"Death in the Courtyard" *finished, more pics, page 15*

Hans von Hammer wrote:

The barrel reminded me of this one: "Go tell th' boys to line up, Joe. We got fruit juice fer breakfast..."

The barrel reminded me of this one:

"Go tell th' boys to line up, Joe. We got fruit juice fer breakfast..."

 I like what I'm seeing. Is that the clear sprue as the water stream? That water spouting thing is something I have seen 100 times and never paid attention to. As far as repilicating the effect that is probably as good an idea as any. You have 2 streams one farther than the other due to pressure. It seems to be coming out as fast as a turned on garden hose with regards to the shape of the arch. Just thinking the closed barrel lid would make more of a chugging effect. Is it a rain barrel? Lotsa thought you could put into such a scene.

The figures are looking absolutely fantastic! The Germans equipment , rifle and the whole works is really convincing and the poses of the G.I.s very tense. Tells a great story.  I'm checking out that wagon as well.

I love your attention to the little details. This one is looking to be a winner, and not to mention an inspiration in composition.

See if you can use heat to warp the stream of water a bit, especially near the end, where it would hit the ground.

Most of the work that I have done with this dio over the past week or so has been painting up the three GI's:

They are almost done and I think they are turning out very nicely...I have also been experimenting with the bullet-riddled water barrel...stretched some clear sprue, drilled a couple of holes in the barrel and came up with this rough result:

I figure that the lower down the hole is on the barrel, the higher the water pressure will be and the further the stream will shoot out...plan on making some small splashes on the ground and a little puddling once the groundwork is down...feedback appreciated...

Glad you dug the figures, Manny! The guy who does them is named Anders

Anders is a funny guy--he's a cowboy who sculpts figures, and completely waaaaaay to the opposite side of me, politically. We've had some uh,..interesting conversations! LOL! Good fellow though! And I agree; he does some great figs huh?

He's sent me a few to "pay" for the Hetzer, but not the dead guys--he was working on them a after I sent him the Hetz.

the doog wrote:

Hey Manny! I'm back after re-formatting my computer--ugh! Lots of work!  Anyhoo...check out www.HeloMiniatures.com. Anders has sculpted some decent looking dead Germans. You can also find some nice other figures there; check out the "Hetzer Crew" and click on the image--"model by Mr Karl Logan". That's the "silly putty tutorial" Hetzer that I built on commission for them.

And:

 I must say that these are pretty convincing...and I did see your Hetzer on the box-art for the hetzer crew, AWESOME!

Looks like they are following Alpine by offering many of their figgies in sets of two or individually. Thanks for the link.

the doog wrote:

Hey Manny! I'm back after re-formatting my computer--ugh! Lots of work!  Anyhoo...check out www.HeloMiniatures.com. Anders has sculpted some decent looking dead Germans. You can also find some nice other figures there; check out the "Hetzer Crew" and click on the image--"model by Mr Karl Logan". That's the "silly putty tutorial" Hetzer that I built on commission for them.

Hey Manny!

I'm back after re-formatting my computer--ugh! Lots of work! 

Anyhoo...check out www.HeloMiniatures.com. Anders has sculpted some decent looking dead Germans.

You can also find some nice other figures there; check out the "Hetzer Crew" and click on the image--"model by Mr Karl Logan". That's the "silly putty tutorial" Hetzer that I built on commission for them.

T-rex wrote:

Love the dead figure, and glad to see that you've added the blood in his mouth showing that its a serious wound. I find it hard to make dead figure, on my latest dio Trying to make a soviet horseman dead is alittle hard, the  horse looks dead but the figure still has a "action" appearance.

Love the dead figure, and glad to see that you've added the blood in his mouth showing that its a serious wound.

I find it hard to make dead figure, on my latest dio Trying to make a soviet horseman dead is alittle hard, the  horse looks dead but the figure still has a "action" appearance.

SteveM wrote:

Yeah, I meant the boots on the figure you've painted. They look great. Steve

  Your welcome Manny.  Imo a hundred pics of wrecked vehicals and bombed out buildings cannot show the true horror of war more than one picture of dead soldier.

panzerguy wrote:

Manny great looking fig. Since Hans already filled you in on the bleeding after the fact there's no need to go into that. I get the impression that this poor soul was the one setting the booby trap and was stopped before he could finish the job.    And as far as the pic of the real german there is a quote that goes something like this;         "Men have surly died in vain when living refuse to look at them"

   Manny great looking fig. Since Hans already filled you in on the bleeding after the fact there's no need to go into that. I get the impression that this poor soul was the one setting the booby trap and was stopped before he could finish the job.

   And as far as the pic of the real german there is a quote that goes something like this;

        "Men have surly died in vain when the living refuse to look at them"  

Thanks, Steve---I hesitated posting the pic but wanted everyone to see what inspired me to do the figure justice...do you mean the figgie's boots or the real boots in the pic? I know what you mean about giving you the chills---the pic is so clear that the detail is somewhat disturbing...

I hope the finished dio evokes that kind of emotion and reminds everyone that people die very horrible deaths...

The casualty is a Warrior resin fig; the three GI's are Tamiya 35th scale soldiers from their ancient US Assault Infantry set, dressed up with some DML equipment...

Thanks for looking guys---next post will probably be some pics of the now infamous bullet holes in the water barrel (clear sprue is gonna be my first try)...

MR:

I must tell you, the strangest thing just happened to me. A dead guy showed up in the armor forum and ordered me here to watch a diorama! That must be an innovation within marketing - "zombie advertising".

Seriously, the dio looks GREAT! I'm really looking forward to the final result.

 I think it's a challenge to create a dio that is built around a hay cart and not an armored vehicle or two. Most modelers, including myself, seems to build dioramas around a tank by habit.

I especially like the interaction between the three GI:s. There is some serious tension among the gruop. The fact that the GI:s are bending down more, the closer they are to the enemy is very convincing. I surely would too. 

Are the GI:s from Tamiya, the Sherman kit?

/Tony aka bultenibo

Great figure, Manny. What strikes me is how good his boots look. I dunno why, but that's where my end tends to land. Something very spooky about that photo. The kind of image you remember for a long time.

Steve

Mobious wrote:

Hello MR,  Very nice work. Not too excessive with the battle damage. Will the figure be posed with similar equipment as the pic(spare MG barrel) or have you got something else in mind?  Best Regards,

namrednef wrote:

The scenario is the immediate aftermath of a brief firefight with Americans kind of chasing the Germans, correct? Bloody WELL DONE figure!!!

 Hello MR,

 Very nice work. Not too excessive with the battle damage. Will the figure be posed with similar equipment as the pic(spare MG barrel) or have you got something else in mind?

 Best Regards,

Eerily similar to your fig MR. Brrrrrr!

This poor soul looks like he stepped on something bad.....trousers at the knees seem bloodstained.

Probably gunfire though....got raked pretty badly....probably pulmonary blood coming from the nose.......ah!

Nice fig MR!

Mansteins revenge wrote:

[...here is the pic I used as a ref, not much blood to be seen:

Looks like homeboy got shot right in the nose...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Speaking clinically: Overall, the blood is at what I'd call a realistic minimum... Dead guys don't bleed (much), so this guy went rather fast, but lasted long enough to realize what happened and made an attempt to staunch the flow... The red is about right for arterial blood as well, so it looks to me as if a heart wound is depicted... If not, it's still a serious enough wound to preclude him remaining concsious very long, and even if it isn't immediately fatal, most of the blood would run down his chest inside his jacket and wouldn't show for some time on the ground because of the undershirt, shirt, and jacket material (wool soaks up a LOT of blood), unless it's an aortal wound and the heart is pumping him dry...   I'd make a darker area of the jacket color surrounding the wound though, (or maybe it's there, but I can't see it) and give that area a tiny bit of semi-gloss finish to make it look "wet"...  Overall, a 10 from me on believability, Manny...

namrednef wrote:

The scenario is the immediate aftermath of a brief firefight with Americans kind of chasing the Germans, correct? Bloody WELL DONE figure!!!

Ahh, and a well done bloody figure..*groan*

I would add some semi gloss, and as Hans wrote, a darkened area on the coat would be a good addition.

It's looking good, Manny. Have you started on any ground work yet?