"Flash Out!" - 120mm OIF figure ( COMPLETE!!! )

Hey yeah! That works!

How do you mess with the background colors? Yes, the lighting was caused by the incadescent can lighting in the house. However the painting of the wall, and door is no lighting effect ... THAT'S called talent! (hehe).

Let me know so that can fix the rest of them.

Thanks again.

Yeah I supose daylight can be a little harsh compared to controlled spotlights- cool idea with the maglights, I'll have to try that. As long as you're not shooting with a flash you should be fine indoors. Is your camera on automatic white balance? If it is that's fine, but you could also try switching it to either a tungsten or fluorescent filter depending on the lighting. I'd have to guess tungsten..

Your pictures look fine and I guess it's not a big issue, I stole one of your pictures and ran it through photoshop- not much of a difference and I didn't do any kind of clolor correction (because I think your original pictures look fine) but just messed around a little with the white balance, just to lighten the background a bit and it took off the redish hue (from the incadesent lights most likely) that was over everything. It makes the figure and the wall pop a little bit more, the rest of the base looks similar- however I really like whatever you did- your background isn't just a plain color- it almost has the same dusty iraq dirt build up from the ground up, I don't know how you pulled that off with the lighting, but I think it's an awesome tie in regardless of it being unintentional

Yours

Minor white balance work to filter out the redish orange tungsten hue

psstoff995 wrote:

Maybe write up a piece on ACU or even heavily modifying figures.

Mmmmm .... maybe .... I don't know if I'm writer material. I'd just be happy to see it in the Read Gallery .... I pee myself (along with camo in his adult diapers!!! HAHAHA) if I saw it on the cover. I'd have to have autograph sessions at Barnes & Nobles! HA!!!

All the photos that I've take thus far have been photoshop touched in some form or fashion. Mostly cropping as my dig. camera is pretty decent with the lighting. I do fairly well with PS, but I'm no professional.

As far as taking pics in natural light ... isn't that too harsh? All I did for my final pics, was to take a piece of butcher paper to the wall, taped some tissue paper over a couple of mag-lights to diffuse the light, and away I snapped. I don't think that the pictures came out all that great, but what else am I going to do without going to a studio or buying other equipment?

I too thought about the blue paper, but I think that the white background turning "grey" was more suitable. I don't think that I could really incorporate a background picture, but maybe I could try it.

Any further help on this would be appreciated as I'd like to take some more photos if I'm going to submit this one.

Thanks guys for the help!

psstoff995 wrote:

Maybe write up a piece on ACU or even heavily modifying figures. That'd be cool

there you go model! write up a step by step on how to paint a better figure using acylics! i aso think p.o.'s right about using a picture backdrop....i'm sure you have a few laying around that would really make it look great!

Hey- go for it. Take a few digital shots with natural sunlight, use a white background (I'd usually say "or blue", but as the door is blue, I wouldn't want it to compete).

How versed are you with photoshop? I can show you a few tricks as far as color corection and airbrushing out background noise goes if you want.

This would have to make it in, I've seen stuff make the readers gallery that wasn't half as nice as this, and your step by step photos were of better quality, I honestly think this project could have made the cover! Maybe write up a piece on ACU or even heavily modifying figures. That'd be cool

So, I've been toying with the idea and just wanted to see what you guys thought ... I've been thinking about sending this one in to the Reader Gallery, but I wasn't really sure if my "photo skills" were up to par.

Has anyone else submitted anything before? Are my pictures good as is, or should I take some others? And if so .... what should I do for it?

Thanks in advance.....

Hans von Hammer wrote:

My first one as well.. B-3/3-2AD... Dunno how the Army ever sent me there... I was only about an hour and a half from my home town of Bastrop... I'd go home on weekends and many folks saw me every weekend, and didn't even know that I was in the Army, lol... As for Austin & 6th street, well.. Maggie May's was one of my hang-outs, but Joe's Generic Bar was my fav...  Actually jammed with Stevie Ray (this was back when nobody outside Texas knew who he was) there one night on an open jam, and Keith Furgesson as well (Bass player for The Fabulous Thunderbirds)..

C-1/26FA 2AD. pretty kewl hans! that's a story about stevie & keith!! i dont remember the name of the bar in austin...LOL...was pretty messed up...all i can say is thank god pt & formation wasnt until monday and this happened on friday...it took until monday to recover!!!

Hans von Hammer wrote:

That one's in 1/32 scale though, and about 35 years old...  He did it for Monogram's M-4 Sherman kit back when they included the diorama tips sheets in the kits featuring Shep's work.. That's what got me hooked on building dios, my first one back in '74 or so...  'Sides, pretty much every hedgerow was assaulted that way, so you'd be completely justified...   You could always show the tank on the other side of the breach, with the GIs engaging some some totally surprised Krauts... Maggie May's ... Joe's Generic Bar ... Stevie Ray ... Keith Furgesson ...

That's true I guess. However, as a personal rule, I try to stay away from things that might get a response of, "oh, yeah, I've seen something like that before". Hence why I can never build anything OOTB and camo and psst started calling me Dahmer!?!

I had previously thought about something similar to your idea, but it was basically going to be a still scene from the episode of Band of Brothers, when then, LT Winters came upon the SS unit by himself as the others caught up. However, that makes for a pretty large piece with a lot of figures. So, I thought about scaling it back to just Winters and that kid he first plugged. I just wonder if it that small scene would convey  ... if people would get it. To me, that were the "art" of the title comes in.

Before now, I'd been considering a "hedgerow" dio .... however, to my dismay, I saw a picture of exactly what I wanted to do in a Shep book.

That one's in 1/32 scale though, and about 35 years old...  He did it for Monogram's M-4 Sherman kit back when they included the diorama tips sheets in the kits featuring Shep's work..

That's what got me hooked on building dios, my first one back in '74 or so...  'Sides, pretty much every hedgerow was assaulted that way, so you'd be completely justified...   You could always show the tank on the other side of the breach, with the GIs engaging some some totally surprised Krauts...

i too spent 2 years out at hood 89-90 model. know texas and killeen WAY to comfortably!! was stationed there with my brother...

My first one as well.. B-3/3-2AD... Dunno how the Army ever sent me there... I was only about an hour and a half from my home town of Bastrop... I'd go home on weekends and many folks saw me every weekend, and didn't even know that I was in the Army, lol... As for Austin & 6th street, well.. Maggie May's was one of my hang-outs, but Joe's Generic Bar was my fav...  Actually jammed with Stevie Ray (this was back when nobody outside Texas knew who he was) there one night on an open jam, and Keith Furgesson as well (Bass player for The Fabulous Thunderbirds)..

HOLY CRAP!!!! Don't start with Hood stories ... we'll be here for DAYS!!! Only the Lord knows how many "holes" are out there on North Fort ALONE!!!!

I'm still drawn to WWII stuff but mostly USAAF ... that would be my grandfather's fault.

Before now, I'd been considering a "hedgerow" dio .... however, to my dismay, I saw a picture of exactly what I wanted to do in a Shep book. And I'm nto really one to do something that someone has already done .... dang Shep!

Now the question is ... what the hell do I do with all my WWII kits!?!?!

I still prefer WW2 modeling m'self... And I can do a lot from memory there as well, from re-enactments, lol... One "on the bench" WIP I'm doing is a recreation of the day I got my 1st Tank Destruction Badge for sprinting 40 meters across open ground and heaving a Teller Mine up onto a Yank M-5... 'Course, this took place in Nebraska in '94, not the hedgerows in '44...   

I've done funny stuff too, things from FTXs and such, like "finding" an old foxhole with my 1/4 ton one dark & stormy night in Ft Hood... I got stuff from 1976 to 2006 to choose from, lol..

Thanks Taco, I'm glad that you liked it.

However, while I don't tend to speak for others, I think that most will agree with me that it's just our job. So, thank YOU for YOUR patriotism and support.

Thanks again for the compliments....

psstoff995 wrote:

... got a little bit of a metal sheen to the door, very nice.

Yeah, before I misted the door with the sand color I did a little bit of highlighting with a steel color (MM acrylics .... actually, now that I think about it the WHOLE thing is done with acrylics. Huh!?! Never done that one before!?!) I wanted to weather it a little more, but I didn't want to go overboard with the rusting. Being a desert climate and all, I couldn't really remember just HOW MUCH something like that would rust and have rust stains running off it. So I kept it to a minimum.

BTW ... I'm not going to blast your dio ..... I'm just going to tell you to add scratched shotgun shells everywhere!

hahaha

To a job very very well done! Looks great, you got a little bit of a metal sheen to the door, very nice.

The pink post-it note looks nice too

In all seriousness this is definitly a show stopper, thanks so much for the shout outs, I really appreciate it.

If you can wait a week I'll throw together some half diorama for you to spend the afternoon bouncing crazy ideas back and forth about... just don't tell me to make too many insane things from scratch! haha you show off

Definitly like the rubble on the wood base. Too cool!!!

modelchasm wrote:

and camo junkie, who's blatant words of wisdom and crazy idea bouncing kept me up to crazy hours on multiple nights just so I could keep up with him. Thanks guys for a job well done.

CRAZY??? Crazy??? man...that's got to be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me...sing me that song again while i cry myself to sleep! LOL...n/p...but ya already know my thoughts on this project...and within those posts i think i said it best!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention our sponsors, who with out them, none of this would have been possible ....

Thanks FSM for hosting a great site ...

Thank to PhotoBucket for hosting my crappy pictures ...

.... to Locktite CA glue who holds it all together ...

.... and to Powerade. Oh, how we do look forward to the release of mistic mountain blueberry...

**** UPDATE ***

And here she is .... 120mm, 2007 OIF figure "Flash Out!" ... completed.

Here's a run down from top to bottom for those that don't feel like reading the ba-zillion pages of crap btwn myself, psstoff, and camo ... WOW, we talk to much!?!

The figure is from Verlinden, kit #2008, 2003 OIF 101st Airborne, 120mm figure. Hacked and chopped up, he received a head from Airborne Miniatures Models, along with various pieces from the same, to include the plaster base. Numerous details including the shotgun shells, the door, the radio antenna, the NVG mount in the helmet, among others, were scratch-built. The figure itself was heavily modified to produce a current, modern Soldier from OIF 2007. (The only other thing to add is that the dang engraver guy has taken more than 3 days to make a little stinkin' brass name plate for it ... hence the pink post-it to show the correct size and placement.)

Enjoy!!!!

I also want to take the time to thank (A-GAIN...) all those that have pitched in for this one ... especially psstoff95, who's never-ending, but never backed up by his own builds, advice and quick eye always pulled me out from a crunch ... and camo junkie, who's blatant words of wisdom and crazy idea bouncing kept me up to crazy hours on multiple nights just so I could keep up with him. Thanks guys for a job well done.

This one was a blast! But now ... there's no time to grieve. She's off to the shelf were she'll get some "show-me" time before it's off to the show in April.

Now it's time for some "midnight" raiding .... Awww, gig-ity, gig-ity!!!

Hans von Hammer wrote:

You won't either, Brother Vet... I do the same thing... It's quite theraputic for me... I never did much "modern" stuff until after '91 and getting back from DS... Now, all my modern stuff is from my career and m' own head...

Thanks Hans ... It's good to know that modeling from memory helps someone else as well. I've got a few other modern kits lined up but I really haven't put much thought into them yet.

Now the question is ... what the hell do I do with all my WWII kits!?!?! eBay might be getting a nice little push of kits here pretty soon .... HAHA!!

Psst .... Actaully, I don't remember who found the door. I didn't take the picture until everything was over ... about 15 minutes later. All I really remember it letting the switch flip on the detonator and watching the spark run the det-cord. (Like I said before .... 0.5s of fun!) Then, before I took the picture, I just remember hearing some the guys laughing and a bunch of HOLY SH!Ts ... walked around the corner and there she was ... on the other side of the house.

Since returning from my last deployment to Iraq, I haven't been able to shake the need to model things from my memory.

You won't either, Brother Vet...

I do the same thing... It's quite theraputic for me... I never did much "modern" stuff until after '91 and getting back from DS... Now, all my modern stuff is from my career and m' own head...

psstoff995 wrote:

That's crazy!! Thanks for the picture! Did you manage to find this one first too??

Actually, this one is from my personal stash.

modelchasm wrote:

HAHAHA .... ... Cocka-doodle .... ....BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!