28mm Diorama of Lawrence of Arabia's Ambush at Hallat Ammar (September 1917)

My last post detailed a locomotive that I was building for a diorama. Since then I've been frantically working on the rest of it, along with Scipio and our SB5 comrades: Ollie and Mike.


The diorama was made for the Shifting Sands exhibit, which details Lawrence's involvement in the war and examines the consequences of the Great Arab Revolt that are with us in the present day. Built around the work of the GARP archaeological project, it's an outstanding exhibit and an excellent addition the the National Civil War Centre. Cannot recommend a visit enough, and not just to see our diorama.

This is the first time I've done a diorama so it was a steep learning curve, there's a lot that I'm not happy with on my side, but overall I think we recreated the ambush as described by Lawrence in his memoirs Seven Pillars of Wisdom as well as the limitations of space, resources and time allowed. But it was all experience for the next projects...

All credit for the beautiful painting of the Turks, the engine and the creation of the lovely sandbags go to Scipio, and likewise the Arabs are all Mike's handiwork. Ollie selected the miniatures and created all of the lovely shell casings scattered around, reflecting the archaeological finds and helped me put the finishing touches to everything on the last day at the museum - and a special thanks to Scipio, who on the evening before his wedding, drove to my house to do some last minute work on the diorama and then transported it in one piece to the museum. That's dedication. 

I'm not going to waffle too much, I'll just share the photos, any questions are welcome as always.

The four dioramists (author on the left showing the effects too much wine)



















And a few shots from construction, sadly I couldn't chart the progress as much as I'd have liked due to time restrictions. 






Comments

  1. I didn't recognise you with your new hipster identity. Are you under cover ?

    obtw, nice work on the diorama. As with everything one always feels that there might be more to be done. However, that looks great. I remember seeing dispersal diorama at RAF Hendon when I was about 7. Still sharp in my mind's eye 42 years later. You could be having the same effect on another primary school boy right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ssshhh, don't tell anybody

      Thanks very much, if it has that effect then I'll consider it a job well done on my part, hopefully it will; I have similar memories of dioramas and displays that have stuck with me

      Delete
    2. One for me was a WW1 diorama in the Hamleys models section. Inspired me to get into the hobby beyond Airfix aircraft that I'd worked on up until that point!

      Delete
    3. Excellent stuff, I think the first diorama or rather display that stuck in my mind was the Dambusters one at Eden Camp

      Delete
  2. Awesome. Great result. Well done all of you. cheers

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is seriously cool - awesome work all around!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much, definitely the reaction I was hoping for

      Delete
  4. On display in a musuem no less!!?? That's like, all serious and grown up and stuff. Impressive too!

    Very nicely done to you all. You sound like you're proud enough, you should be. I'm proud of you, if that amounts to anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Dai, really appreciate that, definitely amounts to something. I am proud of what we've done just know it could have been better. But there's already another one in the pipeline... Far too serious and grown up

      Delete
  5. Oh, just brilliant: bloomin' well done you chaps!

    Very impressed by the maturity so obviously on display right here...!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much sir, really appreciate that - maturity is not a word we're usually associated with

      Delete
  6. I've been off my blog for a long while so I missed this. I just had to say WOW! That is some other level of modelling! Simply stunning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blimey I've been off of my blog even longer it seems, thank you very much sir, very kind of you to say

      Delete
  7. I will bookmark this site and come to it from time to time. Your writing has been of great help to me.

    Click here to chceck my blog :: 대구오피
    (freaky)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment