from the milled top edge of the plaque by at least a 1/4" and maybe by as much as 3/8." That would reduce the overall diameter by a minimum 1/2" and reduce the mount of empty space and help concentrate the main focus (as you note later). The sharp edge of the milled top could be smoothed (even radiused by it's thickness) mitigating the visual suddenness of setting back the edge of the groundwork.

Since you're going to add the spinning feature, the base will gain some height, so I would suggest that the ground work itself could also be made "thicker" raising the scene above the plaque and display table.

This additional height would place the borders of the plaque into the "background" and could be proportional to the combined thickness of the plaque and lazy Susan under it. Adding a little "verticallity" to the entire scene might also help set the scene off from the surrounding real-world distractions, sort of making it appear visually suspended in the air.

Still, a great idea overall.

Thanks for sharing!

Before I begin, thanks all for the wonderful comments and encouraging. It's great to see people are interested in little dioramas like this.

Mike, I completely see what you're saying about height and closing the base in by 1/2 inch. I've been shopping around for something I could use to give height but short of getting into building a whole foam thing, I can't seem to find anything. Also, I kind of fell in love with the idea of adding a couple of planterns with some blooming flowers. So we'll see. Maybe I'll do a combo of both. But if you know any ideas for cheap, easy base building ideas, let me know them.

Now, I started painting our waiter. I have to admit I was a little nervous even though I've painted countless figures. I always get a little stage-fright when I have to paint "the" figure of the diorama.

He's not finished and I still need to add more highlights and shadows, but here goes...








And here's the head, I've chosen for him. I was thinking of picking a smiling Hornet head, and add some kind of irony, but I think I want the most boring, nonchalant face possible in order to make the viewer completely ignore the waiter. In this sense, the viewer will fall for the same trick that the soon to be dead officers do.



And a quick mock-up of head and figure together...



And the start of a cat...



There we are thus far. I will be working on the head and the officer sometime over the weekend I hope.

Thanks for following.

Talk about one way to be served your last meal. I bet the waiter doesn't get a tip.

No need for any stage fright as your little guy is lookin good my friend!
J

Hello
For Charles i could add that Eisenhower said that the FR actions for Dday and after were equal to at least 100.000 moere allied soldiers (intel+sabotages).
It' a fact that FR had to stop to kill germans officers because for one officer, the germans killed 10 civilians.

The FR was full of differents groups, some were ex facists (strange but real), some were gaulists and after 1941, the communist party enter in FR with all its militants.

Raul, what a great vignette you are doing!
I love that situation changes depending on the view point, brillant idea!
I can´t wait to see it finished.
I´m following your work!

I like the logic behind the chosen head for the waiter- it makes a good deal of sense. The painting so far is sublime.

We are nearing the home stretch here.

I saved some time for painting the faces yesterday. Got out the oils and went to work. And almost woke up to a disaster.

I painted the faces in oil and put them in the slow cooker to dry over night. I usually put them in "keep warm" or "low" but I guess I wasn't paying attention and put them in "High" instead. All night in High. When I checked this morning and saw High I expected the worst. In the past, overheating the drying process has lead to the darkening and yellowing of whites and color distortion, not to mention melted necks.

Then a miracle! After letting the heads cool, it seemed that there was no damage to the color or the heads. Wooohoo!

Heads below.

Butler






Officer:





And the beginning stages of the sitting officer



Lastly, I ordered some nice engraved brass plaques from
http://www.halexawards.com/brassplates_new.htm

I'll start putting the heads on tonight and perhaps give another update soon.

Thanks for watching.

Raul...Please don't wait another year to update this. I'm so intrigued by this vignette. Your figure sculpting and painting skills are amazing...first rate! I'm waiting to see the cafe table and chairs. The cats are a neat addition.
Nice work.

Jeff

I had a nice, long written post last night all set to go and then...browser crash.

Let's try this again.

This post is all about odds and ends.

To start off, here's the 4 inch "lazy Susan" swivel for the base. It ran me about $2.00 online so not bad at all. It's not much to look at but considering that I shopped around all the local hardware shops around here and they only had really big ones, I'm kind of attached to this thing.



Next I did some of the food and plates. I also painted the table with a very thin silver rim. Nothing fancy but needed. The plates and glasses are from Diopark as are the chairs. I had tried an another kit for chairs but really wasn't very happy with the look or the materials.





And then here's a close up of the cat thus far. I hate it. I screwed it up. It's amazing how much you don't know about a cat until you have to paint one. Do the tiger stripes go around the legs? Do they stop midway? Is there a dark stripe running down the back? Where is the white? So half-way through I realized I was just mucking around and just stopped. I have to reprime this thing, look up a bunch of pictures of cats, and start over. I'm sure my wife is going to think it's cute that I'm looking up kittens online.




And finally the waiter is 95% percent done. All I need to do are the shoes and the platter.





Next up I have to do all the technical, engineering bit of diorama making that I hate. I have to get the base materials together, do some sanding, priming etc.

I think I figured out a way to produce a rise in the base like a pedestal. It involves some plaster, wood, and a CD cover. Wish me luck.

Raul, First rate work here! I hadn't seen this beauty until now, I'll be looking to follow your progress.
I'm curious, to say the least, what you choose to add on to the flanks of your assasin!

Thank you for this,
Cheers Dave