C’est Quoi Tout Ça? – (What’s All This?)

by theimperfectmodeller, posted in Uncategorized, WW2

Whilst it is true to say I have some French blood (a short story for another day) I cannot claim to speak the language with any level of ability.  At a push I can read a menu, fill up the car with petrol, get by in a supermarket and order any number of beers up to ten.  Accordingly any error in translation in the title of this post is down to Google translate.

This is the second model That I have managed to complete having been laying around for far too long.  In this instance the French mechanic was painted the best part of a year ago and that is as far as I got.  The original plan had been to make a bigger garage type scene with the British Despatch Rider who appeared in last weeks post but in the end the idea just fizzled out as my mind moved on.  There it sat until I went through my bitz box and found the dog.

The facial expression on the dog seemed to say “What, me?” and from there it was just a case of how best to represent it.  A trashed workshop came to mind and thereafter it was the simple matter of making it happen.  The figure is another 1/35th scale Soverign 2000 figure, the dog I have no idea about as it was a purchase from years and years ago.  Most of the accessories are from Tamiya with a fair bit of scratch building.

Apologies for the poor images below.  At some point I might try and retake them and lose the shadows.

TIM

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25 thoughts on “C’est Quoi Tout Ça? – (What’s All This?)”

  2. That’s excellent – you’ve packed loads of character and narrative in there. I can almost see the guilty little wag of the dog’s tail.
    I know what you mean about the light, I’m suffering the same problem with the low sun at this time of year, there’s either not enough ambient light in the room and the artificial lights end up doing all the work and making everything too harsh, or there’s too much and the lamps are swamped. You’ve pulled it off here though, well done. If anything the lighting just makes me think that he’s rigged up a spotlight outside so that he can work on his bike into the night (cue memories of doing exactly that with my dad when I was small, only in a slightly chilly Scottish evening rather than a balmy French night, and with hungry midges instead of the gentle stridulation of crickets…)

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    1. Nice to hear it brought back a few fond memories. Reckon you are right about the light, it’s proving a problem on a few photo’s just lately. I think this one suffered on the amount of detail too. Neither the camera or I could get everything in focus but hopefully people get the idea!

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  3. I love it, took me a while for it all to swim into focus… but I suddenly got the mess and the paint pouring onto the floor, inspired mate, totally inspired. These day’s there would be a Facebook post with the dog with a sign round it’s neck saying something like “ je suis booggered la workshope “

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  6. Another gem Dave – ou un autre joyau. I am of French-Canadian extraction (3/16th’s) so love to hear of our potential shared ancestry at some point…

    SO fun, the dog’s look, the mechanic, the spilling paint, the mess, the rust, wow. As maenoferren22 said, totally inspired.

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  8. Aww just lovely mate. It tells such a story. I want to know what happened before and after this particular scene. The models are great but I love the room. The toolbox, the pictures on the wall and even the table/bench are all so good. Well done. If you and I ever find ourselves in some fancy French restaurant you can do the ordering and I’ll do the dancing with the French maids

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      1. He already gets up there regularly when wanting attention. It’s an automatic red card and he gets put away. Of course, it means he gets carried upstairs, so I don’t think it entirely discourages him, but I can’t exactly spray him with water when he’s on there…

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  11. It is so impressive how much you packed into this diorama. The clutter and “movement” with knocked over oil or paint is so cool. Its hard to capture that kind of thing in still miniatures but it really brings the scene to life. I too often think of dios as needing tons of dynamic stuff but really, offering someone a slice of life with lots of interesting things to look at is all that is needed.

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    1. The main aim of a diorama so I once read was to tell a story. Think of it as a still shot taken from a movie sequence. The viewer should be drawn in and be able to imagine what they like before and after the image given. It isn’t easy and I for one do not get it right anywhere as often as I would like but when you do it’s a very satisfying. Clutter can sometimes work but so does simple too.

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      1. Well said! I’ve heard that a diorama should tell a story as well and I’ve heard others say, it should give the viewer things to pick out and look at. I tend to think achieving both of those things (which you certainly did here) is ideal!

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