ARMORCON (Formerly known as AMPS East) is at the end of September. The 27th I think? Yes, the 27th, I checked. That being said, I've got 28 days to finish this spur of the moment scene.

So! Grossdeutschland fought in Prussia and the surrounding area from July '44 til oblivion, and following the collapse of Operation Doppelkopf, the fought a defensive action, notably around the area of Memel. Anyways I want to get a scene done of the intense, paranoid rear guard actions that made up a lot of the fighting by this stage of the war.

I'm working with this:



Interior too...Will end up being mostly rubble.



Afrika Korps figure, will get new pants/boots to fit into the time frame. Lots of PE from Alliance Model Works on these 3... Not as much of a headache as I expected either.













Of course that neck is a WIP, that's the humble beginnings of a scarf.



And the money shot...


I'm pretty excited to try out my AM Wehrmacht decals on them. Like cuff titles, rank, collar tabs and shoulder boards. Should be a fun challenge?

I really want to get across the tension between the 3 since the danger (ie T-34, etc) is just out of the picture. I was hoping this would be a smaller base, since it'll be a bit harder to get the dramatic part across. I guess what's happening is I'm going to have a bit of dead space to fill in. I'm going to make a small gutter between the road and the building(s) to get a little bit of a water effect streaming down to a muddy mess on the left side where the other 2 infantrymen will be.

So I've got 28 days! Hoping for the best, as I've done it before, in less time too...



Thanks for looking!

-Conor

Fantastic modification!Looking forward
Cheers!

What happened to the last one? This one looks good though.
J

Thanks guys

As for the other one, I just got bogged down is all. Between 8 figures to convert (at the least) I needed a new, smaller project. Hoping this one goes quicker. I ordered 2 resin figures so those should be an easy job as well.

-Conor

Cool! ... Subscribed.

—mike

Hi Conor,

ambitious conversions as per the last project you showed us!

PE straps...fine, but aren't you going to have troubles painting PE and molded-on bits side by side...and where is this going to end?? The open ammo pouch on the submachine guy has a leather strap...and (at least) that one should not be plastic then!! What do you think!?

Moreover, the Panzerfaust guy has a huuuuge neck!! The hood makes it less noticeable, but where are his earlobes and where his shoulders. Measure that distance and take your own measurements! As a general rule: roughly 1,5 hands (width, not length) maximum.

You may consider changing the hand on the pistol grip of the Schmeisser.....the weapon may not look much, but it is quite heavy (and unbalanced here) in reality, and nobody could wield it like that without a (very) firm and tight grip!

There is "something" narrow running down his front, over the left (his left) collar...no idea what it should be, but you must take care of it!! Maybe one end of the scarf covering it..!?!?

Care must also be taken with those hollow sleeves! While this is a real plus over "traditional" arms, the thickness of the cloth is to be watched, especially with the Schmeisser wielding guy.

Ambitious job indeed on those figures!! You'll manage for sure!!!

Cheers

Romain

I waste no time with this one.

Romain, after reading your comments and taking your advice, I did what every sane modeler does: I finished crying, and sat back down at the bench.

First off, I just want to point out that the contrast between the PE and kit molded Y-straps is really over exaggerated in the photos. It may take a little bit of fixing later, but I'll have to see what it's like after primer.

I had wanted to keep the head of the panzerfaust wielder slightly higher than anatomy allows to help accentuate the panic on his face, but after biting the bullet and trimming down the neck, I'm more or less glad I did.





A bit trickier was the hand gripping the MP40. I'm going to keep it's position, since the soldier is depicted in the middle of reloading. I know how heavy that piece of German engineering is, but a few moments in the air as he's doing isn't a super human feat. Likely means he's on the strong side, but I'm taking that as it is.

I did tighten the grip though. It was difficult, until the weapon just popped out of his grip hahaha. For the open pouch I just troop a PE helmet strap and trimmed it down to size.



Judging from the photo the grip still doesn't have me fully convinced, but I'll give it another look before priming.

Thanks!

-Conor

Hi Conor,

what I certainly did not want to do is make you cry!!

As always, I'm only trying to help with issues that somehow seem to fall under my competence (anatomical rivet-counting).

Your modifications are making a difference here already! As you are still far from priming, you can always cast an inquisitive glance at the figgies now and again.

Seriously, and far less pompous....I would not dare showing my figures in such a close-up! They would not be good enough for such an exercise (and they would hardly satisfy anyone, let alone me!!)

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Romain

"Anatomical rivet counting" is a funny name for it hahaha. I do appreciate it though because that way I can eliminate issues or discrepancies before they're permanently sealed under a few layers of acrylics! I love/hate how good the close ups can get with my camera- if I get something that looks good, that's fine, but there's always something(s) I'd rather not be able to see hahaha.

Up next is the putty, which shouldn't be too hard. I really want to get a jump on the base though too

Thanks!

-Conor

Hey Conor,

Man, you guys who are good with figures!!! How do you do it?!??

Thanks for posting your steps - it's pretty interesting stuff. As for anotimical rivet counting! Ha! I'm happy if my figures don't turn out shiny!

Looking forward to more
Cheers
Nick

Thanks Nick. With vehicles as mind boggling as yours, I wouldn't worry too much about figures hahaha. I run out of steam half way through a simple StuG

So I did get some more work done this morning, mainly the putty and what not.



It's still a bit chunky and rough in spots, but sanding will wait until the putty has really dried. It took some patience to get the PE helmet strap over the rim of the helmet, but the only cleanup to do there will be the excess superglue.



He's more or less good to go, other than a few rough spots I see on the right arm.



He's been given his bayonet, since that's something that always seems to be around even in the absence of other gear. I might give them canteens still, but I haven't decided.



I used a cut down helmet strap for the straps on his jacket. Simply tucket the joined end of them underneath the belt bluckle and voila.

Just a bit more filing and trimming left before primer now!

Regarding the extra space I'll end up with, I'm going to take it up with these two:



He'll be on the opposite end of the scene, seconds from running into the open.



And he'll just be strung out in the street, in the gutter.

I'm betting that since they're resin, it'll make them a lot easier to get done in time. Stay tuned, kids

-Conor

Good choices for figures.
J

Yup! And the casualty looks particularly good IMHO!

Great job on the scarf Conor!

But now it's the neck of the standing guy that looks huuuuuge!!!

I don't know what pushes people to lengthen the neck while the shoulders are lowered!! There is a tribe in Africa where women pile up metal rings around their neck in order to lengthen same, but I doubt this would apply here! Moreover, it is enough to look into a mirror!!

And I would be interested to see his legs!!!!

Anatomy is certainly not the easiest of all elements!

Cheers

Romain

That reminds, me I forgot to do the new legs for that figure

Explains why I had so much left over putty. I see what you mean on the neck of that guy as well. They way the collar area is molded makes me want to give him more of it, but the more I look at it the more it does appear he belongs with those women of that African tribe Certainly not standard procedure of the Grossdeutschland Panzer Division!

I love those 2 figures. The casualty has that strung out look to him, like he was running when he met his end. The posture (if that's the right word for a corpse) is perfect. As for the Russian, it's the trench coat that did it for me. It really conveys the sense of movement.

-Conor

Gider-Done, I'm going to be looking for it, I'll be there
- John

Good to know! I'm going to be using some of your leaf products, just ordered them, and hopefully those roots too, since I haven't been able to yet. Of course the mud will make an appearance as well

-Conor

And on the 7th day, the Lord changed his pants.

Finished most of the putty and such on this fella. It looks rough, I know, but I'm going to prime them and see what really needs fixing and sanding. Romain, you might notice that I did end up sanding down that head. I had to dig out the collar part of the torso a bit to help it sit right, but I think it does look better.







There's some residue from my sanding on there as well, I just noticed. The tricky part was getting them to sit just right. The figure is leaning forward, thus the pant legs would sit and hang differently than for someone standing upright.

Had to re-order those 2 figures, Colorado Miniatures didn't have either one in stock unfortunately It costs me a bit more than I'd like to get the both of them elsewhere, but hopefully it's worth it!

Thanks for looking gents.

-Conor

You are improving with the putty work that's easy to see. How do you like the AllianceModelworks stuff? Isn't it cool? So much can be done with those PE frets. I never run out of uses for them.
Good rule of thumb for the heads and avoiding the "stretch neck" look is try to have the bottom of the chin even with the shoulders or a touch lower. There are exceptions but it is a good basic rule easy to remember(even for me)
I like where this is going. Looks like the sculptor of the dead guy may have started out using the old Esci WaffenSS engineer dude that was using a wire cutters.
J

Hi Conor,

yes the neck looks a little better now! Jerry is perfectly right however...chin on the same line as shoulders or even a tad lower.

Thanks for the heads up Jerry!! I had totally forgotten about that rule!!

The legs of the trousers are shaping up nicely! Good job there!!!

Jerry may be right with the "basis" for the corpse!! I had never thought of that, but now that he said it..!!

Cheers

Romain

Thanks fellas. I know what you mean about that shoulder rule, definitely going to make it a no-brainer from now on. That head is as low as it's going to get though I'm afraid. One thing I feel about having the head slightly raised is that it accentuates the facial expressions. That's probably just my own delusional fantasy, but hey, for now that's how I feel...although the level they were at before I lowered them, that was...well, the long necked women of Africa

The trio has just been primed with that lovely grey Tamiya rattle can product, and I'm still dizzy from the fumes.

I've got that esci figure lying about somewhere in the abyss of my workbench, I'll do a side by side for you guys, because I guarantee you're right.

-Conor

PAINT! It's that time, fellas. Of course I only noticed a couple nasty gaps on the panzerfaust guy after getting a base coat down on his smock, but I think it's fixable/hideable. Elsewhere I've got the 2 main structures fixed to the base, next I've got to figure out how to put down the preliminary parts of my piles of rubble? Any tips? I'm stumped. Got a few ideas, but I'd like to hear some of yours.



I'm a bit disappointed, the first fieldgrey coats were a bit thicker than I wanted.





The eyes on him gave me some trouble, still working on it.

Got myself an ebook of one of Osprey's German Army 1939-45 titles. Great info and color plates on the Landsers in this era of the war. Funny enough, I found my panzerfaust trooper right there in the book!


Copyrighted image, just there for discussion purposes n' such.

Caption does say he's in the Reichswald, so hey, maybe my guy escaped the coffin East Prussia became for the GD? Unlikely...

Aaaaand, the base:





Not looking forward to all the debris it's going to need, but at the same time, I don't want to cut corners there.

No pictures of my 2 new figures yet- but they did arrive. The Stalingrad figure, as expected, is a piece of art. The MIG figure is good too though. I think the old combat engineer it's based on is stored away somewhere though No comparison for this update.

Should have another update soon I hope, I've got the next 2 days off from work. Just gotta play the priorities game with my college classes homework....

Thanks for looking!

-Conor

Nice progress on everything.
For larger piles of ruble and debris I build up the base for the mounds with matt board stacked up like an arcitectural model. Then you only need to make a thin veneer of broken bricks or stone.
With rubble,"more of it" is the rule,the opposite of "less is more".
I have all of the Osprey books,very nice refs.
J

For large rubble piles I just mix up plaster of paris let it harden in a plastic cup then beat it up with a hammer,
sift out the dust with a strainer, make your pile then wet it down with a sprayer followed by a heavy soaking of matte medium/water mix with a sprayer. When dry paint it and add the more expensive bricks/etc. over top. you can also pre color the plaster.

Sound advice for biiiiig rubble from the gentlemen above! Anyway, pre-colour what- and whenever you can!! It helps afterwards!

Painting on these figgies is very good indeed!!

You've come a loooong way there Sir!!

Congrats!

Romain

Thanks guys, just the sort of tips I needed to hear. I might try both suggestions, or mix 'em together to see what I get. Since yesterday I've done more work on the swamp pattern camo and some of his gear. Still needs work, like the rain marks ( ) but I'll get to those. I'm not 100% satisfied with the blurred edges of the green and brown blotches, but I'll see what I can do with them.





I'm following a how-to in one of Osprey's Painting 1/35 Fallschirmjager articles, downloaded to my Nook. The tablet is great as a reference since I can have it right there, not too big, nor too small. I'm not on par with Juame Ortiz, who's work I'm going by, but I haven't disappointed myself.

I've found that I have a weird habit of quickly wiping off excess paint on my left index finger:



Funny.

Anyways, I'm going to wash my hands, I'll leave the rest to you!

'til next time.

-Conor