1:35 Mother with her children

A mother with children, a civilian scene 1:35

A multi-part set from the Royal Model brand in 1:35 scale with a figure of a woman and children. It completes scenes in which civilian life is meant to stand alongside the equipment.

The war through the eyes of the civilian population

The photographers of advancing armies pointed their lenses at villages and town streets just as often as at combat equipment. Women with children by the wall of a house, at the edge of a road or in front of a wrecked building are among the most powerful images of the period, and in a diorama they work in a similar way: they give a scene the scale of a human figure and at the same time a tension that equipment alone will never create. Civilian clothing was not uniform, which gives a modeler a freedom in painting that they do not have with soldiers. Patterned dresses, a knitted waistcoat or children's stockings are also a chance to try techniques that field uniforms never call for.

Assembling a multi-part group

Try the arrangement out on a piece of card first and only then drill pins into the base, as the lines of sight and the turn of the heads decide whether the group looks like a family or like figures put together at random side by side. Fill small seams after gluing with putty applied on a spatula and sand them away to nothing. Choose muted colors with a single stronger area that draws the eye.

For which scenes

• village and suburban scenes from the fighting
• a column halted in an inhabited area
• evacuation and postwar subjects
• standalone display compositions without equipment
• a contrast to armed figures in the same scene