23/06/2025
On May 8th 1945, the US military's Stars and Stripes published a one-sheet newspaper to tell all US soldiers in the ETO that indeed the European war was over. I saw an original Stars and Stripes "N***s Quit" newspaper in the 45th Inf. Div. museum in Oklahoma and it inspired me to build this diorama. In this scene American troops are reading and reacting to the news that the war is over for them at last, and they made it. Although this diorama has a central theme (the war is over) I wanted a bigger scene with many figures interacting with each other, in different ways, in several vignettes happening all at once. I could have told this story with only three figures reading and reacting to the news. However I felt that the story is more powerful with several smaller scenes of figures reacting to the news under a common theme. The viewer can look at each group and see the different emotions of each soldier, each with his own story. A good diorama should draw the viewer in and evoke an emotion. The modeler can pick the emotion and I prefer to leave the viewer with an uplifting, thoughtful, or funny emotion.
