Visit to the Imperial War Museum.

Today Beth and I went to the Imperial War Museum in London. We managed to get alot of good reference photos and information on the war but mostly on the trenches and war area rather than the civilian life.

There was a whole display dedicated to gas attacks and the equipment used. I was really intrigued by the different types and evolution of the gas masks and thought that this would be a great prop to make as it explained that they were given to civilians in areas of risk. I documented as much as I could about them with photographs and notes and studied them in detail to look at possible ways to make them and which would be best to make.


German Gas hood design



British small respirator canister design



Evolution of gas attack equipment

 There was alot of very interesting pieces that I may consider for my props such as old trench signs written in foreign languages and riddled with bullet holes. Also the old food boxes and rations tins were really detailed and fascinating and I thought they may be good to recreate using my knowledge of Photoshop, but I haven’t made any final decisions yet on all of what I’m making.

They also had an interactive display called the trench exsperience which was a room that was a life size model of a trench with all the props and smells of a WW1 trench that had manniquin soldiers placed in possitions throughout.

One of the trench experience models reading his letter to home aloud.