WIP Critique Vignette 1/35 Alpine Miniatures US Army

[Andrew Perren]

Hi there,

This is my WIP vignette ( untitled at this stage, but I have a few ideas as it must have a name !)

I've always wanted to do a vignette so over the holiday break I summoned up the courage to do my first. I liked the idea of what I'm calling a bookend vignette with a photo background that I could carry forward onto my groundwork. The figures are 1/35 Alpine Miniatures. All painted in Acrylics. Photos show the contrasts and colours a bit extreme. in real life they are a bit more muted.

Late WWII - somewhere in Germany................
The scene is set that a squad of US soldiers are patrolling deep in a forest when they come across something unpleasant in a clearing. There is clearly no threat as the poses are relaxed but I will rely on the viewers imagination to decide what they have found. I've tried to avoid dark, macabre or political inferences.











Feel free to suggest improvements or suggest a name ( because "5 dudes in a forest" isn't very artistic )

Thanks for looking
Andrew.

 

[Mirofsoft]

Faces, eyes : surprised, stuned, anger growing for the central piece
The title is perfect . the forest is behind, entering a no man's land zone ( trees cuted ) and the incomprehension, the deny of what they see... A very great diodrama

 

[jai]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

.....because a concentration camp or a secret weapon of Hitler was too easy .....


beautiful . ... Painting and setting

 

[Martin64]

Maybe they are one of these small groups of (Hollywood)GI`s cut off from their unit deep behind enemy lines - outnumbered of course - and here in the heartland of Nazi-Germany they watch another Batallion of King Tigers rolling in and now they are wondering how many socks and composite B are left to turn the tide of this war....

On a serious note: The scene with the backdrop works very well. Two suggestions:
- The fresh green colors in the backdrop picture behind the pine trees indicate that it is a sunny day in spring time which in a way contradicts the cold weather gear - especially the gloves - worn by the GI`s.
- The uniforms / trousers look very clean. Given that these guys have moved through the woods right behind them at least the trousers would have caught some dirt. Slight weathering would as well serve to tie in the figures a little bit more into the nice groundwork.

Cheers, Martin

 

[tigrazor]

@scenery:
Why not? At the moment we have freezy temperatures with almost no snow here in Germany - looks quite similar when I look out of my window (except the missing trees).

@dirty gear:
Thats definetely a good point. Some decent pastels and/or washings should be enough.



Great little vignette, and I like the painting too.

Suggestion for the title: "We cant see the forest from the trees".

 

[arj]

The backdrop is an excellent combination with this impressive vignette.
It has taken it to the next level.
Very well done.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Adrian Cowdry]

Very cool

 

[theopaone]

This vignette has a direct parallel in BoB when the GI's came out of the forest to discover the death camp. I think the episode was called "Why We Fight".

 

[Jeff T]

Nice work Andrew!!

Great scene mate.


Cheer's,
Jeff.

 

[Ferris]

Very well done on the transition to the backdrop and on indicating a clearance in the forest.
As to title, you could just stick to: "What the....!?"
That leaves something to imagine by the viewer.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Andrew Perren]

Thanks guys, great feedback.

I will definitely see about adding some mud/dirt to the lower legs, boots etc. Good tips.

The "Why we fight" episode of Band of Brothers played a huge part of the inspiration for this scene. In fact I got through the whole DVD box set while at the bench with these guys.

Andrew P.

 

[Martin64]

@scenery:
Why not? At the moment we have freezy temperatures with almost no snow here in Germany - looks quite similar when I look out of my window (except the missing trees).

If you can see bright green leaves of the kind visible behind the trees in the picture while you are looking out of your window today I would be really surprised.

BTW- the real Easy Company never came across a death camp when moving into Germany - this scene was integrated into the film to explain "why we fight" to viewers that don`t know too much about history. Anyway - many will relate to this scene of the film when imagining what these guys will take a look at.
Cheers, Martin

 

[YongA01]

Unique idea..... Nice

 

[tigrazor]

I didnt mean the leaves - theyre brown or gone of course, how its correctly shown in the vignette.

I meant the grass you can see in the background. The picture was taken some km away from where I live. A bit foggy, -3°C, but very green fields and meadows (picture taken two days ago):

 

[Martin64]

ok - if you can`t see a difference I rest my case.
And weather conditions in 1945 were:
January and February 1945 were among the coldest winter months of the 20th century in Europe, with blizzards and temperatures as low as –25 °C (–13 °F), and even until the middle of March, temperatures were well below 0 °C (32 °F)
No biggie anyway - just a suggestion to maybe rework the background picture (photoshop?) because it has a major influence on the feel of the scene.

Cheers, Martin

 

[pmfs]

Smart concept. Well done!

Cheers,
Pedro.

 

[Andrew Perren]

I really liked the way that the background shot has the light in the background - it brings a real depth to the viewpoint. All the other shots I considered were either too dark or blurry in the middle distance or scale & angle were wrong. Besides its glued in and ain't gonna change now. The figures were selected because they were all dressed similarly, for cool but not extreme cold. To be honest I was more concerned with tying the ground in with the immediate background and I was happy with that.

Cheers
Andrew.

 

[tigrazor]

That was exactly what I had in mind, Andrew. Not the nutpicking about green tones itself, but the feeling of the whole vignette. Is it January or October? Who knows... The setting is good, the painting as well, and it seems you had some fun with it.

Thats all that counts.

 

[Huw63]

Great vignette. Well done.

Cheers

Huw

 

[Martin64]

I really liked the way that the background shot has the light in the background - it brings a real depth to the viewpoint. All the other shots I considered were either too dark or blurry in the middle distance or scale & angle were wrong. Besides its glued in and ain't gonna change now. The figures were selected because they were all dressed similarly, for cool but not extreme cold. To be honest I was more concerned with tying the ground in with the immediate background and I was happy with that.

Cheers
Andrew.

I can see your point and did not want to spoil your efforts - semi-fictional/historical settings are in general just not my case and it`s useless to discuss todays weatherconditions while these can easily be checked for your given time frame of 1945.
I still like your idea with the treeline as a backdrop and felt free to suggest improvements as you have asked for.

Your setting is: Late WWII - somewhere in Germany. Your inspiration comes from a fictional scene in a movie. And now you have to tell the story of that diorama to the end. What are they looking at? Is their given route blocked / has Remagen bridge just collapsed? Are they looking at the remains of their missing reconnaissance patrol? Is it the death camp?
And how can you give a hint to the viewer using the limited space of your setting? Just by a clever title?
Good luck with the project!
Cheers, Martin