"Plancenoit: Update" Topic

Dear All, I've been working on the next stage of my Waterloo diorama, namely Plancenoit village. You can see more on my blog at: generalpicton.blogspot.com

Here are some images of the project so far:

The plan:

Based on Siborne and the cadastral maps:

And the modern evidence:

The church was rebuilt in the mid-19th Century, but the village retains its overall look:

Based on this image, we initially made a mistake with the church:

But this image shows the true look of the church:

The Duvalier farm just northwest of the church is typically Belgian and easily defended:

We initially modelled the farmhouse:

The shutters take their inspiration from this famous image:

Here is the church in relation to the Duvalier farm:

This is major piece of work and I am now cooperating with a group of enthusiasts. We have about 14,000 new troops to add to the 40,000 already available. The target is 100,000. Do let me know if you would like to participate!

Oh wow. That's looking great!

This is a fantastic project. I applaud your attention to detail and your attempt to make this place come alive again on the table-top. I follow with keen interest.

Thank you both, we love doing the research – bringing it back to life is very much the aim. All advice gratefully received!

A little off point, but there is recently a great Video of Plancenoit fought with DBN on Youtube. Shows how well those excellent rules work for solo.

Excellent work, mon ami. Will continue to follow with great interest. A truly amazing project.

But what is really needed is a mass movement of enthusiastic volunteers…not quite the little ships of Dunkirk, more Dad's Army, but that sort of thing, I guess.

My 15 done + 30 (work in progress) Prussian cavalry make up a small (a very small) proportion of the 100,000 figures finally needed. See the blog for more info.

I was never too clear about the original church's condition the morning after the Big Day. I always imagined it had been burnt and gutted, possibly roof and spire caved in. But early visitors' sketches and watercolours suggest it survived remarkably well. Certainly it did expand dramatically with the rebuild.

You may not be painting thousands, Deadhead, but it's quite a sizeable contingent for which I'm most grateful.

Very Inspirational .Great project and excellent progress made .

I agree – inspirational – excellent research as well.

Many thanks!

Awesome – need photos of in-play-action using periscope.

As one who is very keen on photographing my creations, whether at Waterloo, Hue 68 or, most recently, the Liberation of Paris Aug 44…..that would not be easy.

Any depth of focus is hard to achieve with 1/72 20mm figures. Firstly, you need a closed camera shutter…oh dear, that means, secondly, massive illumination. Thirdly a very long exposre.

Now, through a periscope, that light level is an oxymoron. You lose most of the light, ask any tank driver or submariner. The low angle view, that you want, works brilliantly for realism, but the project here is not a war game. It is Siborne revisited, basically. It is a static display.

It can be done, as shown by Dodgson's photography;

TMP link

in an incredible series of images, but, quite how, that is beyond me.

I recruited another painter today, this time for the Young Guard.

Hello Mr D.

Thank you for your kind comment.

I hope this is useful for you.

PDF link

Also, Thomas is an expert on outdoor photography for his masterpieces.

link

Now that you are a 20mm man, come join in the fun!

Best wishes,

Chris

That model railway photography article is saved to my desktop. Masses of useful tips there!

I am late back to 20mm figures (after maybe four decades) but my Paris 1944 crewed AFVs and my Landwehr cavalry, for Picton's project, have brought me away from TOTS and back to my early days.

Thirty Landwehr riders now done. "Just" the horses to do and I will post a photo before I post the figures. (Basically exactly what I showed before, only slightly better, following some very useful criticism.

Thomaspicton, sorry to hear your statue is suddenly threatened in Cardiff.

Oh dear, I wasn't aware of trouble in Cardiff! Better keep my head down….

The village is rapidly filling up with buildings and the ground works are taking shape. The base for the cobbled roads is PVA glue mixed with sand which sets as hard as concrete. On top, we will put another thin layer of PVA and then attach a very course sand to simulate cobbles.

Various non diorama things appear in the background including a mug, my daughter's doll's house and some house plants.

The buildings are not yet attached and will be 'dug in' in due course. 14 buildings done, about 30 to go!

In parallel we are working hard on Prussians, Young Guard and Old Guard. The next two sections will show the Lasnes Brook, with Prussian cavalry working round the southern flank

It looks like a lot of work. Do you need casualty figures? I've done a lot of those over the years. 1/72 plastic figures are pretty easy to convert.

I suspect that by the late stages of Waterloo there were about as many recumbent as standing in column or line (and let us not forget those horses who did badly too). The "debris" of the battlefield tends to get overlooked. Good suggestion!

I have been meaning to add some casualties to my small contribution to this project. Glad you reminded me!

Dear Widowson and Deadhead, I'd be very grateful for all casualty figures as I have some but not enough – my Hougoumont section having already absorbed a great many! So yes please, I'd love it.

Well I agonised over the choice of colour for my Prussian Dragoons. I know it should be Vallejo Medium Blue 70.963. But there are two problems. Firstly it just looked wrong, secondly, how ever much I shook that damned bottle, it dried with a gloss that would blind you.

Finally found my colour, slightly different for the horse furniture and I am…shall we say content?

The dead littering the ground. We do tend to forget. What must the slope up to "the" ridge have looked like by about 2000 hrs? Horses and dead humans everywhere, not to mention the hors de combat. Plancenoit needs to have its streets filled with flattened humans, like an average Saturday night in Newcastle town centre.

Something like this:

Blimey, as they say. That gives pause for thought. That is a superb (and almost unique) image.

Obviously, in practice, most would have been devoid of any of…choose what you will….headgear, limbs, upper or lower body half connected to each other, heads, bloodless gear and uniforms. The reality of combat in a firearms era, which most of us have been spared, other than watching a Spielberg Film.

Great modelling and photography.

But nothing like Newcastle centre streets on 4th July, when the pubs reopen.

Dear All,

We've been working on new buildings for the Plancenoit project which are shown in this series of photos. Each one is modelled on the evidence from the Siborne diorama. There will be many more to come!

The photos makes it look much flatter than for real – Siborne overcame this by exaggerating the relief but he was working at a smaller scale. None of the buildings are yet attached. There's a lot more work going in to the cobbled roads and landscape which do not yet pass master.

Thomas Mischak has kindly sent in the gravestones which are amazing and several walls – many thanks Thomas! My father is the master builder – pretty good for 81!

More stuff on my blog at: generalpicton.blogspot.com.

Hope you enjoy!