Deadhead:
I quite appreciate your approach to the thread. I feel like, sometimes, there is almost an un-spoken rule that any discussion of modelling should be only praise and compliments.
OK, I get it, some folks want to feel good about what they have done. Me too.
But I have learned so much, my modelling skills have improved so much, and as a result my enjoyment of miniatures as a hobby (both the modelling and the gaming) have expanded so much, by my participation in various on line fora. And that has come not only because only have I gotten some compliments, but also because the discussions have highlighted all the areas where, and all the ways that, things could be done better.
So I have read your comments and gone through the images and tried to appreciate what you are suggesting.
All of that said … well … I am not as critical of the diorama as you have been.
I will agree that the "sniper" is suidically close. We might write that off as a by-product of the chosen media -- a diorama is an unlikely place to show realistic distances for ranged weapons. We usually see tanks that are almost bumper-to-bumper, and infantry at tomahawk-throwing distances rather than anything approaching typical combat ranges. So I can give a bit of slack on that point.
Now, why the "sniper" is leaning OUT of the tower is a different question altogether. I think the overall dramatic effect of the diorama would have been improved if the sniper had been modelled back in the shadows, hard for even the viewer to find. Sometimes the hidden treasure (or "Easter Egg" as it is sometimes called) really makes the scene. But maybe this "sniper" is just a regular soldier who was handed a scoped rifle and told to go climb the stairs, and who has had no training the arts of concealment and selectionof firing positions.
As to why no one is responding to the threat -- here I have far more appreciation of what is modelled than you do. I think a diorama should be a snapshot in time. I would be more critical if the diorama modelled a span of time. We are seeing the instant where the first shot strikes. No one knows there is a threat yet. They have not even fully realized that someone is falling.
Let us engage our imaginations and project ourselves into the scene. I am a soldier focusing my attention on some pathetic civilians who have endured some traumatic or tragic experiences, amid the rattle-de-clap of farm wagons and horse hooves on stone. We are in the split second in which one soldier drops his rifle and falls.
I am dealing with other things right now. Have I even noticed, and if I have, should I bother to pay attention? For all I know he tripped over his own shoelaces, or might be hung-over and sick. Do I care?
The same OODA loop we might apply to operational-level reaction times can also be applied to individuals -- the people on the bridge have not yet observed that someone has been injured (that guy just fell to the street bleeding!), much less oriented themselves to the threat of someone being shot (OMG we are under fire!), much less decided what their responses should be and begun their actions (I gotta take cover and look for the shooter). As individuals, some with combat experience no-doubt, all of that might only take 1 or 2 seconds. But the diorama does not show us a span of seconds, but only one instant of time. That poor guy will be down on the bridge in a growing pool of blood before anyone is crouching and scanning for the shooter.
So I don't object at all to the composition of the people.
That said, I do wonder a bit about the horses. I mean, the horses don't care why the guy is falling. Horses are easily startled, and sudden movements will almost always get a horse's attention. The exception might be if the horses are highly fatigued and working at the limits of their endurance -- in that case they may not give two shakes for anything going on around them. But these horses appear neither startled nor fatigued. They are just taking a stroll along the bridge. And that is incongruous with the rest of the story.
At least that's my take on it.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
