Many thanks for all kind comments, compliments, and suggestions! Your responses are overwhelming and I enjoy reading them. So much have been said about the plausibility of this dio, tank and uniforms, so I don't have to say anything about it. But I'd like to thank Mr. SSY - a fellow modeler and Big Brother of the Modelers Society Of Thailand - who origated the idea of a beat-up Tiger and requested that Art Instructor do the job. There's no doubt that his comments on the dio is most important to me. I got it a few days ago and I thought I have to translate them for you all. I spent an hour or so doing the translation job, here's his comments on a local board:
"Thanks to MM and Art Instructor who created virtual work for us modelers to admire. The Red 122 has told about the things that it and its masters had faced together severely and near calamity, with maddening valor and professionalism of its masters that helped maintain its existence - until it emerged out to tell the story of how it almost died and left bodies and lives in the battlefield. The shell marks around it are Medals of Valor which the enemy whole-heartedly and intentionally attached with rage and resentment, and evidences of incomparable engineering work, a dignity that its masters will shout the world over that we are brave men.
With my respect to those reading this, try assuming yourself as the commander of the Red 122 on the land of France in June 1944. On your front both left and right are full of Cromwell, Comet, Churchill and Sherman, and complemented with 6 Pounder Anti Tank Guns.... All the enemy tanks are dusting the terrain coming up to you and shooting at you madly, you fight and fire back tirelessly .. fire.. fire and be fired.. you shout your command amid the sound of explosions around you.. the driver drives full forward.. the gunner fires.. the driver makes a sharp left turn.. the gunner fires.. the loader changes round from HEAT to APC.. the gunner is ready,, fire!.. the driver make a rightest turn.. the gunner fires.. the radio operator orders both wings to pan out and keep firing.. don't stop.. the gunner turns the turret in front.. fires.. machine gunner fires wide array of bullets to infantrymen carrying Bazooka and zigzagzing forward.. fast.. the driver makes a full traverse.. the gunner fires... sorry.. INTERMISSION.....SSY
The clothes and bodies of you and your crew are wet with sweat, faces are blackened, full with gun smoke. Inside the tank it is full with smoke and smell of gun powder, the sound of guns and explosions rattles and the tank shatters allover. You cannot tell which was the sound of your gun and which was the sound of shell hitting your hull.. then suddenly there is a deep silence and everyone doesn't hear a thing until the the voice of the driver alerts them up again.. at the front and the left front the enemy stops movement.. the driver stops.. changes gear to low.. you look around through all the periscopes.. reach your hand to unlock and push the cupola cover out and spring yourself up to sit on the rim.. hand still clenching the MG-34 handle. You breath fresh air filling your lung, body shake incontrollably because of what you see in front ... (to be con'd)
There are dead bodies of soldiers all around, the parts of human carcass abound, blood soak and dot the ground, the remains of tank catching fire, the disgusting smell of humun flesh burning fresh, the steel scraps from exploded tanks are all around, small metal pieces flying. You look down to survey your Red 122 resolutely, you are proud in the sturdiness of the Red 122. Even though it is badly damaged, it still responds well to commands. For a moment you feel sleepy and you just can't imagine that 64 years later there would be two Thais who have never been to the battleground and have never seen the Red 122 in person, will remember your heroic actions and carefully create a virtual diorama to show to modelers the world over so that they know about your "fighting expertise". SSY
To MM, the craters seem to be a bit shallow when compared to their diameters. I know well that they couldn't be made any deeper because of limitation of plastic parts' thickness. The next one let it be the Sherman, this time you won't have to worry about the plastic thickness because whatever gun it is, it always passes through. Tell Art Instructor for more. Even German panzergrenadiers still admired that Sherman is a good tank suitable for firing and thrashing!?!...
Ever since I viewed armor models at my old house up to the present house, there has never been once that I could imagine so much and so meaningfully like this time. My sincere admiration and congratulation to Art Instructor's work... SSY"