Modeling with Gantt Charts and Project Milestones
An artist cannot plan his masterpiece on a budget or schedule its completion. However, Years ago I was different and needed better planning. My work taught me how to budget my hours for a report or a project. Then we began to use Gantt Charts and set Milestones as a way to build to a completed job.
So I tried it with a diorama—maybe my first attempt to make a diorama with more than 3 figures.
Excuse the big photos. My internet is out so I’m using my iPhone photos.
My plan was to build a diorama of French Foot Artillerymen firing a cannon. I was inspired by a photo of Civil War reenactors— maybe a photo I took. The gun crew were posed in anticipation of the gun’s discharge. The figures display action while in a frozen pose.
I started a journal where I laid out my ideas. I made sketches of action poses and drew out a placement and number of men. Should I have 2 officers standing as uninterested observers? I included objectives of new skills I would have to learn to finish this complex diorama.
I bought 5 or 6 plastic Historex figures and a lead French 12-pounder. I cut the arms and legs to obtain the right pose. I added individuality to each soldier, such as giving one a cooking pan strapped to his pack. I finished painting most of the figures— some lacked minor details. The cannon was painted with the barrel using oil paint.
Then I got stumped on the base. This was the part I dreaded. How should the terrain be laid out? A small knoll? How would I make the foliage— short grass or barren dirt road?
Delays began to push this project further out. Finally I boxed the pieces up and put it into storage. Some arms & hats fell off— or were never glued on.
BTW, the guy at Right Front position is missing his arm & the ramrod.
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I see a glimpse of hope that this might get completed.