M8 Armored Car in the Ardennes Winter WIP 7/27/08 *Complete* Figs IP

redleg12: It worked, I can view the pic's!  I was at a wi-fi site that I normally don't work from so that may have been the problem.

Barring the comments I've read here on your thread that the weathering is a bit too light...I'm mostly looking at your intrepretation/ replication of the photo and I must say, hats off my friend, masterfully done!  Did you say this was one of your first winter camo' attempts?  If you liked it, which it appears you did, you'll find as you try some more you can achieve some real subtle effects with pre/post shading of the white airbrush work, white oils, etc... just like a traditional olive drab paint scheme would be handled.  Snow, even powder, although it's stark white...like other techniques can be varied to enhance the presentation too.  I'm VERY impressed with this build, and enjoyed our exchange of ideas.  Oh yeah, little FYI...that machine gun could use some graphite highlights.

As far as the figure...not bad...but IMO I think it would draw attention away from the success of the rest of your presentation.  Better to improve on the fig's first then add them to future dio's...

I'll be trying some new "snow" techniques on my Flakvierling, I will probably use your foam technique for the base...thanks for that idea! I hope you'll check in and give me your input.  

By the way, Hobbyboss has a Highspeed Tractor that I'd like to get and do the winter camo' scheme thing...any interest in picking one up yourself and we work on them concurrently?

AgentG - If the comments are on a problem with the build, I am all for making changes, but on the art side, like Frank S said, "I did it my way"

Thanks

SMJ - Thanks for the comments on the M8. There are a couple of spots I will touch with graphite before it comes out in Danbury.

As far as the figs...yep, I came to that conclusion myself. This is my next area to work on. Thank God Manny is around to give pointers. These were not great and would detract from the model but for my first time out of the box with figs, I though it was a good start.

The good news is I have both versions of the Hobbyboss M4 HST on the shelf. Also have a bunch of good research material. PM me if you need some.

The bad news is I have begun my next build, M119 105mm Howitzer in Afganistan. Also doing reserch for the build after that which I was planning M113A1 NASA Escape Vehicle. But that is not cast in stone yet.

If I was to switch to the HST, best guess is I would not be ready until ~late Sept/early Oct, after the M119. Would most likely do in conjunction with the M115 8 inch howitzer.

Catch me on the PM and Thanks for you comments and help.

Rounds Complete!! 

I like the way this came out too Mike and I'll certainly be using this thread as a guide for when ever I get back to my already in progress winter project. (Insert boot in the back end here) Altho the M8 is not one of my favorite armored cars, what you did to this does look quite nice!

I do understand the difficulties of doing figures (certainly not my strong suit). They can either add or subtract from the overall appearance of the subject matter. Your snow might be a little too 'deep' but sometimes just pressing boot prints from an old figure into the groundwork ('out' #1) instead of risking the possibility of making good figures look bad or bad figures look even worse (as in my case). My other 'out' is to just concentrate on doing one crew figure dismounted or standing on the (for example) engine deck with binocs... something simple like that to ease the pain (of doing multiple figures) and to help further achieve the "scale effect". Either case, if the crew is not 'around', I scatter some boot prints around the main subject.

However, I do realize that you do like to stick to your reference photo as close as you can and by all means, please do carry on!

Ron - Glad to have you back and thanks for catching up and giving you comment. I appreciate your time and effort.

Kevin - Thanks for looking and your comments. As far as the figures, I'm giving it the old school try. If after a few attempts, I can't improve to the point where it complements the model...well then I will move past figures. I will try some figures for my latest build and see how I do,

I do like the idea of footprints and wish I would have thought of it when I was doing the base...oh well.

Your builds and some other people on this forum are a good examples of the model can carry itself without figures. Thought I would try the whole spectrum but if figures don't work well, I have plenty of models to keep me busy.

Thanks Again

Rounds Complete!!