So, following on from the previous post, here's the finished arrangement of a crashed Sopwith Camel, attended by ambulance and dogs. Maybe it's a little busy, but it was going to be even busier at one point, with more figures. This seems about right. The base is merely 20 x 11cm, so the whole thing is quite small.
I had several starting points or inspirations for the composition. One was my goddaughter Georgina, a nurse who found herself plunged into the struggle against COVID on starting her career in the profession. True, she's never dressed up like the ladies of this era. Another was wondering what to do with this ancient Academy kit I'd been given, and deciding to make it interesting by setting it in a crash scene.
I had a set of WWI medics/nurses which I wanted to use, made by Bachman for railway settings. They came painted, but quite simple so I added a little detail, and even repainted a couple. A couple of other resin figures, to people the scene, like the pilot, reassuring the nurse that he's just a bit shaken up, and trying to put off the moment when he has to explain himself to his CO who's just over there waiting to inform him he's grounded, when he's quite finished with flirting with the nurse. In front we see the squadron mascot, a disturbingly large Alsatian (German Shepherd? I've never worked out the difference).
Last but not least, an ambulance has arrived in case it's needed, Roden's WWI Vauxhall D-type ambulance. This is a neat little kit, with lots of fiddly little parts (The Academy Sopwith Camel kit contains 20 parts, not counting decals, or the additions/improvements I made; the Roden Vauxhall ambulance kit despite its size requires no less than 71 parts to be assembled!), but it sets it all off quite nicely. You'll see from the rear view below that it includes four stretchers in the back. I could have modelled it with the rear flap down, saving myself lots of time painting the wood and the canvas of the stretchers, but I'm happy I did it now. I must admit, I don't suppose these were actually common sights on the battlefield, with their narrow tires they'd have had a hard time in the mud.
As I said in Part 1, there are a large number of pictures available of Camel crashes, and a surprising number show little apparent damage to the plane, except to the undercarriage and the propeller, which would naturally take the force of the mishap, as the aircraft went head over heels, landing on its back. True, the fin and rudder tend to be more crumpled than you see here. But the rigging, while a bit slack, often seems to be largely all in place. As for the area around the plane, I looked hard at the various pictures and couldn't see any scarring of the turf in many of the pictures, let alone big holes in the ground. Hence the innocuous scene I've created.
There was another reason for the creation of this miniature. Thinking (as I frequently do), of the cinematic masterpiece that is Spinal Tap, let me draw your attention to the concert scene where a replica of Stonehenge is lowered to the stage. A smaller replica than expected, thanks to the artist indicating measurements in inches rather than feet. Well, I try to display more complex kits, biplanes certainly for reason of dust, inside acrylic cases. This practice has normally gone very well, but there was this one occasion when I messed up and received a much smaller case than expected. With base dimensions of 20 x 11 cm. As time went on I mulled over various ideas, though very clearly they would have to involve not only 1:72 scale items, but something like single seat aircraft. By and by, this is what I settled on.
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