Wow! That's a great compliment as far as I concerned.  :D

Thank you very much crown!

And the fatigues are sorted out. Vest and helmets next and these guys are done.  :)

MB, those faces look superb! Most realistic fleshtones and eyes!

WOW! Thank you for that comment! I am shocked.

I hope you guys are just as enthusiastic as I have become about your figure painting. Just like all of our other subjects, this just gets better and easier over time with practice. I know you guys can do this too. Karl certainly seems to have had a little fun with his figures lately and I think they are fantasticly painted.

I know a lot of you will disagree, but I feel that you guys are right here with me. Practice is the only thing that separates any of us. :)

"Most realistic fleshtones and eyes!" ...Wow, just WOW. Thank you ever so much!  :D

I often wonder if there are any others out there who see things as I do...

When you start your builds with the figures, the build has a different appeal to it and the subject becomes the accesory to the figures. I have seen so many examples of this and that's what I've set my mind to do. I haven't gotten that far yet, where I am telling my own story.

When the figures are the accesory to the subject, it lacks, in just that little way, that the attention was not to tell a story but to showcase the model.

Now, that is not always or necessarily the truth and don't get me wrong. Including the human element ALWAYS brings the model to a whole new level. For example; look at the attention we are all giving to Karl's finish AV7 build. Why is that?

His attention to detail and the outstanding work done to the model is second almost to no one I know of (besides some of you guys I can actually name). The accessories he added to the setting are little works of art in themselves to be sure. But what really grabs us is the story behind it all. The human element that carries the action of the story.

It's the figures that are telling the story. Even if he had done a half-azz job of painting them they would still be the action in the story line. The rest of it all is just the descriptive narative that sets the scene.

I think this is why I spend so much time and effort on my figures. I want to show the grief, disappointment, triumph, and exhaustion on their faces. I want you to connect with what I'm building and the story it tells. I have yet to get there, but I' will get there eventually.

However getting there sounds like a lonely position to be in all by myself, so I'll take as many of you with me as I can. LOL

Then we can all be story tellers. Epic story tellers. I'd like that very much :)

Hello Mike!

Great job on those tankers! When I painted the same tank commander you did (it was more than 15 years ago!) he looked like Elvis Presley!:

And I agree - even if it's not a diorama, it's good to have some figures around (or on) your model. Without people the machines don't really have a point, do they?

It's all about trying - my parachute instructor used to say: "after 10 000 times it's getting easy" - it's the same with figure painting, modifying and other aspects of modelling.

Good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

Well said, Pawel. Well said.

I didn't even think of the pose you have on your TC. I thought the pose peculiar until I stuck the cig in his fingers, then it bacame an idea. I could have posed him very differently and more like yours and the story would change.

The story I want to tell is about the end of the day when you're looking forward to some bunk time and a hot meal. When all you can expect of the next day is getting back in one piece and repeating the process til your time is up and you can finally go home. I suppose I've been watching too many documentaries, but that's what those faces are telling me.

Even without a base I see your story. The TC manning and preparing his M2 as the turret swings onto a target. The map of Viet Nam giving it a time and place in an unspecified location.

I had noticed those elements earlier when you had posted a link to this build in another thread and I had a moment of imaginatory delight as I played out the scene out in my mind.

That is what I want to do, and not just build another static display. I already have more than a few of those.

Mike - very interesting! Thanks a lot for your post.

Many people see those figures as plastic toys. I say - in the moment we're starting to tell stories like you just did, those figures get to be much more than just toys. What's cool - we're started with two pretty much identical pieces of plastic. Where we got to with those pieces of plastic are two different stories. That should prove something to the people saying there's no creativity in modelling - looks to me like they don't know what they are talking about.

Thanks again and good luck with your build

Paweł

I think you and I see this in pretty much the same way. The figures are the action in our stories. :)

I am looking forward to seeing more progress on your M-60 conversion. Is there any more news there?  :)

Mike, I plan to post an update any day now, but I'd have to shoot some more photos. I'm wraping up the tracks and I'm working on the dozer blade. Those tracks... 30 more links to go, six pieces each! 130 already done - unbelievable, isn't it?

Take care

Paweł

Which one's are you using again?? I've got the AFVC set and I've been dreading that lol.

Your tracks sound like a nightmare. Are they really that bad?

Hello!

I've got the Bronco track kit. Well, it looked very nice in the box! They are not terrible, but lots of work. In theory, you can make them fully workable, in praxis trying that looks like a ticket to the asylum for me. So I'm building them fixed, that gives me some room for error. The only benefit of those Bronco tracks over the AFV tracks is the look of the guide horn/center connector in places where the track curves around the wheels - it really pivots whereas in the AFV Club track those guide horns are connected to one link only, and that might show - you have to look close, though. The workload is about three times less IMO, though - so I'm not sure it's worth it. Maybe, just maybe it would pay off to build the straight sections out of the AFV Club kit and the curved sections out of the Bronco set - probably not.

I have built the AFV Club set for my M48A3 - the one on the photo above - and it's nice, can be built easily with no glue required, their minus is an ugly ejector pin mark on every shoe - you better fill them all now, so that they dry a week or two, and then you can sand them flush and you're good to assemble the track.

Want to see something masochistic to do with M48/M60 track? Try this one in 1/72:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/135370.aspx

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

I can't believe you put that much detail into 1/72. Much respect Pawel. That was epic. lol  :)

I did that M-48A2 in 1/48 and I thought that was a pretty cool project, but you went even further in an even smaller scale. Sah-weet job you did on that.

Thanks a lot Mike!

From what I heard ESCI scaled down the Tamiya M48A3 to do their kit, so I thought I'd follow :-)) Of course with some fixes - couldn't help myself.

Have a nice day!

Paweł

I used to love ESCI 1/72 armor kits, but I haven't done one in decades. When I have the rare opportunity I pick up a Revell kit when I can. I'll choose indy link track kits over rubber band tracks any day.

I don't like the rubber band tracks neither, I replace them whenever I can. Although they are getting nicer and nicer these days - but I like the control the plastic tracks give me. As for the Revell 1/72 M60 - it has a very nice suspension, but the tracks have a problem (guide horns/central connector), which is a pity. It can be fixed, though! :-)

Good luck with your builds

Paweł

They look great Mike, I'm looking forward to seeing them mounted on the tank. 

Pawel: Wow, that's 1/72th!?! Fantastic job on the M48 and the figures! 

And interesting opinions there- I too feel that a tank etc without any figures is just a big hunk o' steel without figures to give it 'life'. I know it kills me in contests to stick a figure on there where a judge can shove a flashlight past it and see that there's no interior but I still think it looks better than a tank with all the hatches locked shut. 

Not much point to showing the interrior of a tank usually, even if there is a figure in the hatch. I know what the judges are looking for, but a lack of interior details is hardly a killer from my point of view. If you're not meant to see it, then its not meant to be seen.

I suppose I would make a poor judge lol. I'm more about presentation and the effort applied then about how accurate the bolt head pattern are.

Yeah, I've judged a few times and hate the nitpicking between the top contestants. I guess you have to decide someway though. 

Just to me if you can't see anything in the inside without a flashlight I'm not detailing it. Esp if there's only about one mm around the figures waist to see around. 

Gamera

Yeah, I've judged a few times and hate the nitpicking between the top contestants. I guess you have to decide someway though. 

Just to me if you can't see anything in the inside without a flashlight I'm not detailing it. Esp if there's only about one mm around the figures waist to see around. 

 

Bingo. I've never been a judge, but that's exactly how I see it.

A little while back I found an old stash of horded model parts in a very old chocolate sampler box. In a baggie, at the very bottom, was a saved treasure I had thought lost to time. A very tiny dark green plastic smoking pipe that came with the Italleri figure for the Pz. Mk1.

This morning I painted it.  :)

Mind you, this figure was painted early last year after I came across the video that I have since been using as the basis of how I paint my figures. This was a practice figure then so he looks pretty bad in comparison with what I can do now (at least in my eyes).

I modeled the pipe after examples I have seen that were popular for that time period. I like the way the pipe looks, but Macro was not friendly to the figure, or his complexion lol.

I know, I know. It doesn't look much like I did anything at all. But all that is left to do is the helmets and the TCs boots.

The TC's vest and the lining of the helmets has been completed.

Almost done.

Hey Mike, looking forward to the finishing touches. 

And nice work on the Panzer guy with the pipe. You don't give yourself enough credit. The eyes are straight and everything, which is something that takes me multiple tries to get right everytime. 

That did take me a lot of trys to get those eyes straight lol. But he's far too pink, and that's not a trick of the lighting. He really does look that pink. Plus there are dark circles under his eyes, which would be a cool effect if he weren't so pink lol. He does have a sad kind of face, but that was not intentional at the time. That was just how he turned out.

His complexion is wrong and I know how to fix it.

The M-48 tankers will be getting the rest of the wiring for their helmets after I get the helmets painted and my TC will have the wire running over his hand as if he's used his hand to pull it away from his leg. The idea came to me last night and I think it should work to explain the position of his right hand.

Thoughts?

Well, he's pink since he's on the Eastern Front and freezing his tail off, and he has dark circles since he's been on alert and hasn't gotten any sleep... 

The wire in the hand makes sense to me! 

I've always thought of him standing in Paris lol.

Base paint on helmets.

Still a tad wet.

Okay I'm calling these guys finished. Not much was left to do and it went rather quickly once I got into it.







Personally I think they turned out pretty well considering their initial lack of pronounced details. I hope this proves to you guys that with some effort even older, less detailed figures can be dressed up nicely and give you good results.
Like everything else it is only a matter of putting in the effort.

I didn't get the wires to go where I wanted them too in the end. It didn't look natural enough and I had a hard time getting it to look like it was. I finally settled for the wire just running under his leg into the cupola. I have the rest of the coiled end of the wire set aside for later when I get the TC permanently attached later in the build.

Thoughts and opinions are welcomed.

They look great to me, very nice work Mike! 

Thank you Gamera! I'm happy with those results. Now back to work on the M-48 while I wait for more reference pics to be delivered so I can finish the further construction of the turret basket on the M-60.

Hey mike nice work!

Now I have a suggestion. Try taking that driver and put a dot of medium gray on each of his eyeballs, one side or the other of the iris, unless of course you want them crossed!

You can test the effect here on the screen by putting the cursor over one side of the eyeball.