Project X (1 Viewer)

[blaster]

Worked more on the marshal. The front could probably be seen so I am refining it.
Finished the peasant with a pot.


This has been a very busy weekend. I arranged for a carpenter to build me a shadow box case and a framer for the frame. The projected size of this piece extends beyond a standard cheap home-made case with IKEA frame.

 

[blaster]

I finally took delivery of the diorama box and frame. Took a little effort to find a carpenter and framer separately. The box is covered with a nice wood laminate.

I placed the piece with the background inside for a testfitting.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Victor,

It is really coming together!:salute:: I think this is shaping up to be one of my favorites!^&cool^&cool

 

[blaster]

Hello Louis,

Thanks for your kind comments on this slightly moribund project.

Anyway, I finally mustered some vim and stuck the bkgd to the inner case.
Started to shape it up with more cardboard and contact cement.
Man, you can't get any higher than this!

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Finished preparing the background. Puttied and gessoed over. The base with all the figures was pushed into the box and fitted snugly. I am now creating curve "kerbs" with cardboard to blend the base with the background.

 

[blaster]

I covered the shapes with plaster bandages and then added moulding putty. Notice that I've raised the ground base to fit the scene within the frame dimensions. My plan is to keep the ground base separate from the background so that it is easier to deal with the scene. Towards the finish, then I blend in the ground base with the background.

 

[blaster]

Having determined the correct height, I glued pieces of wood to the base. When set, I slid the base into the box. Now I can slowly build up the groundwork and adjust the edges to blend into the background.

 

[blaster]

I was thinking on how I could work more efficiently on this piece. It dawned on me that making up individual figures for the crowd scenes would take an extraordinary effort. So the idea of making castings of groups of people hit me when I was making repeated castings of brick walls for my hougomont piece.

Thus I will be proceeding along this direction.

 

[blaster]

Needless to say, I will need to make masters for smaller figures as the crowd scene recedes into the bkgd.

oh. Btw eureka

 

[Obee]

Needless to say, I will need to make masters for smaller figures as the crowd scene recedes into the bkgd.

oh. Btw eureka

Maybe making a semi-flat style and no detail below the waist would suit, and you don't need the back view??

John

 

[blaster]

Hi John,

That is the intent. I was thinking of at least two basic sizes of figs. Anyway, here's a pile of heads and figures to start me off. I prob have to sculpt a substantial number to make up convincing crowd scenes for castings.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

I have made a few groups of figures suitable for crowd scenes. They are joined side by side to speed up the castings, I hope.

 

[MLH13]

Fantastic work, Victor!

Mark

 

[blaster]

Hi Mark,

Probably not at this stage....hahaha. But I continue to plough on. So here's the completed bkgd figures and the first batches of castings. More to come.

Rgds Victor

 

[Obee]

Hi Mark,

Probably not at this stage....hahaha. But I continue to plough on. So here's the completed bkgd figures and the first batches of castings. More to come.

Rgds Victor

They are looking very good, I'm sure that the painting will brig them to life !!

John

 

[blaster]

I thought about how to fix the hill structure in the bkgd. Then I thot of using wire structure as an underlay and covered it with epo putty. this rigidity is needed to overlay with wall putty.

 

[blaster]

Covered the hill structure with wall putty. Waiting for it to dry, fix the cracks and then will paint it.

 

[blaster]

Finally painted over the entire base. It becomes easier to visualise the diorama scene for further work.

 

[blaster]

This sequence shows foliage added to the base in stages, some details on the groundwork and detailed painting on the foreground. The groundwork consists of various shades of pink, yellow ochre, Naples yellow, sky blue, various browns to make it interesting.
Then the main foreground figures were tested for final positioning.

 

[blaster]

I added more detail to the foreground figures. Also started to recruit more mid ground figures.

The monks are traffic marshals and are linking hands to separate the dignitaries from the riff-raff.