Ola Guys

for a long time I wanted to make a vignette or a dio about the Parties held during the Liberation of the Great Dutch Cities as Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Everywhere you would find the red white and blue waving in the streets from great Flags to small ropes with flags attached to it. Confetti all around and people happy everywhere. Because not that much figures available of Partying civilians I had to sculpt/scratch them myself. That is the part that held me from doing this vignette. Now I kind of took the bull by it`s horns and started experimenting with sculpting and I think I can handle something like this. Also it is my smallest vignette/Dio ever and it will also be the croudiest. Besides the 3 Figures and the Armature there will be people hanging out of the window and some more on the street. The leaning guy is a Dutch resistance member scanning the crowd for Collaborators and women that did "Fraternize" With ze Dzjermans Another resistance member will accompany him pointing at something (if I can find the right figure or if I manage to scratch/sculpt him.) I`m not sure of a title as of yet. Still have to think about that.
Well enough talk here are the pics
Overview

Sideview

Armature of Guy hanging in Streetlight waving a flag or his hat or a bottle of wine or............

Little Girls looking at guy in streetlight

Closeup of the Resistance guy... I scratched the Armband which will be orange

Last but not least
A very lame "Artist Impresion" of what the endresult should be.. Some things are left out as I`m not sure of adding them


As always I`m looking forward to any form of feedback. Critique good or bad everything is welcome. Also suggestions are welcome as you guys could come up with things I would never think of.

Shaping up nicely, and an interesting idea.

Woah, your going to sculpt that figure too!?! This is gonna be a real masterpeice!

Robert,

like I told you in chat, this is an great idea. I wish you all the best of luck on sculpting that figure in the lantern... I've seen your wonderful furniture, and I wouldn't be surprised by you creating a wonderful figure too.

Looking sharp my man !!

Is that your vignette where you tolking about in msn??
Looks cool, nice little girl

Don't you think the light must also included with the street??
Sorry for my bad englisch

Looks like a great scene. Maybe add some streamers and confetti on the ground?

Will you fit the lamp to the street or have it where it sits for the photographs? I dont think that´ll work so well. It might take away from an otherwise perfect composition.
.Looking forward to your progress on the scratched figure. Fair play to ya Robert for giving it a go.

That looks like a really impressive work you have going on there. I love the addition of the little girl with the rag doll..i think it adds to the feel of the scene. Great idea..and excellent work so far. I can't wait to see more progress shots on this one...Keep us posted.
Mary (++)

Awesome piece of work.. i can't wait for the completed piece now.. haha.. keep us posted.

Great start Robert. I am sure the result will be greater, as usual. Keep us posted please, this work will be a good step by step reference for us.

What a great idea Robert, can't wait to see it when its finished

Ola Guys and Gal

Thanks for your time to reply to my thread. I really appreaciate it.

I will answer questions now.

@ Harry and Danny
Well don`t cheer yet. Although I have done some experiments with this type of Scultping I`m no Anders Heintz or name another great sculpter like mister Harms from Alpine, or the sculptor of Hornet and Wolf. But I will give it a try (more or less need to because of the lack of people that look as they have just been liberated.) There is still a lot to screw up.

@ Hilbert and Frank
I was expecting to get questions about the positioning of the streetlight. I did this with a reason. If you know the Infrastructure of the Dutch Cities around that time you`ll see that the sidewalks (certainly in the centrums of the cities) are quite big because of the amount of pedestrians walking there everyday. Looking at my scene I don`t have much room to put it on the sidewalk 2 things happen which I don`t want. A. the Streetlight is almost next to the window B. In a normal situation it is just not handy for pedestrians to walk on the sidewalks with a big streetlight in the middle of it. The Scene is really not finished yet and more celebrating people will be added. I want a scene that is really exploding with happyness. Some of the People will also stand on the border of the Dio. Therefor the position of the streetlight is more an artistic choice. In the end The overlap to the right with the light will be compensated by some object on the left to pull everything in balance again. I don`t know if this is all clear (Probably it is designers mumbo Jumbo again.)
If you still have questions just let me know Always willing to answer

@John
Confetti and streamers will be added. Even so it will be a big part of the dio.

@ Mary
I really like that little girl too. When I saw this set lying at an event I knew I needed to get me that set. although I didn`t had plans for it, it was a set which always comes in use in any scene. So I finally found a goal for the 2 , The little boy raising his hand was also in the set. A little flag will be added.

@ All the rest
Thanks for your replies and the time you took to take a look at my project. And giving feedback.

Nice idea. Reminds me of the scene in Band of Brothers where they enter Eindhoven.

Paul

Hello Faust and all

The idea for this little big dio is excellent!
Full packed of scratch figures it will be a jewell
And sice you're going to sculpt the lamp figurine, may I sugest another position:


After I scanned the drawing (the reason for the "lateish" reply) the right hand should be above the right shoulder level and the torso more inclined to the outside, being the left leg "hanging" vertical

Just a thought

Skipper

I think your idea about the guy hanging on the streetlight is awesome. I wish I had one for my VE campaign dio. Who knows, there may be some commercial opportunity with that one.

Hi. I like it too. How about a person in the window? You could use the female fig in the Verlinden set "Saturday Night Bath". Just a thought.

Looks good. Good luck with it

Simon

Ola Guys

Thanks for the replies again.

@Paul


Exactly well that is only one place where the inspiration came from. I have so much pictures in Books about the Liberation of Holland and how happy the Dutch were to be rid of the Germans. Long I wanted to built something like this but My skills were not up to that. Now I have a bit more confidence I can tackle something like this.

@Rui
This is exactly the kind of thing I love. Excellent sketch too. And I made up my mind of what to do with the fig. I`m going to combine my pose with yours. (more of yours actually.) He will hold the Streetlight as he does now by wrapping his arm around it (otherwise he cannot hold his bottle of beer) and the rest of the pose is exactly the way you show it. Not sure if he will be waving a flag or his hat but that will be the smallest of all problems. Some more figs will be scratched and mabe 1 or 2 others will be sculpted. (At least that is my plan)

@ Alan


I don`t think my sculpt qualities are as good as that of the poorest manufacturer in the world. I`m already happy when my idea comes out just as I have it in mind. It is a very nice compliment though.

@Simon


There will not be one figure in the window but I`m planning 2. I still have to think of the poses. The Girl from the Verlinden has some real possibilities (2 of them:-) :-) :-) . I definately keep that one in mind. And maybe I get so fond of the sculpting that I make 2 People myself. We`ll see. Thanks for the advice and the comments.

As an Addittion to my explanation of the scene 4 posts up..... The kind of feeling I want to create in this vignette is the feeling you get when you are sitting in a Theatre watching a brilliant play and you are right there at a Brilliant finale Just before the clapping starts. Where the Music rises to it`s climax end ends in a Bombastic ending and all the players take their place (arms wide looking into all directions etc. etc.) (probably more Designers Mumbo Jumbo to make it more confusing)

I think you will have to have a poster of a german 37mm gun somewhere. It just wouldn't be right with a Faust dio and no 37mm

Wonderful idea - I love it in concept and you have always done a great job on dioramas like this, so I have high expectations for you

Two things that I see, the small boy in front looks to thick in the waist. I believe that the kids may have hand me down cloths that are a bit big and loose. I would expect a bit of 'bunching' at the shorts, a belt of some kind cynching the shorts around his waist to hold them up. Or a billowing of the shirt out around his shorts.
Thing two is the light. I understand what you are getting to with composition balance and taking advantage of the 'outside' space to free up the inside. I think you can pull off the balancing act ( ) and incorporate the base as a functional element if you raise the sidewalk even with the base. This would allow for better visual flow. Right now my eye gets a hard stop/edge where the round sidewalk piece meets the base. If you raise the sidewalk and blend it a bit at the edge you can take advantage of the extra space and let the eye move across it better.

Robert I encourage you in your endeavour and all the best with the sculpting - yes it will be challenging but in the end it will be a unique piece and you will put your own spirit into it, always what I enjoy in sculpting
I definitely look forward to pics of the work as you finish each piece, I have a few of the old esci resistance figs would you like them
Ian

Ola Guys

Sorry for the late reply. Had to work. Thanks again for all the nice comments.

@ Alan


I had not thought about that aspect as of yet........ You just gave me another Mission to try to include at least a link to a 37 mm Canon.......... mmmmhhhhh this is going to be a hard one but I love Challenges.

@Scott
Thanks for your Nice comment as first and then about the kid I`m not going to do too much about him. I think the guy will do just fine. It is not that I don`t want to but he really is a small bugger
I see your point about making the level of the sidewalk the same as that of the base.and it is easy to do as the sidewalk part together with the house front are still not glued down in the picture frame. I can add some stuff to get it to a higher level. I think together with the Balancing act it will work out exactly the way I want it.

@ Ian
Also thanks for the encouragement and the faith you have in me. I will do my best on this first figure.... That should give me enough courage to the others I have to sculpt/scratch. I did not know Esci had Resistance figures... What do they look like?

Again thanks for the comments and feedback.. It is much appreciated. Of course if you still have ideas or any other form of feedback I would like to hear it.

Ola Robert!

Glad you liked and understood my point
I am looking forward to see your progress!

About the Esci Partisans box - I remember one of my friends (back in late 70's early 80's ??) to have that box!
One female partisan type "Listen carefully, I shall say this only once" from "Allo Allo", and four other male members (One or two knealing, with explosives), one carrying a sten machine gun... but then I could be wrong!

Skipper

:-) :-)

I was wrong (partially)!
Check this link

http://www5.big.or.jp/~jinmink/MUZEO/mokei/puramo/09/

Ola Rui

Hmmmm that is a nice set. I think with some scratching and Frankensteining of the figures I can make a nice celebrating figure of it.... What is the quality of the figures?

Thanks for giving the info Rui really appreciated

Faust you should try and sneak a 37mm into all your dios whether it be a model 37mm, a brochure or just a picture among the trash on the ground. Then we can all search for it like the "Where's Waldo" game!!

Heck that gives me an idea to select a trademark for myself and hide it in my dios!!