Great work Simon.

A couple of things :

"Jean" on the grave would normally be "Jan".

RIP ( on the cross ) is English, the equivalent would be "spoczywaj w pokoju".

Looking forward to updates

Great Dio.
Would they bother lifting the coffin from the hole or just jump in and break through the lid?
Tom

How about Latin, which the English version obviously was based on?: "Requiescat In Pace"

Actually, a correct translation of the Latin original would have been "May he/she rest in piece", but that would require to abandon the acronym R.I.P.

Very impressive Simon.

Great job so far, Simon,

Hope to see the updates soonest.

Regards

Giovanni

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the replies & comments, really much appreciated!!

PPAWLAK1 & BONAPARTE84 - Guys, that was the first thing that I noticed when I opened the Verlinden box:- the Western European names on the graves, & the obvious non Polish wording..... I guess I'll have to correct that all somehow, as it's so obvious, perhaps just afew well placed shrubs & leaves will cover over the errors..... At least the dates aren't post WW2, that would be weird?

TOM - The coffin will be back in the ground, with the empty crates & boxes scattered about. Couldn't 'smash' the lid though... after all that work trying to make the thing!!! Will try to post some updates within the next few days.

Thanks again,
SIMON.

I still really like this whole concept and you made some nice progress as well! Keep it up!
J

Hey everyone......

Here's an update on the progress of how things are going, a little quicker than the last one..... Well the first of the figures are on, refugees from 'Stalingrad' .Although they're obviously children, they're still quite small in scale compared to the rest of the figures going on here, but are still nicely detailed. Figure painting isn't a strong point, but i'm happy with the way they turned out, particularly as they were so small. I attached them to one of the tombstones after a little filing & filling, & they sat there quite happily.





Most of the groundwork in the cemetery is done, having added the bench, the shrine, coffin, crosses, flowers & pigments. Still a tree to add, opposite the shrine to give some height in there, & maybe abit of touch up around the grassy areas. Hopefully once all the figures are on, & interacting with the scene it should all come together.









The postman bought the halftrack yesterday, so have begun putting that together. It'll be positioned pretty much where it is now, unloading supplies to the guys at the barricade having been captured by the Home Army, which is what happened in the early stages of the Uprising.





As always, comments much appreciated & welcomed,even advice or suggestions. Thanks for looking....
SIMON.

Nice update Simon!

I like how you’ve placed the refugees on the tomb — a nice flat place to rest during the turmoil. And the half-track parked on that very narrow cobblestone street brings back memories of driving in France!

—mike

Nice update!! This is coming along famously now. Those figs were good choices and I like the burial ground as well!!
J

Excellent work , i agree

Cheers ,

Kurt

Hi Simon,

This is looking really excellent, great work on the buildings and layout. Sorry for the late reply only just came acoss the build.

Al

Hello again all
Thanks Mike, Jerry, Kurt & Alan for your feedback, appreciated guys!

Can't believe it's a month since I last posted, although it feels like I've been working on this forever..... The tree is now planted, the half track almost complete & 3 new figures have been added. Really pleased how the tree turned out. Wanted to avoid the full & heavy type of tree I've made in the past using steel wool as a 'blanket' for the leaves. This time wanted something abit more transparent. Basically it's made up of 3 parts for the branches:- a thicker twig for the main trunk with 2 or 3 main branches, thinner 'twigs' drilled & glued on to bulk it out more, with Seafoam glued to the very ends to simulate the fine branches. All this was airbrushed with a similar colour to the original tree trunk. Then the seafoam was sprayed with hair spray to act as a glue for the dried mint leaves, which were finely chopped even further & sprinkled over. These were sprayed with a dark green to give some contrast before finally adding a sprinkle of leaves from 'Noch'. Usually in the past I've not used these too often as they're really a bright light green when used 'en masse', but scattered more finely they're great.







Really happy with way the half track ended up, although I'm sure there's AFV people out there with a list of faults.... Respect to you guys who probably knock up these in an afternoon, this seemed to take me ages. Although I've been modelling for just over 10 years, this is only my 13th or 14th vehicle of any description, about 1 a year, so I'm still in the early stages..... Problems with fitting the upper & lower compartments together, an over excited airbrush etc... Still need to add some pigments, stowage inside, paint the MG etc... It's going to be being unloaded by a couple of guys, should all fit into the space ok, hopefully.









Happy too with the figures. The guy on the bench is from Miniarts German Artillery Riders, with a new arm & Hornet head. He's a member of the Polish AK, wearing captured German uniform with a Home Army identification armband. He's reading a copy of the 'Ultimatum'(hence the title) that the German's have dropped urging the Polish people to surrender. This will be a theme throughout the dio. The 2 captured Germans are from Masterbox Panzergrenadiers, again with new arms & a head. Still another 4 figures to add in the cemetery.







Thanks as always for reading, any advice, comments & ideas welcome as always. Working on finishing the half track & fixing that on, the unloading, & the small steps area at the front. Have converted the woman from Masterboxs 'Resistance' set into something more suitable for the time. Will have her somewhere there with the 2 small boys, with some molotov cocktails in the mix....
Cheers for now,
SIMON.

You have made some more very nice additions I see. They all make sense and fit in very well to your story. Nice and complicated,as a street scene should be IMHO.
J

This is stunning. I like your choice of subject matter. The Polish Home Army figure is very realistic and the other figures are great as well. The Warsaw Uprising is a much overlooked chapter in WWII. You are doing it justice. Waiting for the next update.

Jeff

Exellent work!

The only thing that I find a little bit distracting are the tombstones. They are not in typical Polish style and lettering isn't correct either (while R.I.P. is indeed a Latin acronym, in Poland "Ś.P." is used instead before the name).

See here for some examples from Powazki Cementary:
https://www.google.com/search?q=stare+nagrobki+pow%C4%85zki&source=lnms&tbm=isch

Hi Jerry & Jeff, thanks for the kind comments. Jeff you're right about the Uprising story being a good story, the brutality the Polish suffered at the hands of the Germans during that period was horrific, so trying to do them justice....
Thanks Pawel for your feedback, much appreciated! You're not the first to mention about the grave stones, and it is something that needs addressing. Thought I might have got away with it, & should really have thought more about it when painting them before sticking them down. The names are ok, it's just the RIP bit. So a few overgrown ferns/shrubs, and debris might be called for.

Thanks again guys, will try to add more pics soon....
Simon

Hi everyone...,

A little more progress on the Warsaw front this week, have added 7 more figures to the scene, along with some rubble/debris & the bottles for the Molotov's. The 2 boys are from Sciborminatures, the female soldier has been adapted from MB's French Resistance, given her some trousers & a helmet (& a haircut). Figure painting still isn't up to anything as some of the very high standards on this site, but I'm pretty happy with them.









The guys on the barricade are Miniarts Artillery Crew Riders, just with new heads & armbands to make them Polish home army. May still add abit more detail around here yet.....







The 'scenario' will be a unit of Germans have entered the building from the bottom right, taking the Poles by suprise, with a fight taking place amongst the ruins inside. The rest of the ATK around the barricade & in the cemetery are oblivious to it all.



Please post any comments, ideas & critiques, will keep adding more figures over the weeks & keep the progress up to date.
Thanks for looking.....

Simon.

Amazing ground work!

Hey Bill, thanks for that!

Another weekend update, hours of work with what seems very little to sho for it..... Anyway another few of the cast added today. The symbol on the wall is taken from an Uprising docmentary on YouTube, the painter from MK35 did a good job.





Added the Polish flag to the captured halftrack using a napkin & a tissue to split the 2 colours, then painted over them again. Hooked the helmets onto the wall to add aome more colour.





Added the first of the AK troops wearing the blue shirts that some of the Home Army wore at the time, think they were actually postal shirts they wore as a type of uniform. This guy is another one reading the German Ultimatum.





Thanks as always for looking, another update soon....

Simon.

This is soooo cool.
J

Hi all....,thanks Jerry!

Another weekend, another few additions. Added the German Officer & the AK old man questioning him in the cemetery and another AK guy watching over the prisoners. These were from Master Box 'Marquis', although with new Hornet heads ( & a new nationality....)







You'll have to forgive some of the groundwork, it still needs cleaning up, with some more foilage, flowers, grass etc...





Have just bought a couple of 'late editions' from MK35, to beef up the guards in the cemetery, intimidating the prisoners, 2 didn't really look enough. They're still to be added..... Added the German too coming in through the window. The majority of work left to do is to add all the rubble & debris inside the building, so all that grey will be covered. Think I might go over the Polish Uprising symbol painted on the wall too.





There's still 11 more figures to add, although all are painted & just need finishing. Then there's just that rubble & we're almost finished....
Thanks for reading, hopefully more pics soon....cheers!!

Simon

This is coming on really nicely and as well as being well painted etc it has a lot happening in different places which I like to see in a dio. It stops people just looking at it casually as they look to see what else is happening and you have a lot of that. It's an interesting and unusual subject which has obviously benefitted from an obviously huge amount of research. I lke the fact that there are three obvious areas of activity but with lots of small points of interest in there. The coffin with stashed stores is a very nice touch. Looking forward to seeing the end result on this one. Keep up the top work!

I agree! I love all of the little sub-plots going on and those bricked up windows are very convincing. That is a strange picture of the kneeling german POW though. Looks like he has two heads or something weird. Camera angle?
J

Hi Simmon, still going good on this one. A possable addition you might look into. Pick up one of Doug's Originals, the set of running boys. The home guard used many young boys and girls as communication runners of which many were killed by the Germans. Might add that little bit of desperate struggle even more to a great scene. Hope it might help you get the whole picture focused even more. bob d.