Hobby Hintby Jeff Junker
On June 18, 1815 Napoleon made his final attempt at
pushing Wellington and his Allies into the sea. Standing in
his way was the King's German Legion Sharpshooters at a
town named Le Haye Saint. Although Napoleon's I Corps
cleared the orchards and areas around Le Haye Saint, the
farmhouse would not yield. Taking this position would give
Napoleon the high ground required to enfilade the English
with cannon fire. It wasn't until late in the day, on the third
attempt, that Marshall Ney successfully stormed the
farmhouse forcing the 42 remaining troopers (out of the
original 400) to retreat.
This diorama by Ross Burkenstock portrays that moment in time
when the French attacked the farmhouse at the Battle of
Waterloo. This replica was completely scratchbuilt. The outside
walls are of plywood; the interior walls, balsa wood. The
stucco-looking texture of the structure was achieved by using
drywall repair paste, which was painted a grayish-white and
weathered with a black wash.
A close look at the roof shows that the shingles (which were cut from thin cardboard) are individually laid, a time consuming endeavor. "I tend to work on several projects at once so the diorama was worked on, on and off for about 9 months," said Burkenstock. "I probably spent no less than 8 hours just shingling the roof."