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Dalmation
Marijn van Gils Medal winning diorama
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During WW2, America employed
cameramen in all of their main actions. In
reporting the battles, they provided both
propaganda material and historical
documents. The camera-team in this
diorama consists of a cameraman, a stills
photographer, and an officer who acts as
director. They are guided by an MP on his
Harley Davidson while they follow
paratroopers of the 101st Airbourne.
Always on the lookout for interesting or
exiting images, the director sees potential
when he spots this panther, blown upside
down by an airstrike and in order to get a
good shot, he asks the paratroopers to go
down and take their pet Dalmatian dog
with them. While the cameraman and
photographer follow them, the “director”
shouts at his crew where to take positions.
The MP hangs back against his bike,
relaxes, and enjoys the first filming of the
101st Dalmatian.
hobby is always subdivided into armour
modelling, figure modelling, aeroplane
modelling, etc. Consequently, dioramas
are also separated into groups. Because
the modellers in each of these groups tend
to stick together and become fairly
isolated, their ideas, techniques and styles
start to stagnate. We can see that armour
dioramas often have a very different style
to aeroplane, car or figure dioramas. The
importance that is given to certain
elements of the diorama, and the amount
of effort invested in them, seems to
change from subject to subject.
I don’t like this! It is restricting the evolution
of new techniques and styles. In dioramas,
where many different items are combined
to create one 3D-image, I feel it is very
important to look around as much as
possible and learn from the best. Every
element of a diorama needs equal
attention and care if we want the final
image to be convincing.
As a member of an armour modelling
group I have to admit that while the
evolution of styles within this group has
been wonderful over the last five years, I
feel that we are often backward looking.
We see a lack of
attention in the
finishing of
groundwork
and figures
and the same
type of
composition
repeated time
after time
because we are
always inspired
by our
predecessors
without looking
at other areas of
modelling
enough. Figures
for example, are
too often finished
using techniques
used by
When looking around in magazines and at
competitions, it is very noticeable that our
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Sculpting
other armour modellers, instead of learning
from the current specialist figure
modellers. This diorama is another attempt
to break out of these limitations, and show
that it is not impossible to cross the
borders of two of these groups. The main
effort went into figures,but the composition
is more typically an armour diorama
centered around a vehicle although less
tight with more space for scenery. The
presence of the panther (which is barely
more than part of the groundwork) and the
Harley Davidson make it look like an
armour diorama, but a lot of the
techniques employed are ‘borrowed’ from
figure modellers. An armour diorama with
figurine techniques or a figure diorama
with an armour diorama composition?
diagonal line. The paratrooper at the
bottom right completes this line.
All that was needed now, was something
at the right top corner to balance this main
line, in the shape of the Director and MP
with his bike. The interaction between the
Director and the paratrooper holding the
dog connects two parts gives a
counterbalance. The corrugated sheets
provide a background for these two figures
and the telephone pole adds more height
to the scene. Its wires also visually connect
with the tank and the main diagonal line.
Colours were used to emphasise the focus
of the scene. The bright white of the
Dalmatian dog and the red crosses of the
paratrooper holding the dog amidst the
drab coloured environment attract the
eyes of the viewer to them. The muddy
slope gives an opportunity to play with
darker and lighter tones. Because of the
thin layer of mud on the tank, it dries more
quickly and gets much lighter, almost
white. The groundwork around stays wet
and thus dark. The outside edges of the
diorama were kept very dark, while
towards the focal point (paratrooper with
dog), the mud would gradually get lighter,
putting the focus on the centre of the
scene.
Sculpting your own figures might sound
very daunting to most armour modellers,
but it is not nearly as difficult as it seems. It
takes also far less time than you might
expect, less time than I need to paint
them, and you can easily avoid the tricky
parts by using commercially available
heads, hands and accessories. The big
advantage is that your figures will be
adapted perfectly your story and you won’t
have to change a project because there is
no figure available with the pose or uniform
you need. Don’t be daunted by the quality
of the resin figures out there. It is quite
easy to achieve the same level or even do
better, just believe in yourself!
Composition
I used the traditional technique of
constructing a skeleton with brass wire, a
resin torso and pelvis and commercial
head, hands and feet. The torso and pelvis
can be carved from a scrap piece of resin
or quickly sculpted with epoxy putty. For
head and hands, it is best to use only top
quality. I use almost exclusively Hornet
heads and a mix of Hornet and Historex
hands. Don’t pay attention to the headgear
or hair, this can be easily sculpted later
The basic idea came from a photograph
found on the Internet which showed an
upturned Panther on a slope being
examined by American troops. The
diagonal position of this panther formed an
excellent composition. I just needed the
figures to emphasise it, so three figures
are positioned on the tank, climbing down
over the suspension, enhancing this main
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