Very nice Jens, very nice indeed matey. "Through the mud and the blood to the green fields beyond".
Have fun, John
Cheers John!
My goal is to make it look rather wet and muddy, and portrait some kind of sudden surprise when a Mk.IV tank suddenly appeared on the edge of a trench line which caused panic amongst the German soldiers who had to improvise some sort of defence. I've not yet got the figures but I think they will look right in that setting...?
It's never easy doing something for the first time, but I've really enjoyed it and I will try to make a few of this smaller type before attacking the large Schwerer Gustav in Sevastopol towards the summer, hoping I've got the experience then to pull it off?
When I started this build I didn't know about angles and stuff when making dioramas and vignettes so I'm glad I had the artistic flair to make it slightly askew and not just everything in line with the wooden base.
Also trying everything in the kitchen to make soil, mud, dirt and grime should've been done as a separate project and not directly on your project, but mistakes can be hidden with paint and dirt so I just continued.
Using old, dried earth from a dead flower pot mixed with PVA worked pretty good, but I only had outdoor PVA, a.k.a. water tight glue, to mix with and that wasn't the best choice I think because even if it was water soluble at first it then became rock hard and had absolute zero flexibility so next time I will buy some cheaper PVA glue. This one didn't like to be mixed with paint either. Lesson learned!
It still needs more clutter I think but I'm not sure what? It's meant to be on the outer edge of a trench system so it's not going to be as trafficked and used as the main trench line, but there would still be some stuff laying around? I'm thinking broken boxes and stuff that's no longer of any use, just chucked towards the end of the area?
I've searched photos trying to find if they had signposts or similar pointing directions etc but my search was inconclusive as I only found the odd picture with signs over bunkers, made by the soldiers to make it look more homely I guess?
I know I can do whatever I want with my models but it's nice to have some sort of reference to history too...
What would you do if this was your vignette? What would you add, apart from the figures I'm planning to add?
Many thanks in advance!
Jens