My King Tiger dio finaly finished! Represents crew of Tiger II of 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion planning defense of the first major German city to fall to the Allies: Aachen…the DML pre-zimmed KT with VLS/Alpine figs, VLS ruin, Dutton street, sidewalk and rubble, Tamiya lamp post…dio dusted with MiG pigments…all comments welcomed:
What a beautiful piece Manny, from the building and cobble street to the colours of the uniforms and KT everything is just so easy on the eyes and the attention to the small details, what can i say except i realy like this one a lot, probably my favourite one of yours yet and that is a tough call because your last one with tha mark IV was awesome too, excellent, excellent work [tup][tup]
Manny,
Excellent work as usual. The eye of the figure on the left looks very dark as in he got punched on his eye or something (or maybe he was flirting with the girl friend of his fellow tanker and ended up with bruised eye?)
Very nice and I would love to mimic something similar in braille scale one day. The centrpiece would be the new pre-zimmed Kingtiger.
Cheers
Mike
Beautiful work Manny. I really like the way you’ve set the scene and blended everything together with the piqments. Those Dutton street sections are getting pretty rare I only have a few left in my stash. Hows your supply?
Manny:
What a fantastic job. I agree the colors and attention to detail really shows. I have followed your work in the aircraft section and here and you have a wide range of talent. PS I think the black eye came from the honey in the tub [(-D]
Ed
Manny, another outstanding build here! It’s almost hard to pick the best aspect of it, everything is really exceptionally well-rendered.
The KT is almost easy to overlook because of the outstanding uniform painting on the figures. I really like the camo jobs on the two figs out front–your manange to pull that pattern off very well; I’ve always found that one a b*tch to get right. I like the detail you put into the boots too! WOW! I’d agree about the eyes on those guys though–a little too dark in the sockets, but the other guy on the side of the tank looks perfect.
The KT itself is outstanding as well. Are those the PE tool holders that came with the kit? The paint is really nice too–how’d you mask it? Or is it brush painted camo?
The whole scene is nicely composed and welll-balanced. The base is really well-rendered. The only thing I would add as a slight critique would be that, IMHO, the street should be a litle more dust-and-rubble-covered; I’d like to see a little more fine rubble and sand-sized dust around those figs’ feet. But that being said, I realize that this is a “style thing”, and I understand your preference for the “cleaner” look. I love the way you shaded the interior wall of the building with black–that’s a master’s touch! [:P]
A real stunner, Manny! [:D][tup][tup][tup][tup]
Manny,
Really nice work, as always. I echo the other comments on how nice of a dio this is. The only thing I see lacking is on the inside of the charred house. Granted it is not the focal point of the dio, but it seems a little sterile to me. Even if the whole building was consumed by the fire, I’d still expect to see some remains of household good in the rubble - a charred bedspring, partially burned chair or table, a singed comode, something…
All I can say is great work Manny.The uniform’s look great, love the rip in the pant’s leg on the tanker.Gotta get me some of those mig-pig’s. And as far as the dark eye’s go chalk it up to lack of sleep from all the allied bombing and shelling.
Thanks for looking and commenting, guys!
Ron, yeah–it is sorta a toss-up for me which I like better: the dio w/ the MkIVJ or this one…I guess I like certain elements of each better–the Mk IV certainly was a more-involved build for sure! I love 'em both! M1, I can’t comment on specifics, but the black eye does have something to do with the girl in the tub during the initial fig placement…lol…Madmike, a 1/72nd dio would be awesome using some of the same elements and take up less space on the shelf as well! Waterboy, I feel your pain, my Dutton stash is slowly dwindling as well and I don’t know of anyone who still carries it, do you? Did they fold? The last pieces I have I bought 15 years ago (from Squadron I think)! Nobody comes close to some of their stuff! Snakedoctor, thanks for the kind words! Doog, you are too kind; thanks for the compliments. Your constant harping (lol) on the brick mortar motivated me to add that simple yet dio-altering touch–thanks! The DML kit comes with everything you see on the model, including all of the PE. I must say that that kit may be the finest German injection molded kit in 35th on the market today…the camo on the KT was done with the putty-masking technique. The camo on the two tankers is actually of two different patterns. The NCO (gesturing) has the common “splinter” camo and the officer is wearing pants with the “marsh” pattern showing…the major difference is that the “marsh” pattern has lighter colors and isn’t hard-edged like the “splinter” is. I understand that the amount of rubble is more of a personal choice and many won’t think it is enough…I actually got outside my “comfort” zone on this one and added MiG pigments to replicate dust all over the base that hides a lot of painting effects I rendered on the street. I also went back and added more wood debris and random pieces on the street from previous feedback received. Bbrownii, thanks for looking…you are correct that I did not spend a lot of time on the “inside” of the ruin…however, the building as depicted does have a basement floor where most of the rubble would have fallen…another thing to keep in mind is that often wood from rubble was quickly scavenged and used for firewood, and any furniture/impliments that were of any use quickly recycled…had the back been the focal point I would probably have made it more “interesting”…Panzerguy, thanks for the kind words…I have been following your recent work in here and you are quite an accomplished figure painter and vignette-maker! I am gonna go with your explanation for the dark circes under the fig’s eyes! Those darned American and British bombers keeping us up all day and all night!!!
…Since this was the most pointed out thing I will expand a little bit…the sunken eyes look on the NCO fig is partly because the guys face is molded with a “boyish” expression and his eyes are a little sunken in in the casting…one thing I do with my dios that I haven’t seen much of elsewhere is that I shoot pics VERY close (most dios–or figs–in the Forum are never shot any closer to approx. my 7th pic as an example). Some of my 35th scale figs appear to be 4 to 5 times their real size on your monitor—closer to 120-200mm (1/16th or 1/8th scale) in real life! When you shoot pics that close you will definately bring out flaws that are not visible to the naked eye, or painting techniques that look good when viewed naturally but not when blown up 4 to 5 times. I shoot that close to get a more “dramatic” effect to the pics and also because I feel that even under that magnification the figs stand up pretty well, but sometimes flaws will pop up and I just have to be prepared to take a little more heat because of the closeups (go back and look at the 8th pic in my series; this is approx. 1/35th scale on my screen)…all of my painting is done to be viewed at that size: real-life…
This dio was a blast to build and I actually tried a few new things that made me “stretch my legs” a bit and do a few things that were outside my “comfort zone”—which means I learned some things that will make my next one even better! I appreciate everyone’s input—I believe I took everyone’s input and applied it to some extent during the build, so thanks!
PS: has anyone been able to find the girl in the dio yet?
MR,
Simply put, stunning work! Thank you for explaining the eyes. When I first saw the pics, I was curious why they seemed “out of place” considering the rest of the work on this piece of art (in no way am I being negative… just the rest of the work, is well… stunning). Your explanation makes perfect sense.
Thank you for sharing another piece of art with us.
My pleasure, SteveA…if you go back and look at the 8th pic in my series, that is about the size the dio is in real-life (at least on my monitor)…when I paint figs, I use that real-scale perspective in my techniques for making the figs “look real”…when blown up, sometimes these techniques look exagerrated, such as the dark eyes on the one fig…
Manny…Mein Gott!
Even after the ‘pre’ pics…seeing it now…breathtaking! When the weather gets warmer…shoot it outside!
I had set aside an hour for vid-gaming tonight…well, your photos wrecked that!
Not sorry though.
Nam
Thanks for providing that information. I took my KT (partial build) and put it up to the monitor and was very close to scale. Valuable information that I will utilize in the future with my projects. Thanks again and well done on this project!
Regards,
Steve
Wow MR, don’t really have the words here. This one is nice, very nice and one of if not THE best one you have posted yet. The tank, the structure, street all very nice. And the figures, I think they sweet too, maybe a little dark under the eyes, but with the camera on Super Macro or whatnot, your gonna see some stuff that you wouldnt normally see if you were just looking at this thing. Can’t wait to see what you pull off next !!
…but I for one am hoping it is co-ed!
Nam
Yup, you’re right about the figure’s eyes and the scale issue, Manny. When you look at it that way, it’s easy to say then that they’re just about perfect! [8D][yeah]
The girl–she’s in the tank right? Keeping the TC’s seat warm? [(-D]
Hee hee, you guessed it—she’s IN the tank!
Well done, sir. Your attention to detail is a sight to behold…an excellent diorama.
Where’s the girl? Damn, I feel robbed [:)]
Overall, a great result. Everything flows together very well. The street seems like it has been swept clean though, since there’s no debris at all, and you’d think that being so close to debris piles, it would be quite a bit dustier. Also, on the inside of the building, I probably would have added some destroyed beams, and some hight variation in the rubble.