The Day That Shook The World

[amherbert]

Hi Bob

Another small project I see!

Looks great. I guess there are a lot of mornings to be spent on this!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guy]

Its looking great Bob.......Seems you are making good progress!

 

[Jason W.]

Very nice Bob! It is great seeing this evolve.

Sounds like your only half done. Out of curiosity, will the Germans in your shadow box be wearing the covered picklehaube or the stahlhelm?

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by Jason W.@May 20 2004, 08:14 PM
Very nice Bob! It is great seeing this evolve.

Sounds like your only half done. Out of curiosity, will the Germans in your shadow box be wearing the covered picklehaube or the stahlhelm?

Good question about the helmets. I like the pickelhaub and the early German uniforms and I may have them fighting the Old Contemptibles at Mons. Since I am trying to portray a sense of futurity the uniforms might perhsp be better from a later war engagement like Somme. I'll try both and see which I like better.

I wish I was half done but as the rest of the pieces is quite complex it is hard to say where exactly I am at. I just keep plugging along at one speed

 

[btavis]

Here is another angle.

 

[Jason W.]

Originally posted by btavis@May 20 2004, 08:31 PM
Since I am trying to portray a sense of futurity the uniforms might perhsp be better from a later war engagement like Somme.

Oh, I agree. You can also show all the horror that incident spawned. I see lots of barbed wire, mud and half-buried dead soldiers.

I'm sure Kreston can help with this.

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by Jason W.@May 20 2004, 09:40 PM
Oh, I agree. You can also show all the horror that incident spawned. I see lots of barbed wire, mud and half-buried dead soldiers.

I'm sure Kreston can help with this.

Exactly.

 

[yeo_64]

GREAT JOB,Bob, !! I really love the way that the car and figures turned out. WELL DONE,Bob ! Looking forward to the next update. Cheers !
Kenneth :lol:

 

[Joe Hudson]

Hey Bob,

I was really impressed with your last little project but I think this is going to top that one! Great job so far.

Joe

 

[btavis]

The car and its occupants are finished. I think.

 

[garyjd]

Bob, Very nicely done. I have a good friend who is very into WW1 (scratchbuilds aircraft & battleships from the period) He loved your taxi diorama, and just went nuts when he saw the in progress pics of the Archduke. So admiration of your work extends beyond this site.~Gary

 

[btavis]

Gary, thank youand thank your friend.

I have constructed a mock-up of the overall diorama to get dimensions, positioning and general sense of the piece. The large black box will be the building which contains the shadow box diorama.

 

[yeo_64]

Bob,AWESOME WORK,my friend !! I can't wait to see the start of the shadow box portion of the vignette. Thanks for posting ! Cheers.
Kenneth.

 

[btavis]

Here is a further enhancement to the mock-up. I created pseudo building wall graphics in Photoshop and affixed to walls. The second story window is where the trench warfare scene will occur. The red light behind is just painted vellum so I can see how the coloration will work. The trench scene will eventually be lit by predominantly red lights.

This mockup is made out of foamcore and allows me to get all of the dimensions correct for the real diorama. Foamcore is nice to work with since you can use architects pins to hold it together and you can cut it apart and reconfigure pretty easily. I think this will be the finished dimensions - 9" wide x 12" deep x 8 1/2" high.

 

[John Long]

Bob, that is going to be really cool. I like the idea of having a shadowbox integrated into the diorama. This has to be a truly innovative idea. The mockup is impressive in it's own right.

 

[btavis]

I just wish I knew Bosnian so I could do the street signs in the correct language.

 

[btavis]

Update. I have completed painting most of the street figures except the man waiving the flag, Gavrillo Princip and the Turk. The street and sidewalks are finished except for street lamps. The building in background is still temporary and has not been started yet. I expect the building with shadowbox will take all of June and July to complete. Hopefully, the whole thing is done in August. Whew!

 

[John Long]

Bob, it's nice to see another step. Did you make the cobblestone street the same way as in the "Taxi DeLaMarne" dio?

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by John Long@May 30 2004, 09:52 PM
Bob, it's nice to see another step. Did you make the cobblestone street the same way as in the "Taxi DeLaMarne" dio?

Basically, the same type of cobbles. Except in this case I stressed the cobbles more with a wire brush and left them a grayish color instead of brick red. I didn't want the street color to compete with the red of the car. I gave the recesses between bricks a wash of sepia oils and dusted the surface with pastels.

 

[btavis]

Just as a point of history, the corner where this takes place is at Franz Joseph Street and Apel Quay, They have just turned into Franz Joseph Street realizing they should have gone straight on Apel Quay. The driver is trying to back up when Gavrillo took his shots. There were many Austrian soldiers there for security as well as Bosnian policemen but as you can see they could not stop the fanatical nineteen year old Gavrillo.

While there are many similarities in composition to the taxi piece it is somewhat fitting as this is the second in a trilogy of WWI pieces I am doing. The last will be a Belgian Minerva armored car chasing down a couple of German Uhlans. I think I am done with WWI after that (famous last words).

All of the pieces I have planned over the next year involve automobiles as they played such an important part in modern times. After the Minerva piece I plan on doing one on Pershing's expeditionary force pursuing Pancho Villa. Pershing organized the largest mechanized force (about 600 cars) as part of his cavalry. It is roughly the same time period (circa 1914).