Sokol

When I wake I'm still in a dream

In most men dreams I suppose you will find dolls running through fields late at night after men like in those films from the 70's. I suppose this is the case for me too, but the dolls tend to be ghosts from my past, who take many shapes and befriend the creatures that haunt the rusty landscapes of my dioramas.

Generally speaking I would say that wherever the man built and destroyed, left and came back you will find a part of me and a fertile ground for my imagination. 

But then throughout this rusty mess some big light burst came in and terrorised my pet ghosts: my wife and I got a baby!!

So here came the tiny thing and there went our sleep as fast as light. From as far as I remember I always had some troubles to make a difference between dream and reality it really got worse since that moment. So almost daily at sunset this spring and summer I put the laundry on the wire between the two old rusty poles that separates our small garden and the one of the neighbours listening to calm music at loud volume in my headphones –with the sun in the eye too- and one day both my worlds collided and I saw myself putting the laundry on the gun cradle of a boat, with both rusty poles being replaced one way by a funnel and the other one by a rusty boat mast. 

And I fell like I had no choice than doing a diorama out of this.

Sokol diorama

Sokol

The idea was just so clear it didn't take me much time to come with decent plans. The same evening those were drawn. They showed the upper structure of a boat, and some groundcover just like if the boat had stranded and broke underwater in some marshes.

But then I didn't know at first where to set up the action nor which boat to use.

Since 2 years i show my stuff on internet I have been asking many questions, received many answers, was pointed to many links which allowed me to build a comfortable stash of reference concerning early Russian XXth century material in which I set up to find the right boat. 

The main issue I had to take care of was the funnel. It shouldn't be as big as it would dwarf the figure standing near it. This alone limited my choices to some kind of torpedo boat as destroyers' funnels were certainly too big. Then i remember last year meeting a Finnish modeller who was into immerse into his country's naval history. He sent me some pictures of his work –but also a great picture he owned showing the close up of the gun cradle of a torpedo boat of the Sokol class. Now searching a bit deeper, I managed to find some book about Sokols which was of help when it came to plans but which only showed some general view of the boat. Those would be certainly enough to create a 1/700 model but a bit bad for bigger scales. Nonetheless I set up for a Sokol thanks to that one and great close up picture I was given.

Furthermore, some profiles in the book as well as a picture I was sent showed a particular ship of the class which was painted green which could prove useful as I never showed any enthusiasm towards the  XXth century mostly grey colour of ships. 

So what were Sokols? The name means "falcon" in a lot of eastern European languages. The real Sokol was built in England for the tsar by Yarrow, and was later copied more or less brilliantly by Russian arsenals. A good dozen (?) were built, a few sank during the Russo-Japanese war, some others were used as minesweepers during World War One –the Finns managed to pick up a few for their own navy when they gained their independence in 1920, and the rest was finally scrapped during the 1920's. 

This is one of those, dragged from the sea coast to a marsh and let rusted. It could almost be an accurate scene.

The challenge

I just can't start a new diorama if there is no real challenge for me to start with. 

But this proved not really hard to find. 

You know what's pretty hard to model when you want to scratchbuild those kind of early XXth century warships? The main guns a well as the rear one stand on some large metal surface pierced with hundreds of holes.

I remembered gloomily of the pictures my Finn friend sent me of his own handsome 1/48 Sokol model and had a look at his pierced gun cradle only to realize he did all the holes by himself using a drill. 

I don't have the patience to work like this so i had to think of an easier way which would guarantee some even holing scheme.

Then I wanted to create a marsh and got to remind a childhood memory I am very fond of. Some flooded old Gaul quarry near my hometown where we used to bath, whose water was so pure we could have a look at the fish way below our feet. 

So I decided the water would be see through and that yet, when we would have a look to the diorama from its side, the water would be of a nice blue/green shade just like it would be in a normal bit of still water.

Last but not least, i wanted to work further idea that a diorama should show the direction of the light. I set up against for those warm colours you get at sunset. Here the light would come almost horizontally and bath most of vertical surfaces. I was aware right since the start that the diorama would work best viewed from one specific angle, but yet the point would be that different colours schemes would be available if the viewer chooses to have a look from unexpected angles.