Thanks Romain and Kurt,
I appreciate you checking in. Keeps me going.
J

Both the intricate work on the comms set up on his back and the posing are great. He really does look like he's running. Some figures that are made in a running pose have a static sort of look to them but you've done it perfectly here.

Nice little update!

-Conor

Hi Jerry - as always, very creative work (!) really interesting and effective mix of materials - you do have an eye for getting this right! Look forward to the post!
Cheers
Nick

The pack looks good Jerry. Not sure why but I never got an email that the thread was updated.

Talk about detail- that commo backpack is just awesome all on its on- not to mention the figure its attached to! The pose is quite natural I think- particularly around the modified left foot- the angle and the creases in the pants give the impression of his weight shifting onto that foot as he runs. You said you also gave him a scarf- I was just wondering if you are/were planning to have it posed as if it was flapping about as he runs or is it tucked into his uniform?

@Conor-the pose is pretty good but I still think the wounded guy in my Zack Zack dio is the best runner I've seen. He is from Miniart with just a Hornet head added.
@Nick- I mostly use low tech cheap stuff as a lot of the stuff in hobby shops is really overpriced stuff you can get elsewhere. I am sure you do a lot of the same thing?
@Chris-dunno what happened. I just did about 4 hours of updates and virus scanning on my 'puter yesterday. Maybe that had something to do with it? Otherwise I don't know why you didn't get notified.
@Karl-thanks bro. Still lots of work to do on this guy. He is like the panzerfaust guy in that he will be facing away from the camera so the front won't get a lot of attention. His scarf is tucked in.
I got the impression from looking at pics of these guys in the ardennes that they left their outer cold weather gear in the transport when they were in direct combat,along with a lot of other gear,IE breadbags,canteens and mess kits.
The troops from the Gren. Bn that were attached wore all of their gear as they got to the pocket on foot after getting across the Petit Spai bridge across the Ambleve.
So that is why all the guys in this dio are not all bundled up. My view,and I'm sticking to it!
J

When my eyes are bothering me the bad news is...I can't really paint and do small detail stuff. The good news is...I can get big stuff done like plaster walls,etc.
Here I have begun the back wall of the Sanitorium. I found some useful bricks at the fantastic hobby shop near my model club(Avenel Hobbies). I bought a bag of red ones and one of grey.
There is a difference in the damage caused by high speed projectiles on a building. I was going for the effect of a anti tank solid shot,which punches a hole without exploading. I assume this is what the Panther was doing to open an entry into the building for the Pioneers.


This is the first time I tried to carve decorative stonework. This building was made of bricks but covered with the thin type of decoration type stone popular still today.



Anyway...first steps taken,
J

Well Jerry , the big stuff is looking very promising ! I stay tuned on this project .Great idea to put a variation in shell holes to the structure.

Kurt

Hey Jerry - Nice wall! good to see this back up and running - sorry to hear about your eyes giving you grief - maybe spending some time on the bigger stuff will give your eyes a rest - your SMALL stuff is so complicated that maybe they need to take 5!

Nick

@Kurt-thanks for checking in buddy. I will also be adding some machine gun hits as well
@Nick-yes,at least this way I can still accomplish something. I remember one of my old Drill Sergeants yelling"DO SOMETHING...even if it's wrong!!"
Thanks for the kind words,
J

Haha! Yes, when I was a kid I worked as a carpenter. Primarily framing walls - all summer long - you layout the materials, and bend over and nail it all together and don't stop - the guy I worked for was a good carpenter and tough! If we began to slowdown a bit he'd yell "all I want to see are A**holes and elbows!!!!" That is - bend over and start nailing!! Yeah....just keep swinging the hammer...or now, the xacto!

Looking forward to the next post

Nick

Its nothing on your end Jerry, it has to do with KitMaker.

The brickwork looks really good. Though it may be a bit to shallow to look correct when painted? Looking forward to seeing more as always.

2Nick-I feel your pain,I used to swing a hammer as well.
@Chris-I think you are correct about the depth of the scribing. I looked at the original building again and the decorative stones do stand proud fairly well.
Easy fix though,just time consuming. Can't do much else right now anyway so.....
J

Getting frustrated with the recurring eye problem.. I decided to call for an artillery strike while I am waiting.
Heavy guns


Light guns

Bring up more guns into position!!




Anyway,worth a few chuckles?
J

Yeah a few chuckle; I don't see why more people don't do story telling elements like you do Jerry.

That Nashorn is awesome! Old build of yours I take it? I still look at the blog of that "Final Defensive Fire" dio now and then. The last one with the horse drawn gun though, where did that come from? Looks good.

-Conor

That is actually a Hummel SP 150mm gun. I had to scratchbuild all the ammo boxes and add a lot of interior detail as it is a very old kit.
The horsedrawn deal is on hold till this summer I stopped working on it after I saw "Warhorse" from Spielberg. I felt so aweful about all of the army horses that I couldn't bear to look at it. I do want to complete it though as I spent a lot of time so far on it.
Thanks for looking in little bro. and Chris.
Just back from the hobbyshop where I found something to experiment on this weekend. Testing the limits.
J

Jerry,

Sorry to distract a little...
Did you prepare plans for the limber ?

Cheers,

Sean

I was prepared to finish this limber as a resin kit but the guy I normally sell my master patterns to is not doing so right now. Any ideas? It was very hard to gather the info for all this stuff as it is not easy to find as panzer stuff is. I have several items for German artillery,including a late style limber of the 18/40 style and different ammo boxes,etc. I was also prepared to make an early style steel wheel limber and of course,horses.
J

Hi Jerry,

A couple of quibbles. When that battle was going on, it was colder than a well-digger's ass in the Klondyke, but your gun crew is dressed for summer. And the tree beside the gun has green leaves on it.

Everything else looks great.

Cheers,

Dick

I was just having some fun here Dick while I wait for my eyes to recover again. Posted some old dio pics of mine as a lark and tried to make a half-assed story to string them together.
Yes,I do realize the Battle of the Bulge was cold.
Thanks for looking in,
J

OK,back to work for a little bit anyway. I decided to ditch the flare pistol guy as he was not looking like he fit into this scene.
I did decide I needed some breaking and entering guys though. This is one of the most complex conversions I've tried. I have the basic elements in place. I now have to tweek the poses and make sure all the anatomy lines up. I do think they fit well together.




Anyway,it feels at least like I accomplished something. I am still having problems with the eyeballs though and may have jumped in too early.
J

Is the climbing guys foot supposed to be on the others knee? I do like the climbers pose, not sure about his buddy yet though.

Hope your eyes get better Jerry.

Looks good from here Jerry. Good to see you back at it. Hope the eyes hold out.

Dave

Chris and Dave,thanks for the kind words and for checking in again. Yes,the climber is supposed to be using his buddy as a leg up. This is a very common thing in overcoming obstacles. This is a basic thing taught in team work training.
I would think the next step would be the climbers' left foot on the standing guys' left shoulder. and then.....in!!
J