Schwerepunkt wrote:
I have worked on my painting and while it is not where I want it to be as yet, I think I am doing better.
Bob:
It looks to me like you are really having fun with your micro-armor -- both the modelling and the photo-shopping. And we're having fun watching.
I think your photo-shop work is very entertaining.
That's the trick around here. You enjoy doing the work and posting it up for us to see. We enjoy seeing it, and we share some of our own work. And so we inspire one another to do even more, and do even better.
Looking at your photoshopping, I've tried for some similar effects using props rather than programs. I used tan shaded "pom-poms" from the craft store, and pulled them apart to get a very thin dust-like effect. (Could be called "software", but for a different reason.)
I provided this picture as a prelude to 1941 Eastern Front game I put on at my home. I figured that the German aerial supremacy of the period should give the German players an advantage in information -- so they got to see a couple of air recon photos of the Soviet forces approaching the battlefield pre-game, while the Soviet players had no idea what the German forces were that they would be facing.
Here is a photo of one of my recovery units -- a Soviet ARV in company with a truck and armored car, just staged for show. I hadn't thought of putting riders on the ARV. I think it's a good idea. But in the case of the Soviets, I think I'd be better with a scratch conversion with some crates, cables, barrels, and a rider or two on a turretless hull, to get the ad hoc nature of a WW2 recovery team. Just noodling it at the keyboard here ...
On my Bergepanthers, I placed six sitting German soldiers as crew. No tank retrieval vehicle is going to operated with just a driver and a gunner. So, while they look like they are just sitting in place for a review, I think they look pretty good.
Adding visible crew always enhances a model in my view. If you look closely at the ARV unit pic I posted above, you can see the head and shoulders of a crewman in the open turret of the BA-64 A/C. Man, I had to snip that fellow down a LOT, and it was still a fiddly bit of work to fit him in. But the model looks better for it.
You might also want to try some artillery crew figures. They come in lots of interesting positions, many of which have outstretched arms which can be easily bent into new poses.
These pics are from my US Tunisia force. T19 SPHs (105mm arty) and M3 GMCs (75mm Tank Destroyers).
I think having some variation in the figures and the external kit from one model to the next ads a lot of character to a unit.
Keep up the good work. Keep posting your results. We'll keep watching!
