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| Fast Rope- US Navy and Marines Enforce Blockade |
June was a busy month with a wonderful 10-day trip to central Europe wedged between work on several modeling projects. Since it's the Fourth of July let's start with that.
1. Writing the Declaration of Independence Diorama
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| Ferris' painting |
This will be a shadow box diorama depicting Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams as they edit the declaration of independence 250 years ago.
It is based on Jean Leon Gerome Ferris' painting, but I modified the composition for better arrangement in a 3D shadow box diorama. It features from right to left, Adams (right, who became the second President of the USA), Jefferson (in the center who became the 3rd US president and was 6'2" tall) and Ben Franklin (who was 70 years old at the time). Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston were also members of the Committee of Five that helped draft it, but for some reason don't get as much fame even though they were both very influential people in the early history of the United States.
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| Mock-up of the shadow pox |
Adams had pushed for Jefferson to take the lead on writing. Jefferson had a certain literary grace, and, more importantly, he wasn’t yet tarnished by too much speaking in the contentious congressional debates. “You can write ten times better than I can,” Adams told him.
So Jefferson got to work in a boarding house a few blocks from the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), putting pen to paper between June 11 and 28. His desk was a simple wooden box with paper and quill pens that he held on his lap, a 18th century laptop.
When Jefferson finished, he handed copies to Franklin and Adams for review and editing.
In the original draft, Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable…”
This phrasing placed liberty’s foundation squarely in the realm of religion and natural law. It had theological weight and lofty moral power. But to Franklin the appeal to divine authority invited theological disputation. Ever the rationalist, he suggestred using the language of Enlightenment reason.
Franklin crossed out “sacred and undeniable” and scribbled something new: “self-evident.”
In 1776, Benjamin Franklin was 37 years older than Jefferson, and had sat through more committee meetings and wrestled with more politics than Adams and Jefferson combined. He understood that to rally a continent and pass muster with the prickly delegates of the Continental Congress, the Declaration’s truths needed to be stated plainly, not preached.
“Self-evident” drew on the language of 17th-century philosophers like Descartes and 18th-century thinkers like John Locke. It suggested these were not mere articles of religious faith, but truths discernible by reason and shared human experience.
The edits weren’t over. Congress itself would spend all day July 3rd and most of July 4th revising the document—cutting nearly a quarter of it, including Jefferson’s scathing denunciation of the slave trade, ironic since Jefferson, a Virginian, himself was a slave owner. .
But Franklin’s change remained. Self-evident survived. It threaded the needle between moral conviction and rational persuasion, giving the line a universalism that has carried through centuries.
2. Fast Rope : US Navy and Marines Enforce Blockade
Inspired by recent events, I converted my existing container ship model from the PoLA layout into a diorama depicting US Marine fast roping to the top of the containers.
The helicopter is a MH-60S from a Chinese company MRY-SFW, which stands for Mr. Yao's Super Fantasy World. It is 3D printed. The model is very nicely detailed. But there are some layer lines visible. They were very hard to remove due to all the rivet detail. I used several coats of leveling primer to try to hide them.
The other major problem was that the 3D printed clear parts had a frosted appearance with visible layers. I tried polishing them, but did not have good luck. So I ordered a Hasegawa UH-60 as it has a the same windows and doors as the USN MH-60S. I had to carefully trim and sand the clear parts from the injection molded kit to fit the 3D printed model. I was lucky it worked out.
The figures are 3D sculpts. The fast roping marines I sculpted. The other marines came from a vendor on Myminifactory. The ropes are steel piano wire placed into holes drilled into the containers. They I added curled up sections of cord to simulate the excess rope that typically hangs from the helos. The helo is rather high as it has to avoid the ship cranes. That puts a lot of torque on the wires, even though the model weighs about 3 ounces.
I used Liquidtex acrylic heavy gel and acrylic pouring medium for the water surface. I added a backdrop to help protect the fragile helicopter during handling and transport. I also made foam support to secure the helicopter while the diorama is in transit. Hopefully that will minimize vibrations.
3. Boudica Bust
I had a commissioned model for the Long Island Figure club. They requested a bust of Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. They plan to sell the bust to raise money for their club. I printed about 30 busts for them.
5. John Adams Bust
I also did a digital sculpt of a bust for John Adams. Part of the founding fathers busts series.Not sure when I will get a chance to paint it. Sculpting the curly hair was a lot of fun.
6. Polish National IPMS Show
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Rob taking with the owner of Lukgraph.
Rob bought the huge Grumman Goose model
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We had a chance to visit the Polish National IPMS show in Warsaw. It was a nice meet. About as big as the Northern Virgina IPMS meet. There were a lot of nice models on display. I also purchased a model a 230mm mortar built by Skoda, but used by the Poles in WW2. Alas, the weapon was spectaculary ineffective. One report mentioned they only had 75 rounds for all their mortar. The Germans captured it and reused it in Norway.
We saw some amazing paper models. Here is one example.
This is a neat idea of a scuba diver trying to help a manta ray with a fishing net .
