Diorama "The Tiger Tank"

MM,

Gosh, how many models did you and Art Instructor build in the past few days?  I can picture Art Instructor chained to the work station desk and just building models all day long.

Anyway.  It looks great  Good painting and overall diorama is good too.  The soldier with ammo can looks casually walking around compared to other figures they look like they are all alerted by something. 

Many thanks for your kind comments and compliments, m1garand!

You probably missed my post last year that "Art Instructor" quitted his other job
as schoolvan driver and started working full time for me alone since the middle of last year.
As far as I know, he wakes up early in the morning at six and work through late evening
everyday so he can build 6-7 pieces in 2-3 weeks time. Recently another commissioned modeler (of another collector) showed a dio on a local board saying it took 10 days to finish.
Art Instructor can't afford to take that long, he has to make it fast and nice. He told me
that in the past he could finish one whole dio in a single day, and for urgent jobs he did
finish zimmeriting & painting two (2) Tamiya's Tiger I 1:16 tanks over night for a hobby shop
owner who came to his place and watched them being done overnight - to take them for his
customers the next morning (the tanks were already assembled with RC equipment by the shop). Is that hard to believe?

Here's the list of his present batch :
- AFV CLUB's M88 A1G
- Alanger's 2S9 120mm S.P. Gun
- Trumpeter's AS-90
- Tamiya's JS-3 with Eduard PE parts
- Italeri's Flakpanzer Oswind
- CMK's Kubelwagen Type 82
- Diorama "The Winter War" using Dragon's Nashorn + Dragon's Panzergrenadiers + 2 more figures

I can expect him to finish them in 2 weeks or 3 weeks at most.

Earlier this year, he asked me to give some jobs to "Tuk" his elder brother whose other job
is motorcycle taxi driver and I've been giving "Tuk" some jobs ever since. His present batch :

- Revell's Harbour Tug Smit 1:200
- Heller's Titanic Searcher 1:200
- Tamiya's Rommel + German Infantry 1:35
- Tamiya's Otto Carius and Crew (3) 1:35
- Diorama "The Panzergrenadiers" using Dragon's Panzergrenadiers Panzer Lehr Division 1:35
- Dragon's Obersturmfuhrer 1:16

And I can expect him to finish them in about the same period of time! I'm worrying about
storage space now, it may run out in just a year or two with this level of increment!

Nice tiger and building.

This could help me out on my tiger, I now see the too sets of outer wheels are diifrent, the front one have a hole in the middle, the ones at the back doesn't, I was have problems with the wheels. The building is mini art you say, then when you open the box the walls of the structure seems like molds, are they mold or the actuale pieces? Gonna know to do my czech building,also mini art.

Many thanks for your kind compliments, T-rex! Glad to know that this could you out on the Tiger, I don't know much about its roadwheels. As for Mini Art's buildings, they are 2 parts vacuum-formed plastic for each side of the wall (front & back plates). You can either glue them together to form a wall or use them as mould and cast the wall using plaster cement. For the latter method, the parts will be available for future uses. Art Instructor has tried both methods, for this one he just glued the parts together.

Alright thanks!

I'll probaly use them as molds, it looks more like molds, but I notice you forgotte to add a important piece to the tank, at the back just above the jack, and the other side , there soppose to be the gas container or the exaust pipe or something else, but definatly a container.

You're welcome. As for the Tiger, my modeler did not forget anything. The parts you mentioned were used in Early type Tigers, not Mid production or late ones. No more containers on both sides. ;-)

Really! I know your tiger is a late (the spare track on the turret) but I hear that late tigers also have containes at the back, BUT it was diffrent in apperance.

No, this one is a mid production one, I made that clear in my original post. However, it's very similar to a late version one - this is also from Tamiya :

 

and same as the mid production, it didn't have containers at the back :

Ok, sorry, guess not all tigers are the same, mine is a late too but has the early containers at the back.

Nice camo too!

Is the tank commander a Tamiya figure? If it is, it  looks like it has the notorious Tamiya neck and hat flash! That is a pain to remove.

Mike T.

I'm just curoius, MM, what do you and "Art" do--run a custom build service, for sale to clients? Do you participate in the builds at all, or build your own? And why does Art "work for you" with regard to these models? I'M SO CONFUSED!!

I'm just having a little difficulty understanding how the term "hobby" fits with all this as I'm understanding it now; it seems kinda like you have a factory assembly line set up for mass production of kits for sale?

OK, doog, I'll tell you all about 'us' - Art Instructor and I. I'm a big military models collector and "Art Instructor" is my main modeler who's been building models for me for some seven years. He's built hundreds of armors and dioramas for me as evidenced in this menu : http://www.geocities.com/~falconbbs/modelcnt.htm In the past he built everything including warplanes and warships but for the last three years I let another modeler named "Niphon" to take charge of warplanes and warships and he has done wonderful jobs. Later last year another modeler named "Joh" volunteered to build figures for me. At first I said I already have permanent modeler and I declined his offer, but later on I let him try building some and he's built good works. Early this year "Art Instructor" asked me to give some works to "Tuk" his elder brother and I've been giving "Tuk" some works ever since and he too has done very good jobs esp. figure painting. That's how I came up with four permanent modelers working for me. So far I have never sold any of my built kits, just keep them for my collection as can be viewed in this page : http://www.falconbbs.com/model18j.htm  and an update at the end of this page : http://www.falconbbs.com/model33d.htm 

Built kits are easy to buy but hard to sell, that's what I've seen on E-bay. There are far more sellers than buyers. I don't think I can sell any of the built kits, there's so few demand out there. Factory assembly line of kit for sale just won't work, believe me!

 

Wait...You have four modelers? Is that four modelers plus a tuk-tuk driver? Or is the tuk-tuk driver your fourth modeler?

 Actually, I understand, I'm just teasing. Nice Tiger, as usual, by the way.

 

What I really want to know, is how did you do the camo? and espesially how to make it least bright or too brith, looks like you applie a coat of something over to make it more real, waht was it?

jthurston, thanks for your kind comments! Tuk is my fourth modeler but not a Tuk-Tuk driver.
What he drives is a motorcycle taxi (2-wheeler).

T-rex, it was "Art Instructor" my main modeler who built the dio and the Tiger tanks. To make the camo
less bright, I think he sprayed several layers of paint, each time in a lighter color. When he built the Famo
in one color (German Grey), he sprayed three times, first with grey, then added a little white, and then
added more white to make the color lighter. You may read his method in this article - the only article
he's ever written : http://www.falconbbs.com/famo-eng.htm