Some of my figures

Doog,

Not trying to argue with you at all or be a jerk, but I had a question about your MG42 comment. You seem to be very knowledgeable about WWII German stuff, more so than I am, but as I understand it the MG42 had the heavy jacketed barrel unlike the MG34, which had the round (rifle-like) barrel.  I did a quick online search and found this website. http://www.sproe.com/m/machinegun-mg42.html  On this site, it says the the infantryman could carry the MG42 as a "light maching gun" when it was configured with the bipod, and it was considered a "heavy machine gun" when it was equipped and utilized with the tripod or mounted on a vehicle.  Am I wrong or mis-informed?

Tankluver,

I like this Field Gray "paint scheme"  better for your WWII German figures!  While creativity is awesome and almost a requirement in this hobby, it is difficult to take when, as Doog noted, you are dealing with "historical figures/vehicles/settings/themes." 

As I wrote to you in your Kursk dio idea thread, Shepherd Paine's book "How To Build Dioramas" is an EXCELLENT resource and it would help you out a lot on your figure preparation and painting!  From your pictures, it looks like your paint is too thick.  Try thinning it down or buy some new paint.  For figures, I recommend Model Master Acryls--they are easier to work with than the MM Enamels.  (I know a bunch of figure painters just fell out of their chairs, but that is what I use and have had the greatest success with in 1/35 )  And ALWAYS flat your figures once you are complete with the painting--keeps the paint ON the figure and OFF your fingers, not to mention it just looks better! (I use Testors Dull Cote in the spray can)

Well that's certainly better color fidelity tankluver, but why does your paint always look so glossy? Is it just the photos or are you actually using some kind of gloss paints?

By the way, that's a heavy, jacketed vehicle MG--not something you would see a soldier normally carrying. The barrel is jacketed--look for one that looks like a traditional rifle barrel; that is, round.

You still gotta dullcoat them. 

Ok here is another one of the panzergrendaiers. I modified his arms by using others arms from the Tamoya German Assault troops. Then I used an AFV Mg.

Tankluver wrote:

Im just tryin to be creative but I see what your saying. THank you for the critiscm.

What I mean is there's no one saying that you can't paint a lime green or purple tank, but if you're going to post photos and ask for criticism, well....you were warned! You're going to receive either pretty serious criticism or none at all, because no one's gonna take your work seriously. I wish it wasn't that way, but pretty much, it is. if you read the posts here, we're all a generally pretty well-informed group, and we all pretty much take the whole reasearch-thing aspect of the hobby as an integral part of it, just as important as the building or painting itself.

Do you do cars? You can get pretty creative with paint schemes there? Actually, even with tanks, if you do some modern ones, there are a lot of pretty colorful schemes you can do--but you gotta do your research! 

A good book to get would be 20th Century Uniforms by Chris McNab. It costs like $6 and covers all the basic info.

David

That's a better pic, tankluver, but Whermacht soldiers did not have anything even close to camoflage uniforms like that. Are you trying to be authentic or just creative?

The uniforms you should have painted were purely one color--best represented by Field Gray. There is NO camoflage on them at all.

You've also got to dullcoat your figures and models in general. That looks very shiny-too shiny.

You should spend more time doing research, tankluver. I've suggested that to you before in another post--you would really seriously improve your models if you would spend more time on researching your subjects before committing yourself to painting and building. 

I hope this is a better pic. This is one of the figures ive just completed

the paint looks a bit thick. The first pic is way to blurry, try standing far back and zooming and make sure to focus the camera.

David