I could see gardsman Doing this.

[Lazarus]

http://www.coolminiornot.com/266436

[Rhok]

Great diorama for all the wrong reasons. Sam Pekinpar or Stanley Kubrick would be proud.

[NeckFace]

bummed me out when i first saw it, and it still bums me out now 

[Lezle]

Tacky.

[wouster7]

no class...

[Rhok]

Bah you old men.

[Lazarus]

yes yes i am

[Christian]

Great diorama for all the wrong reasons.

Seconded

This would be probably the most confronting 40k diorama I've ever seen.  Rather than focus on heroics, it shows one of the nastier parts of war that gets forgotten about when most people think of the 40k universe.

[NeckFace]

but but but...

sure its confronting, but 40k isn't war, its a fantasy game/hobby.  i'm all for keeping the discourse about such things open, but i really don't think this adds anything new or constructive.  there's just no context, or explanation, or any sort of discussion from the modeller to make it seem any more than something he did because it was 'cool'.

[Rhok]

Regardless of the negative side of the diorama. Alot of skill and effort went into creating a very realistic, cold and brutally dark side of war that happens. Definitely I could see a guardsman doing this apposed to a space marine (chaos marine maybe).
Reminds me of scenes from The Iron Cross, Casualties of War, The Dirty Dozen and I'm sure the bit in Full Metal Jacket.
And I'm sure the Eldar revenge on this Guardsmen would have been swift and in equally brutal fashion.
     

[NeckFace]

space marine would probably be just as hateful, they'll bust out even more vicious xenophobic tactics, it'd probably just be more direct and immediate than rape

no, the guy's skill is without question.  but for me that's what makes it even sadder

[Christian]

.  there's just no context, or explanation, or any sort of discussion from the modeller to make it seem any more than something he did because it was 'cool'.

Just going from the one thing I could find from the modeller I don't get the impression that he did it just because he thought it would be cool.

I want to make it clear - i`m not a psycho, pervert or something, and i personaly don`t think that rape is a good thing to be done. As, say, Quentin Tarantino doesn`t think that slice people with katana, killing pregnant woman or burning people alive are a good deeds. But he`s telling a story. And so do i. And, really, if one toy soldier can decapitate, slice to pices, eviscerate, burn with flamer, rip guts etc brutally kill other toy soldier, and you like this game anyway, don`t blame me for making this diorama

I don't think anyone would go about making a diorama like this on a whim because they thought it would be cool.  You would have to be very naive to think that you could post images of something like this and not create a strong reaction. (positive or negative).  And given the amount of work that has gone into it, he must have had a fair bit of time to consider the subject matter.

I know that 40k is a game, but I don't think it ever hurts to be reminded every so often that war is extremely shitty in many ways.

Sorry dude, I don't mean to sound like I'm having a go at your views.  But I think the fact that 'Alien Contact' does bum you out, and, if you read the comments on the site, does polarize people into such strong love it/hate it factions, shows what a strong piece it is.

[NeckFace]

its all good Christian, i'm not trying to stifle conversation on the piece by simply labeling it wrong, but am trying to discuss why the presentation of the piece is wrong in my eyes because its not really a fair representation of the horrors of war.  

in its inception this piece has encouraged discussion, which in itself is important.  as i said, these concepts should never be swept under the rug and ignored, because then we wouldn't be able to figure out how they happen.

the problem being that while atrocities such as this happen in war, and 40k is meant to be analogy for that conflict, the context of the game does not equate to the context of war.  the whole thing is so abstract that any direct representation becomes incredibly convoluted especially when you consider the amount of kids that get into it without any real concept of the violence the game is meant to represent.

without this turning into a discussion about "won't someone think of the children!" i just want to point out this is what i mean by that the modeller hasn't properly provided a decent context for the piece.  he's given no further thought to  whether his desire to marry the medium of the 40k fantasy lore and the grim reality of actual warfare really makes an apt statement about rape.  I really don't think he does.  his reasoning goes so far as to state "if one toy soldier can decapitate, slice to pices, eviscerate, burn with flamer, rip guts etc brutally kill other toy soldier, and you like this game anyway, don`t blame me for making this diorama".  in this way he actually stifles discussion.  so whoever sees this has to accept it.  he's not willing to discuss it further.  so why the hell did he make it?


ps: i should add that i'm just getting into this because i'm keen to deconstruct all these ideas, not just argue for the sake of it; like i said, this bummed me out a year ago when i first saw it, and it bums me out now.

[Vaul]

I'm with dave on this one, a wargaming universe appeals to people like us because it extracts some of the likeable, abstract things that we might find in war and celebrates it, without having to celebrate even implicitly any of the undesirable things.  So in other words we can admire the ideals of strategy & tactics, heroism, glory & splendor, art, intrigue - things like this.  It's hard to find other places where all of those things are neatly grouped together without the side effects - rape, torture, needless death, and so on.  A wargaming universe isn't created with the intention of reminding us about the horrors of war - it instead lets us gain some kind of pleasure or satisfaction from it.

However i'm also with Chris on this one in other regards, the diorama is a technical work that merits applause, and if one of the chosen goals of the creator was to create controversial discussion then he has achieved it.  If people look at this diorama and feel that it was confrontationa l for them for the right reasons, then all well and good, that kind of thing is a positive. 

I can't blame anyone for taking a negative or positive view of this piece (although to avoid being completely neutral, I personally take a negative view of it)

...But if anyone hated on THIS one, man -

[Christian]

...But if anyone hated on THIS one, man -

That's pretty cool.  Does anyone know what it says on the page he is reading?   

[Vaul]

Yeah, it says "protection against high elf direct damage spell, cast on a 5+"

[Christian]

Yeah, it says "protection against high elf direct damage spell, cast on a 5+"

LOL 

I thought that there must be a joke in there somewhere.