Judge it

Well I didn't look at everything on your site, I generally like what I saw.

When I looked at the pictures of your M60 and M109, what stuck out to me was what didn't stick out. When you've got an overall monotone paint scheme such as the desert one you depicted on both vehicles, it makes the the highlighting of panel seams and raised detail that much more critical to acheive the differences in contrast betweem one part and the next of the vehicle. On both you have obviously spent some time on washes and highlighting, but given the monotone nature of the paint scheme, I would have been inclined to put a few more brown ink washes on all the panel and component junctions and gone over the high points a couple more times drybrushing with flat white paint.

I also looked at your Stug officer figure and would say that at 1/16 you probably should have avoided painting in the distinct whites in the eyes, rather just hint at an iris and pupil and define the eyebrows a bit. At the scale distance the 1/16 represents, you wouldn't be able to discern the whites of a person's eyes anyway, they'd just blend in with the surrounding skin color.

Hope that helps.

thanks upnorth, I appreciate that. I see what your saying about the 2 tanks, especially on the 109. I'll have to work on that one with my Bradley Im working on.

i thought all your models looked really nice, to bad you cant cast them in 1:1, i would buy a couple myself, oh yea the tanks were ok too. ha ha ha ha ha .

Just looked at your M60. Looks like a pretty nice build! The wash and drybrush is very convincing. I also like the torn rubber from the road wheels. Just a couple observations:
1. There are visible seams on both front tow hooks.
2. In looking at the right side shot of the tank, it looks like a seam is showing where the top of the turret glues to the bottom. As I recall, this is a cast turret, so there should be no seam there.
3. The driver's periscope and the main periscope in front of the commander's cupola hasn't been painted; they should be a gloss black. Black acetate film works great for this.
4. One headlight on each side should be gloss black (Sorry, I can't remember if it's the inboard or outboard.).
5. The track pads should be black, but the rest of the track is steel and should be painted as such.
6. The left side drive sprocket appears to be a little droopy. This could be the camera angle...
7. The left side smoke discharger system looks like it's installed at the wrong angle. Again, this could simply be the camera angle...
8. There are mold seams all over the travel lock that need to be cleaned up.

On the Jagdtiger, the roadwheels are terribly misaligned on the second picture (right rear quarter shot). I like what you did with the Aber set and Rubio barrel!

On the Late Tiger, the roadwheels aren't sitting on the track in the left hand shot, and appear to be elevated in the right hand closeup shot. In addition, the wire cutter handles need to have the mold seams cleaned up. I'm curious, did you hide the seam on the inside of any of your muzzle brakes?

It's important to remember that all the extra add-ons (Aber, Rubio, zimmerit, camouflage, mud, etc.) mean nothing unless basic construction is taken care of first. This includes: Cleaning up mold seams and punch-out marks, ensuring all road wheels are in contact with the tracks and are properly aligned; ensuring that the tracks are parallel with each other when viewed from the front and rear; and the list goes on..... If you are interested in judging standards and seeing how your kits stack up, try going to the IPMS website at www.ipmsusa.org . They are a great resource. Hope this helps you some! Good luck!
Gip Winecoff

hey , thanks for those great tips. Seems I missed a few details there. Im not sure about the muzzle break seams though, where do you see these? I'll defintly have to double check from now on about all the modl seams though, funny how easy some can be overlooked until pointed out. thanks a bunch.

Hey Monsterarmor good looking work, not much on giving tips yet as I am still learning most of it my self. Noticed thoguh that you are right down the road from me. Matter of fact I spent about 6 hours last saturday stuck on FS 42 at Springer Mtn. when my ford "exploder" decided to lose 4 qts of tranny fluid in the middle of no where. Seeing how you are located like me where do you go to get your kits and stuff from?

here lizard lizard lizard...lol thanks for the complimet there. Im not sure of FS 42 though. I usually go to Hobbytown in Kennesaw or AAA hobbys in Marietta. But here lately Ive been on the ebay wagon, Ive found some great deals on hard to find stuff...sorry to hear about the Ford, goodluck with that. could make a great diorama though! lol just find a 1/25th scale figure of a guy kickin his car and pullin out his hair.

I need to find that figure and an explorer and it would be great. Of coarse with the way it has been to me since I got it having it crushed under the Sherman I am working on now would be more fitting tribute to it. FS 42 is a forest service road that goes up to less than a mile of the start of the appalacian trail. It's about 8 miles from pavement and probally 30 miles between Ellijay and Dahlonega. It is the real definition of middle of no where.I've been to both of those shops. AAA is where I got the M151A2 I recently finished.

N I C E ! ! ! Those are some beautiful figures. I really liked Sleeping Beauty. I also liked the subtle affect of the dusting of snow on your ATAT.