I´m developing an idea of a German sniper vignette. Simply one figure placed in a church shot-up bell tower. Here´s a sketch of the tower without the figure.
I will scratchbuild the tower, I thought about using balsa and styrene. I just need some reference for the diamond-tiled roof (is there perhaps an article?) and pics of churches in northern France...

Help and comments appreciated!




Toni

HEY!!!

I have that idea on my workbench also

Awel, if Toni is going to build it, then I should forget it, he make a much better job of it

Come on Ronny...this is not a competition is it?
Besides I´m still thinking if I should make a shadowbox layout from the sniper´s POV...
Maybe use a backdrop print showing the main street of a bombed town...

These ideas come and go, hardly 20% of all my dio ideas will see the light for real...
If you dump your idea because of this you´ll make me very, very sad...



Toni

Hi Tony,

No this is no competition, in fact knowing that you building something similar only gives me (a beginner) inspiration and motivation :-)

This is only 1 of ± 50 dio ideas I have on my calendar, so work enough, lol.

Toni, like I said I have a idea like yours of making a tower and a sniper, but also I have a second thought, and maybe you like it.

I have worked out a idea of a US paratrooper (Verlinden 54mm) who is standing in the street of this town he helped liberating.
The backdrop is made of plain houses (not to deep) but not only on the back of the dio but also on one side of it.

Now here comes the tricky part, you have to work in FORCED PERSEPCTIVE for this.

I was thinking of trying to create dept (using this technique) and at a certain point you see a church tower, which is higher then the surrounding buildings and IF you look closer, you can see the silhouette of the sniper in the tower (1/72 scale).

Do you understand what I mean to say??? (I don't know if I do #:-)) What do you think?.

Ronny, you´re reading my mind. Forced perspective is exactly I was thinking about if I choose to build the shadowbox version of this. The problem is (if you don´t make it a shadowbox design) that you have to force the viewer to the right point of view.
I have one early sketch about playing with perspective and I thought I could use it in my book...
The pic explains itself...


Anyway, your idea sounds brilliant!



Toni

Good ideas evolving around here !
The problem with a sniper dio is that asniper is supposed to be concealed. So showing him from the inside is a good idea. I like very much your idea of a shadow box showing the point of view of the sniper. Maybe you could even use light, coming from the background, where he's aiming at !

Hi Envar
Here are some links that might help!

http://www.jamesfamily.org.uk/terragenesis/buildings/church.html

http://bells-clocks.com/vstple.html

This is a good link for local photos from all over the world.

http://www.worldisround.com/travel/index.html

Hi Toni,

I like the sniper in a belltower shadowbox idea, but would it not be difficult to get the forced perspective of altitude to show? I mean, the sniper is, say, 30m high, and the viewer is looking over the sniper's shoulder at the unfortunate target on the street below.

Guess what I'm leaning at here is is that have people worked at unorthodox angles before? One solution to this would be to tilt the entire diorama in the shadowbox, say 45deg, and have the viewer take a 'high camera' angle to the scene? Click Here for a simple diagram Or is that too radical, making it look hokey?

Still, great idea, and I look forward to seeing it!

Coincidentally, I was doing research for another diorama idea, when I bumped into a picture of Häyhä receiving the ceremonial rifle, and I thought of your diorama. Cool stuff!

What can i say...
That sounds excellent! Very strong effect, though, and has to be executed very well...
But if it worked out the result would be awesome!



It´s nice to throw ideas in the air, this is how things develop!

Toni

How about making that a "diorama group build" ? Create a 1/35 vignette with the following elements :

- scratchbuild a bell tower (or part of a bell tower)
- including a sniper (German WWII or any other)
- max dimensions : ???
- any season

What do you think ?

Why not? That could be interesting!
I´m not really too familiar with the group-build concept but will find out!



Toni

Reading the comments on forced perspective made me remember an idea I had for a Warhammer 40K (sorry, wargamer background) vignette. I will admit the original idea wasn't mine, I stole it from "Doubled Back" - a painting by Bev Doolittle.

In the painting, one sees bear tracks (in the snow) in the foreground working up the trail (diagonally, left to right in the painting). In the upper right hand corner of the painting, on the trail is a silhoutte of a bear. When the viewer steps in to get a closer look, the silhouette is in actuallity, just a boulder. Upon closer inspection, one finds that the bear is in the brush, in the foreground. The first time I saw it, I was standing up against the wall and actually jumped back a bit when I realized that the bear was "right in front of me." (I grabbed a URL from google that shows the painting - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22doubled+back%22+bev+doolittle

Anyways, I had envisioned a vignette in which a trooper was wounded, in mid-collapse. His posture and gaze led one to look for the sniper in the background of the vignette. I'd imagined one could build a structure/paint the shadows such that it appeared as if a sniper were far off in the distance. In actuality I wanted to put the sniper in the extreme foreground, hidden by rubble and debris. In essence, when someone saw the vignette, the would thing that the wounded soldier were looking at his assailant, when in actuality the trauma of being shot had spun him around, disorientating himself and his companions.

Anyways, just a thought. I doubt I'd ever get around to it though, even though it does play into my ever widening desire to play with an audience's perception.

... or make this some form or Armorama contest ?
I made a few suggestions in a separate post...

i don't have pics of churches in france but i have pics of churchis from here