Brave Little Belgium

[btavis]

>ps, the Uhlan Holsters looks great

Thanks to you!

 

[btavis]

Ray, you are too kind. No one can be more anxious than I to finish it. I am debating at this point to make it into a shadowbox since that would prevent being able to see it all way around. I did a test layout with a typical canal and tree-lined Belgian landscape background and it does look good that way but.....

 

[rej]

IMHO I think that you put so much into it that it would be a rel pity preventing the "world" from viewing your "work of art".........now if you have thought of this before maybe you could have "escaped" from painting "that would be hidden or obscured"

But its your choice buddy

Ray

 

[btavis]

You are absolutely right. I had thought about not painting the parts that would not be seen if put into a shadowbox but since I never knew what the final arrangement would be relative to the viewer's perspective I ended up painting as if they were to be seen all way round. A friend of mine said exactly what you said so it got me thinking. Maybe I will defer the shadowbox for another subject.

 

[nagashino]

Hello Bob

Although I haven't posted on this yet, I have been following it from the start, and I'm amazed at how it's turning out. Being a bit of a "track-head", I was impressed with your work on the Minerva armoured car, and now all the Uhlans are coming together it's just starting to gel.

I admire anyone who has the vision to be able to plan and execute something like this. Me, I struggle with single figures

Fine work. I agree with Ray - BOS for sure!

Best regards

Phil

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by nagashino@Nov 10 2005, 01:22 PM
Being a bit of a "track-head", I was impressed with your work on the Minerva armoured car, and now all the Uhlans are coming together it's just starting to gel.

Phil, I seem to have knack for it and I think it comes from my background as an illustrator. I can see whole ensembles in my mind from the beginning so it allows me to keep focus when there are so many elements that take so long to render.

I love doing vehicles that are very obscure so that is a no brainer for me. The Minerva and Sava armored cars are conspicuoulsy absent from commercial production which is too bad as they are kind of neat vehicles. I think there was a Minerva in 1/72 but not a scale I work in. I have a couple of armored cars from Russia that are kits but have no specific plans for them. I liked the Minerva as a figure painter as it was an open car so the figs could be seen. However, packing them in there was a little tricky as fitting any figures into vehicles usually is.

Thanks for chiming in.

 

[garyjd]

Bob, The scope of your projects never ceases to bowl me over. There are not many folks that commit themselves to projects of this size, and you do one right after another. It really makes our single figure projects pretty insignificant.~Gary

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by garyjd@Nov 11 2005, 08:03 AM
It really makes our single figure projects pretty insignificant.~Gary

Whether a single rose or a bouquet they both can smell as sweet.

 

[btavis]

I started on the setting for this diorama. After looking at many pictures of European country roads specifically Belgium I decided to do a pavestone road. Since the base is 12" x 12" I didn't have enough pavestones to do the entire road. To compensate I built a 3" x 5" section of pavestones and created a mold from which I cast resin copies. These were then laid out on the base, glued down and then weathered.

The last picture shows the Miverva, mock-up trees just for positioning and the start of adding grass. The trees will eventually be birch trees that will be quite slender to avoid obscuring the figures. I am not sure how many trees but enough to make the point.

Base:

Pave Stone Master, Mold and Casting:

Pavestone copies laid out on base:

Pavestones weathered with Miverva and mock trees:

 

[Anders Heintz]

Ooooh yeah!! Its comming together real nice now Bob!! Cant wait for the finished piece and to see it in the flesh in Atlanta!

 

[btavis]

I did an earlier layout and you can start to see how this scene is developing:

 

[jjgurk]

Bob all I can say is.....wow.

John

 

[captnenglish]

Another BoS in the making

 

[btavis]

Another layout picture with the groundwork a little more developed but still with temporary trees. The trees will take a week or so. I hate making trees but they make a difference.

 

[megroot]

Bob,



Marc

 

[PJ Deluhery]

Bob, your work here from composition to sculpting to painting is absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to see it in person. This SBS is also one of your best. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

[btavis]

Pat, thank you. I was a little concerned about the painting as it is my first all acrylic diorama. The other concern I had was the blandness of the colors - mostly greys and browns. I am hoping the green foliage will help liven it up a bit and since the incident occurs in August the greenery should be, well....green!

 

[nagashino]

Bob

That's absolutely excellent. So much action in a square foot!

Phil

 

[mertenspeter]

It is not my favorit time but the diorama is great, indeed the trees are gonna make a big different in the colourchart of this piece

It makes me proud to be Belgium :lol: :lol:


Peter

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by mertenspeter@Nov 14 2005, 04:57 PM


It makes me proud to be Belgium :lol:  :lol:

Now there's a compliment if ever I heard one. Thank you. I can imagine the time period is not much favored by Belgians since it was a horrendous period for them. However, I have always had great admiration for what they did in an impossible situation against insurmountable odds. Hopefully, this piece will show the elan and esprit de corps they demonstrated. The thing that always got to me was the fact that the Germans knew the Belgians were neutral yet they could not understand why they fought back so vigorously when they were invaded. I guess the Germans thought the Belgians should have just lain down without a fight.

Here is a sample of the tree typs I will be including: