AFTER TRAFALGAR – OCTOBER 1805
The story behind the diorama
The idea popped up in my head years ago upon visiting the local aquarium with my kids. In the gift shop was a whale rubber toys’ set, and my eldest daughter was quite enthralled by it. I purchased it for her and realized once home that the blue whale model was exactly the right size for a 1/72 scale juvenile/young adult blue whale of roughly 65-75 feet in length (adults can be up to 100 feet long!). A decade later my kid has moved on to social media and no longer plays with toys… but daddy kept an eye on this one and stashed it away for a future diorama.
I developed a scenario for a sea-inspired diorama based on a passage I read in a book called Six Frigates, written by naval historian Ian W. Toll.
In it, the author describes the arrival of an American vessel off the coast of Spain after Trafalgar: “The Ann Alexander, an American square-rigged merchantman with a cargo of flour, tobacco, salt fish, and apples, was eighteen days out of New York when she met the British fleet off Trafalgar a few hours after its victory. That there had been an enormously destructive battle was apparent from the sea-litter floating across many miles of the ocean. Bobbing on the surface were huge sections of spars and rigging, torn pieces of sailcloth, and dead seamen who would soon slip beneath the waves […] Most of the British ships were still too battered to sail, and their uninjured crews were working to repair the damage while also tending to hundreds of wounded British sailors and thousands of French and Spanish prisoners.”
Starting with that story in mind, I fused the description of battle debris at the surface of the ocean (minus the floating dead – I didn’t want “gore” in this one) with the idea of surviving sailors previously tossed overboard during the fight and who are now holding on to dear life as castaways on a torn masthead carried by the sea. Enters the whale thing into the story and voilà!
As it so blissfully turns out for my scenario, blue whales can indeed be spotted off the coast of Spain at that time of the year!
But I guess the scenario is ultimately a rendition on the theme of “Nature encounters man’s destructive side”.
The making of the diorama
I needed a life raft of some sort for my two human figures.
First, I thought of buying an entire ship and cannibalize parts that could then be smashed to pieces.
A few searches on specialized Websites soon made me realize that model kits for a 1/72 ship – even a small one - were too expensive.
Also, the undertaking would have been needlessly time-consuming (not to say “overkill”).
I started focusing on one part of the ship as my life raft for the figures.
Had I been able to find a prow figurehead I might have used it, but alas, no figurehead, so I decided to go for the obvious: broken masts and rigging.
I thus ordered a bunch of stuff from a model-ship specialized boutique in Australia to find some nautical elements I could blend in the scene.
The ripped/torn sail cloth came from a (very) cheap Chinese replica of a sailboat found on Amazon in 1/72 scale. I then added the seems, tainted the cloth with used tea and shredded it with a power drill.
For the sailors, our very own Cryns was a true inspiration and god-sent help as he provided me with some home-made figurine dollies which I turned into two very forlorn and lonely sailors originally from Leeds who are no doubt very impressed by the size of a nearly-adult blue whale coming by to check out the commotion. Thanks again Ludowijk!
I shaped the waves with Celluclay, then imbedded the whale in and worked my way on the plate using layers (after layers) of resin, and various products from the AK Interactive line. The “water” was tinted using various artist inks. I tried to keep the use of cotton to simulate the waves to a minimum.
Comments and criticism welcome, as always.
Sala
p.s. Note that it could have gone an entirely different way with this one: there were also Great White and Mako shark models in 1/72 scale in the toy set where this whale was included. Come to think of it, I still have them…
AFTER TRAFALGAR – OCTOBER 1805
Re: AFTER TRAFALGAR – OCTOBER 1805
Dear Sala,
What a lovely work.
Your dio is a fascinating mix of all kinds of materials. Expecially the second picture with the evening sunlight is extraordinary in mood and tone. Well done. I do not recognize the two sailors at all so you must have converted them. And you dressed them very well. My compliments. Also your work with rope, line and sailcloth is done very well. We have to guess what was already made when you bought it and what you added yourself. The gulf over the back of the wale looks great, because of the transperance of the water even showing the animals eye.
What a lovely work.
Its unclear to me if this is an eyewitness report from 1805 or a fictional story made up by Toll.
Your dio is a fascinating mix of all kinds of materials. Expecially the second picture with the evening sunlight is extraordinary in mood and tone. Well done. I do not recognize the two sailors at all so you must have converted them. And you dressed them very well. My compliments. Also your work with rope, line and sailcloth is done very well. We have to guess what was already made when you bought it and what you added yourself. The gulf over the back of the wale looks great, because of the transperance of the water even showing the animals eye.
KATALOG https://crynsminiaturen.nl/
Re: AFTER TRAFALGAR – OCTOBER 1805
Dear Cryns,
The book is non-fiction. Six Frigates is about the first US navy warships. Quite a fascinating read.
As for your figures, here are a few close-ups.
The tattoos were fun to paint !
I remember using this figure (first on the left)
Thanks for the compliments!
Sala
The book is non-fiction. Six Frigates is about the first US navy warships. Quite a fascinating read.
As for your figures, here are a few close-ups.
The tattoos were fun to paint !
I remember using this figure (first on the left)
Thanks for the compliments!
Sala