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French Charge at Borodino 1812


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This diorama includes by far the largest number of Napoleonic cavalry that I've ever put together in a single base. All figures are in white metal; the riders are 60mm size, (nominally 1/30 scale), and are available pre-painted to a high level of quality from a company called First Legion. 

The diorama base is a wooden kitchen chopping board sourced from the local IKEA warehouse and protected from warping with a few coats of cheap varnish. I then slapped on a layer of painted celluclay and sieved sand/dirt from the pavement outside our condo, which I shoved in the oven for around 30 minutes to ensure there were no unwelcome "guests" lurking around in it. Of course SWMBO knows nothing about that....

....:P

Once cool, (and it got pretty, err, HOT, after being baked at 200 degrees C for half an hour), the sand/dirt was mixed with a 50/50 cut of white glue and water and then spread onto the still-wet celluclay. Once the glue got tacky, I shot on some static grass along with a few scale flowers/foliage that were lying around.

Result = simple diorama base finished in about an hour and left overnight to dry out.

The difficult part was hiding the 2mm~3mm thick figure bases, but that went okay once I figured out how to do it effectively.

I keep losing count, but there's about 40 mounted French and 2 Russian foot figures in there -- and the diorama doesn't get moved around much cos it weighs 15Kg (33ibs). 

 

It's supposed to represent the French charging the fleches at Borodino, although I must admit that I'm uncertain whether those Red Lancers actually participated in that particular battle....

....:hmmm:

So if not, then it's just a generic scenario.

The first photo below was an early version of the diorama and featured a figure representing Antoine Charles Louis, Comte de Lasalle -- and he definitely wasn't at Borodino having been killed at the battle of Wagram some three years previously, so that figure got turfed out toot-de-sweet. Maybe I should've left him in -- and just called him "The Ghost of Lasalle"....

....:P

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Edited by Cadman
removed double photo
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Just now, Vince1159 said:

Speechless Cadman that's absolutely brilliant,the second to last photo is that Marshall Ney in the middle....

 

Yeah that's Ney, and that's Corbert to his right.

Umm, dunno if he was at Borodino, but he seems to "fit" the scenario okay.

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5 minutes ago, Vince1159 said:

Doesn't matter one bit,what a fantastic dio...

 

Err, I just read on Wiki that Auguste Francois-Marie de Colbert was killed by a British rifleman in the Peninsula in 1809....so that's either his ghost, or it must be his cousin Pierre Marie-Francois de Colbert.

:hmmm:

Edited by Cadman
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Great work, so much going on. Was the charge made up of a mixture of regiments, the whole of the French Cavalry involved?

 

Made me laugh too. Just imagine SWMBO asking whats in the oven? Shortly followed by the last words of a modeller....

 

                 ....Bread Board with pavement sweepings en Clay  !!

Well done, thanks for showing !

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Magnificant !  Absolutely beautiful work.

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Breath taking Cadman.  Reminds me of Andre Koribanic's Historex cavalry vignettes. Just full of life (an death) and so much movement and colour ....

 

BillyD

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8 hours ago, Carius said:

Top job.

 

Excellent paint job.

 

7 hours ago, Rob 1 said:

That is very impressive indeed.

 

7 hours ago, AndrewE said:

Magnificant !  Absolutely beautiful work.

 

5 hours ago, Darby said:

My money's still on the Russians to pull this one out of the bag. Another cracking dio.

 

5 hours ago, Billydick said:

Breath taking Cadman.  Reminds me of Andre Koribanic's Historex cavalry vignettes. Just full of life (an death) and so much movement and colour ....

 

BillyD

 

Thanks guys. 

At around 700mm x 500mm and 15Kg, it's quite a chunk of metal that just seemed to grow the more I messed with it.

It's presently sitting on a stainless steel rack upstairs in our conservatory. I couldn't possibly put it on a shelf -- I'd have to reinforce the walls and hire a mobile crane to move it around.

But -- I've spotted a narrow table in one of the local furniture stores that would work. It'll have to wait until I get home again in July though cos I expect confirmation that I'll be on my travels again next week. 

 

FCC_12-Mar-2017.jpg

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8 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Great work, so much going on. Was the charge made up of a mixture of regiments, the whole of the French Cavalry involved?

 

Made me laugh too. Just imagine SWMBO asking whats in the oven? Shortly followed by the last words of a modeller....

 

                 ....Bread Board with pavement sweepings en Clay  !!

Well done, thanks for showing !

 

No idea as to the mixture of regiments question. I called it Borodino simply cos I had a couple of wounded Russian figures kicking around and not doing too much -- so they got added "just because".

 

Yeah, gotta be careful and keep those kind of creative adventures with the oven for the occasions when I know for sure that "Little Boss" will be out the house for a few hours.

Just as well she doesn't know I use her best crockery for mixing that stuff up.

Here's a snap of my attempts to send our condo up in a conflagration of flames when I got impatient with the time it was taking for the celluclay on a different diorama base to dry out.

I've a feeling that any subsequent insurance claim would've been laughed out of court.

:huh:

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Edited by Cadman
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