Stug III and destroyed building

Looks Great, thats one beat up Stug, in a good way...

David

Good lookin' Stug and building! I really am a fan of the heavy weathering. I like what you've done to detail the structure. And your photos are huge- I appreciate that. I'd like a lot more pics of this one...

One thing that I noticed concerns the rubble and debris in the street (are those leaves, or wood shavings? Having a hard time determining...): you have pretty clean road, then piles of rubble. I'd like to see the clean sections a little dirtier, and the rubble to have some variation in it's content, i.e. bricks, wires, big chunks of plaster, roof et al the ruins of urban warfare.

Just a suggestion. I think it would bring it up from "great tank / good presentation" to "excellent diorama".

Nice work,

Steve 

thanks Steve,

i agree more in the street would really bring out the battle, i have many pictures of this one, i even moved the Stug aroung for some so you can see more details, you can email me for more pics if you want, i have a small gallery started on my site with a few pics of this one as well.

view my profile if you are interested.

once again, thanks,

Gary

Hi Gary, nice to meet a new member--"Welcome" to the forums!

Now to your dio...first, a nice job beating up the StuG; the weathering on the top hull is nicely portrayed, and you did a nice job mudding-up the suspension. However, that much mud/dirt is out-of-place in this city setting. That much mud/dirt would undoubtedly rattle off while clanking down a cobblestone street, dontcha think? This StuG would be much more convincingly displayed in a country settting, on a dirt road or in a field, where the tracks would be complimented by the groundwork.

If you really want to get nitty-gritty, why would there be mud on the spare wheels? That seems excessive, IMHO.

THe building is beautifully painted and portrayed--love the lamp!--but the whole scene looks unfinished because its too clean. I agree with the adding of more street debris, and it definitely could use a figure to add human interest and scale reference. A soldier or two would really add  dimension to the scene.

The back corner of the building's inside could use either more debris, or furniture tossed around. It's a bit barren as well. Take a look at the destruction and composition of this little 1/72 dio; there'a a lot of debris that gives the scene a feeling of "war"...

Can you spot the three figures in the scene? Note the diverse selection of debris--bricks, blocks, wooden beams, and lots of dust and small pebble-sized debris can act as "visual mortar" to tie all the debris together

Anyway, I hope you don't feel as if I've "torn your dio apart"! I'm definitely NOT a "rivet counter"! It's all in the spirit of encouragement/improvement! 

I would first rethink the amount of mud on the suspension and wheels, or maybe place it in a rural setting... Hope this helped!

I agree with Doog, how did the muck get on the spare wheels? To my taste, for what that's worth, the weathering is excessive. You're depecting an urban scene with cobble stone streets yet the tracks are fully mud encrusted. Most of that would have been shaken off by the movement or worn off the outer edges. Weathering is fine, but must be consistent withthe rest of the scene.

first off thanks for the welcome, and i truly appreciate the critique. please never feel that i am going to be offended at helping opinions, if i were that sensitive i would never submit a photo and would never ask for criticism. i value the help, and i can agree with you guys, especially the spare wheels, in a bit of defense i actually built these to be seperate and used the building as a last minute backdrop for the Stug, maybe not as good of an idea now that i look back. the building was really meant to be a stand alone piece as a photo for a web page, and now looking at it, i guess it would be even more barren by itself, i will look into more rubble and debris, and rework my spare road wheels, i think a creekside for the Stug, any ideas???

 once again, thanks for the help i am happy to get opinions from modelers instead of close friends and family...

Gary

Hey brother, I love that StuG!

Check this out - I don't know, but I'm thinking that your brick walls are a layer too thin. I could be entirely wrong on that one, so don't hesitate to tell me if I am. But I would think that a house built out of bricks would be at least two layers of bricks deep, wouldn't you?

 

Let me say thanks a bunch for the compliment,

as for the wall, in some cases yes you would be completly right, but i have found some pictures of single layer walls. so really i guess either way would work, i am in the process of working on some walls formy site that are double and even triple layers, some for houses and some for larger buildings, i think the thinner walls like i had built were more poor housing.

i'm very happy to see someone liked the stug even with the amount of weathering, i wanted it to look like the house was on the edge of town just inside of the country area in late winter early spring when the rains were heavy at times so dry and fresh mud would be everywhere.

thanks again,

Gary Smith

owner/operator

Smith Military Modeling

I like the building and the StuG Gary. Nicely done. A figure or two would really add to it IMO. I have to agree about the weathering comments. One other thing that kinda stood out was the tracks near the idler. Looks like a couple too many. But hey, you got more guts than I for doing a dio and a nice one at that.

I'll second the too many tracks thing. Didn't notice it before.