As regular viewers know, I've been working on the northeast part of the battlefield in recent months. During the Christmas period I had the chance to place the buildings onto the diorama and work on the scenery.
The buildings are made by my father. Where they exist today, the models are based on extant structures, but much research has been done into Belgian building types of the 1815 period.
Here are some images:
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Frischermont, Smohain and the farm of La Haye in the distance.
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| Smohain village with the Chateau of Frischermont to the South. The chateau will be placed on higher ground with the walled garden and Frischermont wood in-between it at the village. |
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| Frischermont |
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| The tower at Frischermont collapsed in the mid 19th Century but was a major landmark of the battlefield hitherto. |
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| La Haye looking west |
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La Haye Farm looking East, with a battalion of Nassauers in defence. The Grenadier company can be seen in the foreground.
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| Some experimentation with contrasting light levels |
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The building with a spire suggests a church but no such building is marked on any contemporary map - was it a schoolhouse?
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| The Lasne brook was nothing more than a ditch in 1815 and no longer exists today (at least within Smohain). I'm yet to put water in it. |
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| Still a lot of work to hide glue and resolve other snags but I like the natural light. |
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| A lot of buildings still need their bases better integrated with the ground. |
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| I'm trying to convey subtle undulations in the ground. |
I've added some close up images of La Haye Farm:
The buildings look amazing even without the soldiers! The amount of research and modelling work involved is very impressive - I look forward to seeing more.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stryker, we have a Prussian and Orange Nassau battalions in production plus French troops
ReplyDeleteThis is a simply stupendous project, what plans do you have for it when finished? Is there somewhere it can be displayed complete? Are you going to produce a fly through model of it? Being able to view it all from 20mm eye-level with a lens that will give the same perspective as a 20mm human would be the next best thing to a time machine.
ReplyDeleteSuperb.
ReplyDelete