New (mini) project!

My friends, this idea has been sitting in my mind since I started googling reference photos of the Karl Mortar. Two historical photos popped up, taken in Warsaw 1944, showing unexploded shells that crashed down into the basements of the large city buildings. One of the photos is named "Dud in Adria"  and that sounded like a perfect name for a vignette! 

The other reason behind this project was the fact I didn't need the hefty metal shells that came with the Karl Mortar kit from Trumpeter. But they felt too premium to be thrown away! The last piece of the puzzle was the leftover figure from Panzer Art. Sure, you can use a spare figure on any project, but his pose was almost comically fitting for this scene! 

So the whole concept of this vignette is: what can be done with some unused parts from a finished model, a figure, some styrofoam, and an idea? 

Turns out, planning out this scene was harder than I anticipated! It's an enclosed space, but I didn't want to make the scene feel claustrophobic, although that would be pretty fitting. I wanted something that can be observed freely from at least 3 directions. After much experimentation, I ended up with a styrofoam cube for a base, and the rather simple backdrop made from bricks and concrete. I'll add a small piece of the upper floor, but it'll be collapsed so it won't create a "roof" above the whole scene, effectively turning it into a shadow box vignette. 

There was one part that kept me thinking about my options - the back of the scene. I could scribe the brick wall from the other side, too, add some rubble and call it a day. But I never focus on things that are not important in my dioramas - and the opposite side of the wall adds nothing to the main story. Same as a cutaway open house adds nothing but a bit of "wow" factor if there's nothing happening inside the building. 

My next option was to cut the base into an irregular shape, removing the empty corner completely. This was an interesting idea, but ultimately I decided to fill the void with a bit of styrofoam. It's easier than cutting exotic shapes, and adds a bit of visual volume.

Anyway, there's much texturing, scratchbuilding, and detailing ahead, but it's not gonna be a lot of work because of the small size of the scene. The cube base is only 7x7cm. 

Oh, and finally, and quite obviously, it's not supposed to be a direct representation of the real scene - just loose inspiration and fun! :)