Another adventure in miniature gastronomy comes to a close. What started out as a simple "out of the box" project gradually snowballed into what I could aptly describe as a mini diorama. I took inspiration from the 17th century Dutch painter Jan Steen whose paintings reflect the daily lives of the 17th century Dutch common folk - and in my case a German infantryman tucking into this supper next to an open stove amidst the debris of Stalingrad. In Jan Steen's paintings, the scenes are heavily populated with artefacts and the characters are depicted going about their activity, oblivious that they are being watched. It places the viewer as the role of a voyeur, whereby enticing them to take a deeper and closer look at the image to uncover the narrative.
In this piece, more time was diverted to create the backdrop and accessories than the figure itself. As the narrative goes, the standing soldier is not the focus but rather serves as a visual "bait" to arrest the initial attention of the viewer before they divert their gaze to the field stove - the center piece of the scene. The pile of debris are simply bells and whistles which creates the noise to repel the attention back to the stove and the small feast.
Given the fact this was figure designed and manufactured in 1984, it still holds up quite well. Apart from the the collar insignia which comes from a decal set from Tamiya, everything else is painted with AK Interactive Gen3 acrylic paints. There are some inaccuracies with the tunic but I decide to let that slide as it is after all a classic piece and I do suppose the flaws does constitute to part of the figure's charm.
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