Hi all well some of you may know my son bought me some first ww model kits for my birthday then casually dropped into the conversation he would like them in a dio for his school (he's head of history) first problem, I'm ashamed to say I know next to nothing about ww1, second problem the models he bought are from different periods of said war so can't be used together, second problem solved I will do 3 or 4 vignettes showing the start to end of war.
After a bit of research I've made a start on the trench (this is for school 12 to 14 yr olds ) I want to depict how horrific it was but need advice on how far to go I intend to have a shell exploding in the trench so would it be OK to show limbs blown off.
Anyway here's my start, I realise I have to do the step up ledge and started to excavate the dugouts I realise I need to add the corrugated tin above the dugouts, also I need to find a way of making loads of 1/72 scale sandbags.

Hi Ken

Tony's right, I used Milliput epoxy putty for the sandbags in my WW1 Messines diorama, and just to try something different I used DAS air-drying clay for the sandbags in the WW2 Scramble diorama. Of the two I found the DAS was slightly easier to work with as it had more 'body' or firmness to it, plus if you're going to be making loads of them it will work out a lot cheaper!
As far as casualties are concerned, there would have been bits and pieces scattered everywhere on a real WW1 front line. I can remember reading a copy of Military Modelling many years ago where the subject of bodies was discussed, the general opinion of that time was to keep casualties at ground level (not being blown into the air by shell bursts etc) as "it seems to offend less".
That was back then of course, today's youngsters are far more used to 'realism' with xbox and playstation war games so you'd probably get away with a lot more these now.
Best of luck with the miles of barbed wire!!

Robin.

H,i all need to cool it down a bit, I think the explosion is still too hot and still have to add debris and stuff but pleased with progress so far. I'm actually quite enjoying this even though it was sort of forced on me and is not my normal genre, maybe I should do more stuff like this.

ken

you certainly have the knack when it comes to lighting effects. I remember hat great ship diorama you did earlier in the year and the explosions on this latest build are equally very good indeed.

Good choice with the suggestion you had from Robin (plymouth57) to use DAS clay as its much easier on the fingers and your results look really good.

Look forward to seeing what else you add to this one.

Thanks guys, Dave I rolled out a sausage then used the back of my knife to mark the sandbags, in hindsight I should have done the top row separate as you can see that's what I did on that row, I may see if I can remove them and try to remedy that.

Hi all here is the next bit, I remodeled it a little bit, I stuck the smashed up ladder and other bits of debris, then I kept looking at it and thinking what is wrong with it? Then it dawned on me they were broken but unmarked, no scorching or burning, so I've fixed that but it still seems wrong, any suggestions.

Looking good Ken.

How about more dirt in the trenches as they were dirty places, maybe a puddle of water?

Hi all here is another update.

Hi all well i finished the first bit (well I've decided it will be the second bit as there were no trenches at the start of the war so here is the start of the first one .


Here is how I did the explosion.






Well that's the basics anyway.
I thought since planes are my nemesis I should probably try and do the simpler one, I've done it as the crashed one, I know it will be rubbish but I have warned Mike I can't do planes. I've borrowed the muddy field dio to see how I visualise the crash, when I do it it will be a grassy valley or a corn field.

Very nice new edition to your ww1 collection.

Looking forward to your next update.