Those of you kind enough to follow my blog will be aware of my WW1 Timeline project. After a good few months of work and several periods where I hit the wall in terms of inspiration the project is now complete. I say complete, to be fair this historical period has been one which I have really enjoyed and as such I cannot see myself not adding to it in the future. For now though, and in particular for the Armed Forces Day event to celebrate 100 years of the ending of the Great War which inspired this work, the job is done.
I thought I would share with you the sequence of these 28mm figures, vignettes and dioramas as they accord with the timeline. Full details and better photos on each model can be found under the menu header “WW1” if your interest extends beyond this post. For now I’ve just been lazy with regard to the photos I’ve pulled together. I didn’t have my Light Box when I started the project but when I get a moment I’ll retake all the photos and update this post.
Looking ahead I’m very much open to suggestions for expanding this project with further figures/vignettes/dioramas and any ideas you might have will be gratefully received.
TIM
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Model 1 – “Read All About It” – Britain declares war on Germany – 4th August 1914
Believe it or not this little guy was key to my project. I wanted to kick the thing off with the announcement of war but couldn’t work out how to do it until I found this little chap.
Model 2 – “It’ll Be Over By Christmas” – Enlisting 1914
Enlistment was a major event and took place all over the country with lengthy queues of young men signing up. Little did they know what was in store for them.
Model 3 – “Passchendale” – July 1917
One of the major conflicts. Nothing like a slow walk towards machine guns!
Model 4 – “James Newton Langley” – Middlesex Regiment, June 1915 to November 1918
This is my Great Grandfather. He went through the war unscathed. When I found this figure which had an uncanny resemblance to his photograph I just had to do it and include it in the project.
Model 5 – “Scottish Highlander” – 1914 – 1918
This started life as a spare figure. I didn’t want to do a big thing on the Scots but neither did I want to leave them out. I then had the idea of turning the figure into a bust.
Model 6 – “Field Marshall Douglas Haig” – Commander British Expeditionary Force, Western Front 1915 – 1918
Love him or hate him a key figure who divided opinion. Impossible to leave out.
Model 7 – “Ypes” – April 1915
This was the first model I completed before it grew into a project. Painted entirely with oils. There were several battles at Ypes, all bloody conflicts.
Model 8 – “The Somme” – July 1916
Possibly the most famous incident of the war with an incredible loss of life on day one. Hard to associate it with anything other than death.
Model 9 – “Vickers Gun Crew” – Amiens August 1918
The machine gun of its day and a must for inclusion.
Model 10 – “British Command” – 1914 – 1918
Lions led by Lambs. Not all the officers were incompetent!
Model 11 – “British Casualties” – The Somme, July to November 1916
A sad reality of war. Not everyone survives or gets killed. Some get to live with devastating injuries for the rest of their lives.
Model 12 – “British Signallers” – 1914 – 1918
Communication in all walks of life are key but not very Hollywood! Underrated heroes.
Model 13 – “British 18 Pounder Gun Crew” – 1914 – 1918
The volume of shells fired during the war was incredible. No wonder the landscape was so devastated. An artillery piece was another must.
Model 14 – “British Troops French/Belgium Border” – 1915
I felt I needed a centre piece and fancied another building project. I settled for a scene depicting troops making their way through a French/Belgium farm
Model 15 – “Gone But Not Forgotten” – British Cemetary 1917
Not everyone died on the battle field, some died from their injuries after they returned home.
Model 16 – “Daddy’s Home” – November 1918
The last piece (for now). I needed an ending and decided a soldier returning to his family would no nicely.
The Imperfect Modeller 
Absolutely brilliant mate. Nice to see them all together. Surpringly, for both me and you I’m sure, my favourite is Daddy’s Home. Maybe because I’m a Dad of little girls. Really great stuff all round my friend.
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Thanks IRO appreciated as always. Difficult for me to chose a favourite, for different reasons I have more than one but Daddy’s Home is one of them for sure as it strikes a cord with me too as I also have a daughter (14 going on 35!). The other thing I liked about this one was that for a long time I struggled with what to do for an end piece and after a flash of inspiration (unusal for me!) it was quite simple in the end. Certainly this one and The Somme I feel are for me the most touching. As an aside I watched the Shackelton YouTube documentary you mention, great stuff. In return I would recommend “Battlefield Detectives: Custers Last Stand” – It might not be an era you are interested but it is unique in that it is the only battle where they have ever been able to track the movement of the actual soldiers. Seriously facininating!
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Maaaaate I think you and I are cut from the same cloth. I watched the Custer one a few months back. Brilliant. I’ve been fascinated with Last stands or against the odds type of battles since I first saw the John Wayne version of the Alamo when I was seven. One day I hope to build a diorama of Rorkes drift, the Alamo, Custers Last stand but also the French Fireign Legion one I always forget the name of. Cameroon I think?
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Not much more to say ,IMP has got in a nutshell ,to hard to find a favourite but like IMP, I have two girls , not little any more ,but one can imagine that moment ! , very moving cobber ,a big pat on the back for that big job . Now you only have to sit back ,walk another 35 miles with B ,and have a pint and work out the next project ,and yeah ,also feel good mate ,because you have also given your followers a great lot of pleasure with your work ,and also taught some of us a few tricks .
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Thanks Pat that’s very kind of you to say so. It was a labour of love at times but overall the end result wasn’t too bad. Passing on tricks is just a nice bonus but this whole blogging thing is a two way street. As well as giving me a lot a pleasure others have been kind enough to share their tips and tricks too so I have learnt a lot as well. What is is that they say “you’re never to old to learn” – so true!
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That is a really great project- fantastic to see them all together. I think the second one is my favourite… but only just it is hard to seperate them.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete. It was a fun project, well most of it was!
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I was a bit late to the party, so I didn’t realize that this was a series that encapsulates WWI. Pretty amazing seeing it all together! Such a treat.
Being an old Father of a two year-old Daughter (going on 35!), the “Daddy’s Home” diorama really hit home with me. She’s still at that stage where she will sometimes run to me screaming “Daddy’s Home!”. Nothing beats that after a long day of work. I can’t imagine how intense that must have been for the lucky soldiers who returned home.
I also like how “Daddy’s Home!” highlights such a happy moment at the end. War is hard and devastating, and this is like that small light at the end of the tunnel. I also really like The Somme. That’s some beautiful work there. I’m so glad you were able to finish it and share with us!
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Thank you Faust, very much appreciate the kind comments. To be honest I never started out intending to do a series but the period grew on me and with it the various ideas for the models you see now. “Daddy’s Home” seems to have struck a chord with a few people, myself included. How to end the sequence was something I mulled over for quiet a while and was about to give up on it when I had a light bulb moment! Liking your own work is a bit like laughing at your own jokes but on this occasion I do like the concept even if the figure is flawed by having a bayonet fitted!
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Hey, I’d be pretty proud if I had come up with that myself. The series is a masterpiece!
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Thank you. Your kind words have made an old man very happy!
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I’ve enjoyed following their progress and it’s great to see them all together! Quite an achievement! Look forward to seeing what comes next!
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Thank you John. For now it will just be random individual things I expect but I would like to get my teeth into another project, just a question of what.
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A really excellent series of dioramas. I really like the storytelling aspect of them as individual pieces, with many quiet moments sprinkled in there. For whatever reason, dioramas made with miniatures seem to focus predominantly on action scenes – and while they can be very cool and often are able to dazzle with their scale, I’ve always liked quiet moments that are much less common. I used to buy the Tamiya catalogues because i loved to browse the WW2 dioramas in those, and many of yours have the same sense of quiet storytelling in there as well.
Obviously the collective storytelling that you have going here is also very, very impressive. Will you add plaques to them? I could very much seem them on sequential display in a library or other public space (behind glass, of course!)
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Once again, thank you. Like you I like the quiet moments and as much as possible that was always at the front of my mind when thinking through what I wanted to do. There are a lot of untold stories out there and they are not all battle related. The project itself simply grew because I started to get into the period. The idea was initiated by my model club who are putting on a display on Armed Forces day (30th June) at there model exhibition to commemorate 100 years of the ending of WW1. I will do my own plaques but a guy at the club is making some for every model in the display so they all look the same on the day.
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Well, the series has clearly been a great success. Please do take a pile of photographs on the commemoration day and post them up here!
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Will do.
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Not sure if you’re aware of this mob but I thought of you while looking at minis
http://m.eliteminiaturesaustralia.net/Mutton-Chop-Miniatures-WWI.html
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Nice of you to think of me. Yes, Mutton Chop are a range which come under the Empress Miniatures company. Top quality figures. A great many of the british figures feature in my WW1 timeline series.
https://theimperfectmodeller.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/28mm-ww1-timeline/
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my word mate, these are outstanding, even bought a lump to my throat, i am in awe at the dioramas and the titles too, staggering, will definately be looking through more..
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This is a beautiful collection of dios! I paint mostly to game and I have the utmost respect for diorama makers because this kind of work takes a lot of time and effort. I’ve thought about doing some WW1 dioramas myself as I love reading about the Great War, do you mind me asking where you got some of these miniatures from? I’m hoping I might get inspired to pick up some WW1 minis and get a diorama made in the future 🙂
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Thank you. This was a project that unexpectedly grew as I got drawn into it far more than I anticipated. I think the various individual posts will shortly be revived in my Memory Monday posts but from memory most of the figures came from Arizan, Gripping Beasts – Thh Woodbine Design Company, Empress Miniatures and Ist Corps. It’s a great period, give it ago. If you can paint figures as well as you do you will soon learn the art of basing and dioramas.
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I will look forward to that and I intend to check out more of your WWI work for more inspiration soon. I’ll take a look at those miniature companies and see if any ideas grab me. I’ve obviously considered some kind of trench warfare scene as that is iconic to the war but I like the slice of life dioramas you’ve created as well because they have really great storytelling to them. Thanks for the suggestions and advice!
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No problem. If you get stuck finding any of them just give me a shout.
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