"Later my Fat Friend, I'm off to the Front"

Modeling Subjects Dioramas
1

This is the Dragon 05 kit and i found while building it the lower part of the chasie didn’t fit right and seemed to me to be for a differn’t kit??. So i had to cut it a bit and use super glue. I also found this a very easy model to build too. The Flak 43 is from Italeri and a very nice kit IMO.

This will be a simple diorama, and orginally i just wanted a small board for just the tank, but couldn’t find one so i expaned it to include the flak gun as well.

Tank Comander- One of these days i’ll get it right

2

Fantastic looking tank! The camo is awsome! Your figs Rock also, how do you get those skin tones? I have not taken much time with the faces I rely too much on my washes to bring out detail. Great job[swg]

3

Very nice…that’s weird about the hull not fitting–especially for a Dragon kit, and a green box to boot…well, it looks nice and has a story of sorts (great work on the camo)…

…that figure looks familar: I did a vignette with it called: “I’m Off to the Front, Skinny Girl…” LOL…

4

Thanks for the nice comment Sterno, i’d be the last guy here to ask for advice about painting figs, i’m so inconsistant verying from poor to fair.

Here’s the guy you should ask, MR has some very nice figs, like this guy we both did.

Yeah i was really surprised that this kit would have a fit problem for a Dragon from 05. But its real obvious that the hull was made for maybe a Mark IV or something??, i had to cut away parts of the hull just so the upper hull could sit down on it. If i take a closer pic of it you will see something’s not right with it. Maybe i’ll try later, but still its a good kit.

5

Another excellent job Lt. Well up to your usual standard!

rb

6

Awesome…figures look great, and nice job on the camo.

Howabout some more shots of the dio?

Steve

7

The tanker putting on his glove is in an unsettling pose, like a very camp doctor snapping on latex gloves…I wonder what the person who sculpted it was thinking.

8

Will the tanker be standing up on the tank like that? It just seems… Off some how. The height isn’t quite right. He’d look better one the ground next to the tank. The figures and tank are superb! You’ve gotten the figures today, not someday!

9

Lufttiger:

You did a great job on this model, specially the painting. It looks fantastic. I have this kit in my stash so I dug it out and looked at the instruction sheet and noticed on section 4 you have to cut part of the top front lip on the chassis in order for the topside to fit. There are a few other spots on the model where you have to slice plastic off to make it correct. Looks like Dragon incorporated the parts of another kit into this one in order for them to save money on the tooling but however, not passing the savings on to us. It looks like a very nice model to build and detail.

10

I’ll have more pics later when i do some more work on it.

I havn’t really decided where to put the tanker yet, but i’m leaning towards ontop the tank??

There ya go, my eyes arn’t as good and i missed that part to cut away parts, but i figured it out on my own and knew where to cut to make it fit. I don’t blame them for wanting to save on cost, just wish they would print that in red for us old blind guys.

11

Ohhhh… Nice!!! [tup] If you have someone on top of the tank, I would think he would be in a crouch or kneeling on 1 knee. The standing guy should probably be next to the tank.

12

Uh oh… I’m looking at Manny’s vignette a little differently now???

13

Actually now that vespa boy mentions that… I think if you put the Tanker anywhere other than atop his tank as if he’s about to get in and drive off, with the Fat Friend trying to get the dogs attention the only thing that comes to mind is “Gone in 60 Seconds” when the poor dog swallows the keys.

14

place the glove snapper near the left front fender, so it’ll look like he’s about to lean against the fender. And place him so he’s still lookin’ at the dog and the other guy (is he the fat one, or is it the tank… or the dog?)

That would unify the dio a little more than having a guy just standing on the top of his tank, which looks just too unnatural.

15

I think it’s realistic enough with him on top, I worry though that if you put all the figures up front it might push the tank too far into the background and out of the scene, I think with the tanker on top (and he’s off to the front, meaning even though there’s an AA gun- this is off the line a ways and the Fat Friend is definitly at ease also playing with the dog- so I don’t think he’s all too worried about being exposed but I’m not a tanker, maybe they have a phobia? I can definitly understand wanting to be at the ready all the time.)

I think the only thing I would to is spin the figure around so he’s facing the guy playing with the dog- this way it looks like he’s getting ready to climb in- but turned to say one more good by and watch his friend acting like a kid playing with a very energetic dog in a nostalgic kind of way. That way it’s clear he’s going into the tank, it’s clear his friend is not and it also gives a kind of nostalgic perspective to the tanker that I think is central to the story line. If he’s on the ground facing the dog- then why’s he putting on the gloves, is he leaving?

But this is just my [2c]- you already have the three focal points (if we include the dog) as far as the figures go and this arangment is in a triangle- you see the tanker up top first because he’s standing on his tank- then if his face is looking at his friend- it carries the view there, and then to the dog as the friend is playing with the dog- you pick up the detail in the tank and the AA gun in the process and the story comes with it!! I think it’s great so far [swg]