Several years ago I started this small diorama set in Northern Ireland sometime in the 1980s. It consists of a British soldier in riot gear with a man and his daughter. The little girl is offering a flower to the soldier. I had even called it; “Give peace a chance”. Never had time to finish it. Now I am going to try to complete it once and for all. Let’s see how it turns out.





One of the main challenges of this piece is the fountain. Let's see how we do with some water effects.

working on the fountain and cobblestone base.

Intereting scene you have planned- the water effect is looking great so far- can't wait to see more progress on this.

I'm not too well up on this sort of thing but I think I'm right here. UK troops would not have been wearing 'tin hats' in the 80's or using batons. This era would have been early to mid '70's for this equipment.

You are probably right, it is more like mid to late 70s. The British soldier is an old Chota Sahib figure from the beginning of the 80s. I won't date the diorama and let the viewer do that himself.

I am intrigued by the phallic nature of the fountain.

They are actually two dolphins. I am sure the people at verlinden had a private laugh about that, because I agree with you, it is very phallic in nature. I did consider changing the sculpture, but in the end I was lazy about it, and left the original Verlinden monument to the phallous.Haha!

Nice idea,served five tours over the water during the 1980s,we still had the steel helmets and batons .....also motor bike type made by centurion.
Terry

Almost done!

tomorrow I will post much better pictures. I promise!

Very evocative.

Hmmmm....shades of the Sixties, Ohio state, etc.

I'm really not seeing the dolphins there Marcos.

Nicely done though, mate.

Nice scene Marcos- some really nice touches in it like the DPM pattern on the smock- the drab military colors of the soldiers uniform and kit also contrasts nicely to the brighter colors worn by the civilians. Great work.

Jason, maybe now you can see the dolphins:
First picture you can see the mouth, eye, and very stylized fin. The head is straight and it looks like dolphins used to be drawn in old sailor's books, and the body curves upward.



In the second picture, at the top you can see a half moon shape. That is the end of the dolphin's tail.

I think something like these is what Verlinden was aiming for:

Anyways, There is something about the balance of this diorama that is not quite right. I am going to experiment with a couple of aditions to see if I like it better. There is an empty space next to the figures that needs something happening there.

Perhaps a park bench or flower bed of some description might be an idea for the empty space?

A really cool vingette. However, the fountain doesn't work well for me.
Firstly, it is a very odd take on dolphins and definately causes one to look at the fountain rather than the rest of the vingette.
Secondly, the water coming up out of the dolphin....shouldn't it be cascading or raining back down into the fountain? I know that might be rather difficult to depict but as it is, it appears to be water dropping and turned upside down. I think you might be better suited to have the water running down the sides of the dolphin and rippleing back into the body of water rather than trying to have it shooting upward in one large mass.
Mind you, this is just one persons opinion and (hopefully) constructive comments. All in all I really like the concept and execution of the piece.

Cheers,
Charles

I don’t love the fountain neither. I went with the squirt up, because that is the type of fountain it is. Fountains that cascade down, usually have at least one “bowl” or tier that when it fills it cascades down over the edge. Here are a couple of pics to help me explain better:





Anyhow Verlinden designed the fountain, and I am not sure what they had in their minds.