Saturday, July 17, 2010

Our Ancestrs Hobbies.

I was going to put this on one of my other sites, then I realized this is the right place. I know your going to ask what does modeling have to do with genealogy. Well a lot all are hobbies fit into genealogy. As we look into are family members we want to know more then just dates and facts. The facts tells us what he or she did for a living but tells us nothing about their personal lives. There are hundreds of hobbies and some day while researching a ancestor you may come across a hobby your ancestor was contacted too, and if so you well have better insight into his or her personal life. I know some day or maybe even today some family member of mine maybe looking into my life and if they find this page they will get a small look into my personal life.
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Here is a diorama picture of a American army soldier I made about 40 years ago. The scale is 1/76th. As a young man I would build and paint models and make diorama scene out of them. Many modelers had themes for their dioramas, but I just let my imagination run wild. This soldier was painted with a brush with only three hairs and for those tight spots I used a brush I made with one hair tied to a match stick. I never used a magnifying glass, not till my eyes started to go bad with age. This picture was taken out side on a bright sunny day.

Note. These pictures can be enlarged by pushing on them.

In the beginning this picture was to be in color but the scanner had been changed to Black and white. After comparing the two picture I found the B/W, picture was much better. You would think the color picture would be the better choice as it shows all the bright colors. True the color picture is full of color, however it has a plastic look about it, where as the B/W, is full of contrast and gives the picture a more realistic look.
The next two pictures are of two German soldiers on a motorcycle with a side car. This diorama was done the same as the first one. Take note of the clouds in the back ground this was done by cutting out a picture of clouds out of a magazine and placing it behind the model.

Again these picture were done in color and B/W, and here again the B/W, picture shows more realism.