La rencontre - The encounter

Erwin Leetink
I made a start with a new dio: a French St. Chaumont tank resting next to a ruined factory with its crew. While an old fashioned Belgian dog cart passes by. Old meets new. Hence the name. A start has been made with the factory and the tank has been build so far that it is ready to receive primer...

gorby
Interesting project.

Erwin Leetink
Thank you very much 🙂

Erwin Leetink
The base is ready to receive a surprise, finishing and occupants

gorby
That's looking fantastic!
The ruined building is particularly good. It's looks very realistic.

Bruce Huxtable
Watching with interest 👍 Excellent
👍

Erwin Leetink
You are too kind...
I also started the painting of the first figure.
The Belgians used a specific kind of breed to pull their carts : the Belgian Mastiff. It has been extinct for quite some time, but by careful breeding, they managed to reinstate it. Though there are a lot of variations in colors, I tried to represent the general looks with the black snout and mask, as good as I can…

Erwin Leetink
And the second dog, although a bit meager I painted it like a old British sheepdog

Adrian Forest
What good dogs. 😄

Erwin Leetink
They behave exemplary indeed!!! 😉

Erwin Leetink
The first figure is done...
The guy on top of the tank. Having read a letter he received, he looks like he is contemplating the content of the letter while pulling on his pipe...

Bruce Huxtable
Loving the wisps of smoke 🙂👍

Erwin Leetink
That was actually rather simple to create : 4 fibres of fiberfill, with one end dipped in superglue and when that was dry, held in place by a short blast of hairspray.

Erwin Leetink
Figure number 2 is also done… The box art suggests a red képi, but after some searches, I found out that artillery had dark blue képis, but the artillery speciale, under which the tanks resorted, had red tabs on the collar and stripes on the trousers.

Erwin Leetink
Not without pride, I announce this project finished!
First I have to say that the roof of the factory is not to my satisfaction. But if I want to correct this, it will be rather destructive, so I leave it as is.
Last minute I added some green paint to the grass and added some birch seeds to simulate leaves. Enjoy the pictures, and please watch the video for a nice surprise…

Youtube Video

Bruce Huxtable
Well deserved pride, Erwin. This scene is top notch for sure. There is so much to take in, my eye goes back and forth. A master class in figure painting and detailing 👍🙂

Bruce Huxtable
And yes, the surprise was perfect 👍🙂

Erwin Leetink
Thank you very much for the kind words, it always gives me a great deal of satisfaction if people like what I do.
It took quite some searching to find a speaker that fitted in the base. Luckily spotify hosts an album of French music from WW1.

gorby
Fabulous result Erwin!

Erwin Leetink
Thank you so much for the compliments Gorby. I really appreciate them...

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Beautiful dio, Erwin! It feels somewhat relaxing, especially with the music.

Guy Rump
Great dio and modelling 👍

Erwin Leetink
Thank you very much guys.
The idea is the contrast between the French and Belgians. Relaxing vs urgency, clean vs dirty, modern mechanized vs good old foot work...

Neuling
Very nice dio with great attention for details and a good idea behind it!

Erwin Leetink
Cheers for the compliments mate!

Rui S
I agree with Neuling, very well executed 👍

Erwin Leetink
Thanks Rui!