Hello guys!
first of all: please forgive me for my long absence here... Juli and august were the fieldwork-months for me this year, making it impossible to post from the office (during my brakes of course!
). And I am sorry to say I prefered to work on this vignette during my leisure-time instead of surfing the net...
So also sorry if I don't reply during the next week, as I will leave tomorrow for a short holliday.
and second: thanks a lot for all the nice words! It was a really wonderfull show, and I can only regret that time was so short! It was really great talking to all the people there, and I wish it could have lasted for a week! Besides the people and the atmosphere, the models wer amazing too. I feel very lucky to have won BOS, since many models certainly had my vote for it: Mike's fantastic diorama, Mig's diorama, Phil Stutcinskas' train locomotive, Diego Ruina's large-scale samurai, ...
about the vignette: I don't have to explain very much anymore, since Mike is apparently really knowledgable about the subject. Mybe naturally, after sculpting that wonderfull series of 1/48 pilot- and crew-figures some years ago...
Maybe one thing, that Diego already mentioned: the parachutes are indeed in the large bags on the sides of the basket, and not on the back of the observers. When jumping, they would pull the parachute out of the bag by their own weight, and were suspended by the ropes starting at belly height, going down completely steerless in a kind of sitting position, holding on to the ropes with their hands. Since the parachute packs are attached to the balloon, they would jump out at the first sign of an attacker (who tried to use surprise as their main tactique anyway, even sometimes shutting down their engines while approaching, to avoid the defences Mike described), before the ballon would catch fire and looze balance completely.
The top figure does have a parachute harness, but the most primitive type, consisting of nothing more than a rope wrapped around his body. No wonder he is slightly more worried...
Dave, thanks for posting the pics! The last one is already showing how it is suspended (many of the ropes are of course solid steel wire, painted to look like rope). I will add some pics I just took myself.
Hello Samuel,
I will go to Saint Vincent indeed (my first time!). Looking forward to meeting you again there !
Thanks again everybody, for the nice words and the great time in Folkestone!
Marijn
