'The Grim Reaper speaks out...

[StephenLawson]

----------------------------Grave Doubt--------------------------------
‘The Grim Reaper speaks out about hand grenades and horseshoes’
Dioramas give the modeler a chance to put their build in an interesting format that will invite the viewer to stop and look, much like a painting. ‘How to build Dioramas’ by Shep Payne was my first real stretch to build a better model. Its still available and should be in every modeler’s reference library. The well known aviation artist Jim Dietz says, ‘... the process of creating a realistic painting is like describing how a magic trick is done. Once the process is understood the viewer is apt to say,”Oh is that all there is to it?”... “They are to fulfill my own desires.” Someone once said that ‘...aircraft dioramas are limited to maintenance or standing. The dioramas that have worked well for me are; in flight, taxi, factory assembly, field assembly , type test, acceptance tests, crashes & salvage. Of these there are usually the two types of dioramas that can have great impacts but are easily spoiled in their manifestation. Here I would like to discuss crashes and salvage dioramas. These deal with the delicate subject that is at the focal point of war. There are two things that can kill a diorama’s chance to compete successfully. Too much blood and too little planning. When recreating a crash scene ask yourself, ‘...what is my purpose for doing this?’ Monster figures with distorted and twisted features are one thing as I’ll discuss later. Recreating the morbid death of a realistic historic figure is another thing altogether. Sympathy for your subject matter is engendered by most people and their own experiences with death. If your treatment of the subject is perceived to be ham-fisted, clumsy or insensitive, your work will be unacceptable to most viewers including contest judges.
Here is what does not work;
1. I remember a fantasy diorama done with skeletons, dragons and warriors from small scale metal figures. While intriguing and the multiple heads that were lopped off simulating blood oozing from their open wounds was colourful, it detracted from the overall idea. With wounded figures a little goes a long way. Why would skeletons bleed anyway?
2. I have also seen a WWI trench scene with portions of a cadaver sticking out of the ground. While very realistic judges past it by because the artistic appeal was nullified on the idea that a modeler would attempt to recreate a rotting human corpse.
3. There was a Napoleonic vignette where the soldiers were freezing to death and eating the carcass of a horse. Fortunately the pink snow covered up most of the horse. It did not win anything but distain...

[StephenLawson]

In dealing with death or near death experiences the modeler needs to understand the impact that you will be having on the average viewer. The idea of leaving the viewer to come to his or her own conclusion is a time tested means of finding acceptance for the piece you have built. This means that you give them all the information that they need to draw their own conclusion.
Such as;
4.In my treatment of the fatal crash of Ltn. Wegener in ‘The Order of the Wooden Cross’ I left the body figure out altogether. The post crash view showed such destruction of the aircraft especially around the cockpit area the first response by most viewers was, ‘...Well the pilot could not have survived that...’ (See the last image in this post.)

5. In my diorama of ‘The Rittmeister is missing’ I used historic evidence to cover the ‘deceased Baron’ figure with a ground tarp. This again allows the viewer to get the idea without having to be assaulted by the images of an exposed corpse.

6.In my diorama entitled ‘I regret to inform you’ I had the aircrew of an Albatros C.III getting ready for what was to be their last flight. The title alone suggested that this crew did not return from their mission.

7. With the diorama ‘463/17' I took various aspects of several Fokker Triplane crashes due to top wing failure and applied them to a Fokker Dr.I that had one too many flights. The overall appearance of the aircraft says that the pilot may have survived but the lone mechanic figure and the general wreck detail draws the viewer into the technical aspects of the crash.

8. In the diorama, ‘Nice landing Herr Leutnant,,,’ we see a recently repaired Albatros D.Va in Palestine 1918. based on a true occurrence, the pilot had taken the machine up for a test flight. At about 300m he heard a loud bang! Looking over his top main plane he saw that the left wing tip had over stressed. He was able to safely land the aircraft. My version shows the pilot still in the cockpit holding his head in his hands. On the ground a German mechanic is surveying the damage. At least it was an area of the aircraft that had not been worked on.

[StephenLawson]

If something is preposterous then we tend to overlook any of the macabre images and laugh it off as harmless. In the ‘That can’t possibly happen’ category we have model companies like Aurora or Polar Lights putting out images of our favorite Monsters and their habitats. Monogram was famous for putting 1/24 scale skeletons with some of their hot rods. ‘Lil Coffin’, ‘Boot Hill Express’ and ‘Rommel’s Rod ‘were big sellers. When I developed the idea that modeling clubs are populated by Die hard, AMS afflicted, techno-weenies the words die hard stuck. (I belong to two of them so I am pointing the finger at myself here too.} I asked myself what would happen if the members refused to go home one night. My answer was;
9. ‘The Last meeting of IPMS Ragwing.’ Here we have five die hard modelers in their club house / garage stacked with various kits, doing what they, ah...er, did best. One re-enacter is wearing his coalscuttle and hob nails working on the club transportation. They need after all something to get back and forth to the hobby store, right? One fellow seems to have ‘bought it’ putting the finishing touches on a spiral striped Fokker Dr.I. The fellow I call ‘the stone cutter’ will for ever admire his last bit of work on his partially completed ‘John Phillip Law’ sculpture. If you look closely you’ll even see his masonic ring. In the cockpit of the Sport Flyer Fokker Dr.I we see the club President ‘da Baron’ making those last minute flight checks before he takes off on his final mission. Then lastly we see the boney knees and boots of the R/C enthusiast of the club. Seems the poodle was locked in there for a longgggg time. While immensely funny to many this was just too close to being the truth for others. Having won several awards the real prize was just out of reach. Yes, sadly this diorama has never been given the coveted ‘Lopez Demente’ award by the Albuquerque chapter of the IPMS. (What in the world were they thinking when they gave it to that ‘Toe-Tractor?’) Yeah, you read it right, ‘Toe-Tractor.’ It just proves how subjective judging can really be.

[StephenLawson]

G'day all; I was asked by a fellow in Japan about 'Gotcha!!' This was my diorama based on Eddie Rickenbacker's 23 victory on Oct. 1918. Originally it came from a painting show Old #1 flying over a downed Fokker D.VII from JG II / J.15 with a simple white band about the fuselage. I tried to show the piece in relation to the actual incident between Rickenbacker and Vzfw (acting Sergeant) Klaudat. Though not dead still wounded badly Not much blood has been portrayed.

[StephenLawson]

Further more there are examples of aircraft dioramas where the aircraft was landed intact and the pilot was WIA or DOW. Where very little damage was done to the machine itself. A couple of these are Alb. D.Va 7161/17 Stropp and 5390/17.

[drIace]

Re: earlier comment about the "lopez Demente Award".

Yes that is a "Speciality Award " by the Albque. group and it is totally subjective and no set criteria for it to be given. It is for whatever they feel like giving it to.

The Michael L Fritz Memorial Award ( Copywrite by IPMS SPruce Goose) is earned: i.e.: set criteria and judged solely by the previous winners . Annual Plague given to winners and Name engraved on Perpetual Trophy

[StephenLawson]

In my opinion the Mike Fritz Award is the summit of any WWI modeler's experience. B) The Lopez Demente Award is more like a gag gift you get in a cracker Jacks Box. (Carmel Corn Brand in the USA to all our foriegn participants here.) <_<

[Michael]

The Gore Pour Factor seems to affect the figure modelling fraternity to a greater degree. I remember one vignette of an SS man sitting in a ruined house with his leg blown off above the knee. Realistically he probably would have been dead. A total turnoff.

If I thought these modellers were of my generation, I'd suspect that they drew their inspiration from the Topps Civil War News cards popular when I was a boy:

Blood, blood, blood!

Aviation modellers have to give pride of place to the aircraft, which discourages going too far in that direction, although I suppose you could do a real crash scene, with debris and bits of meat everywhere. AFAIK no one has, as the aircraft would have lost its recognizability, and overall, it would be pretty dull.

[Mark_Miller]

There is an armour museum here in Danbury CT.
As you would expect the museum has a lot of dioramas, and they are pretty well done.

But, one thing that struck me was that the modeler added a figure of the grim reaper in just about every diorama.
sometimes hidden so you could barely see it, other times more prominent.
At first I thought it was kind of corny.
But, it is a pretty clever way of introducing the concept of death to the scenes - in an abstract way.

and death is a big part of the picture
mark

[drIace]

Originally posted by StephenLawson@Mar 2 2004, 05:00 PM
[b] In my opinion the Mike Fritz Award is the summit of any WWI modeler's experience. B) The Lopez Demente Award is more like a gag gift you get in a cracker Jacks Box. (Carmel Corn Brand in the USA to all our foriegn participants here.) <_<

Stephen, you hit the nail right on the head !