In any 1-2-3 (standard IPMS judging) event, your chances of placing are entirely dependent on what classes are offered, what else shows up and if there are sweeps (one entrant being allowed to take multiple awards in one class.) One week, this could take first, the next, nothing. That said, by all means, pay your money and take your chances.
The figures look pretty good, no glaring issues that I can see.
A judge is going to be more concerned bout the application of the paint than the brand. In fact, there’s no way for a judge to know the brand unless you tell him, which is never required. Precision of teh color should not be a major deciding factor unless ther are truly glaring errors, such as US Chocolate Chip camo on a WWII German or DCU’s on a Napoleonic figure or colors that clearly don’t belong. Yours look acceptable at the very least.
Composition, which would be considered in a diorama or vignette, could use some tightening, specifically, the barbed wire is not going to slow anyone down as positioned…minimally continue it on the other side of a crater. The mine field sign indicates the figures are IN the mine field. If I were using this set, I’d have put the two guys holding the maps together, comparing notes, as it were.
I take it you’re from Texas and don’t see much snow. The “snow” coming off the front edge looks like marshmallow to me. When replicating snow, think more along the lines of a sandy desert or beach sand, starker angles as a result of the wind blowing fine granulate and particulate matter with little adhessive properties. It’s quite rare to have a rounded edge to snow like that…occasionally you’d see that in a mild temperature/heavy snow fall event on the edge of a car or roof, but it would fall very quickly.
I will extend the barbwire. As for the minefield sign, I read somewhere the German put up fake minefield sign to open places where they can go but would slow the enemy down (like using minesweepers). I am not sure if it’s true, but I’ll look into it more.
You’re right, we do not see much snow here, so I guess I’ll have to fix that. I tired to make the snow look as if it’s been trampled over (not nice and fresh anymore).
I think this is a good little vignette. Al’s comments are right on as to your composition.
One thing I notice is in the third pic. The soldier holding the map - it does not look like the map is actually ‘in’ his hand. It is hard to tell from the pic, but his rifle appears the same way. Try to make sure the things they are holding are actually in their hands and not glued just to the fingertips.
On the plus side, I really do admire your figure painting. They look good.
The one that isn’t holding his gun correctly looks funny in that angle. The back had has a firm grasp on the handle but the front hand is lossely under the gun. The map is held by fingertips, but it doesn’t go in any further.
Two Sci-fi Warhammer 40k figures.
The are MUCH smaller than the above ones. 28mm heroic scale.
I should be working on another diorama by the end of the week.
WOW. Those are some impressively painted WH40K figs. NIce…
I wondered if the ‘issue’ with the weapon might have actually been a result of the picture and not the figure itself.
As for the map, might I offer a suggestion. If it won’t go in further, take an x-acto blade, a file, or a razor saw and open the hand up a bit to allow it to slide in to the palm. I think it might give you a more realistic look. Consider it this way, you said you want to enter this in a show. Well, I noticed the map just by looking at a picture. Might it be reasonable to expect the judges to notice too?
In all honesty, it is probably not that big a deal, particularly if you are happy with the look. As I indicate above, my thoughts are only about the competition you want to enter.
Like I said, nice work. I’ll look forward to more!
Tamiya brand, looks pretty good. The tracks are not plastic but the rubber band type ones. Quaility of the figures isn’t as good as Dragon though. Look a little better than plastic army men. Hopefully they will look good when painted.
Haven’t decided on a paint scheme, any ideas? And uniform color for infantry to match the tank.
Box art is useless, instructions aare in Japanese and no colors are listed. I don’t even see Tamiya paint symbols.
That is the old Tamiya version of the SdKfz 251/C. It was the primary German ‘Armored’ troop carrier of the war and was used everywhere. What that means is you could paint it in just about any scheme you wanted, from a simple German Grey to a three color camo scheme. There was a group build on here a while ago that featured 251’s. If you do a search and find the old thread, you’ll find a treasure trove of reference material and pics.
Wait a minute, let me go find that link for you.
EDIT:
Time passes…
Here ya go: /forums/t/98198.aspx?PageIndex=1
Some good builds and paint schemes to look at in that thread. Good luck!
Your interior looks good. There does seem to be some ‘debate’ about interior colors. The area from the driver’s seats forward was most likely white or off-white. The troop compartment may have been painted in the base color of the vehicle (for example, German Gray). I’d say you’ve done a bang up job on it so far.
I assume you are building this straight out of the box and not adding any aftermarket ‘stuff’?