Here are a few pics of a dio I just finished for a customer. The tank is my USMC M1A1HC "Angry American" that I did a while ago, it will be replaced by one he is building. The setting is "Somewhere in Iraq", 2003, OIF 1. It is a checkpoint/roadblock and the grunts are going by looking at the tankers thinking something along the lines of, "We walk, they ride...Lucky bas^%$#&!!"

The two tanker figures are from DML's old ODS era tank crew with IBA clad torsos added. The Grunts are DML's Modern Marines. The base is made of plaster on wood. The wall is styrofoam covered with plaster. All paper items, Arabic newspapers, MRE box, water bottle box, signs, Saddam mural, were all made by me and printed off on my computer.

Here it is.

awesome Gino.. That X-ed out poster on the wall looks like Baghdad Bob....

Very convincing, Gino. Extremly good work as allways. I'm impressed.

Edit: BTW, do you have an estimate of how many hours you used to build the M1?

Erik

Thanks for the compliments. Glad you guys like it.





Sorry, I didn't really keep track of how long the M1A1HC too. I also built it before, between, and after other builds for customers, kind of when I got a chance. Worked on it for a couple months off and on.

Great build. I love all the gear piled on

Very nice build, although in all my time there, I think your model is the only time I've seen a tanker dismounted...LOL "death before dismount". :-) :-)

Very nice Gino. What paints (and colors) did you use for the figures? I like the "stuff" strewn about.

Thanks Bob. The figures are all painted with Testors Model Master enamals. Sand for the base coat, a khaki-green that I mixed (close to SAC Bomber Tan), Chocolate Brown, and Armor Sand for the boots. The flesh is a mix that I made. I can't find a nice flesh color from anyone. The Cayote Brown for the USMC IBAs I mixed up as well.

Excellent stuff there, Gino. Very realistic. Only the blue background gives it away. If you Photoshopped in an Iraqi cityscape in the background, I'd have been fooled into thinking it was the real thing. Even from a distance, marines' faces look very good.

That styrofoam building looks a bit short, no? Unless it's supposed to be a bunker.

David, Thanks for the complimements. The styrofoam thing is just a wall. There are walled compounds, about 8'-10' tall, all over Iraq. I just extended the walled area to the edge of the base. Lets you imagine what might be back there.

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The flesh is a mix that I made. I can't find a nice flesh color from anyone. .[/quote]

Gino:

I really recommend switching to oils for flesh tones. They really are not that hard to use, and produce awesome results. Try this:

Five colors for a basic flesh tone:
Burnt Sienna
Cadnium Red Medium (just a tad)
Cadnium Yellow Medium
Yellow Ochre
Titanium White

Mix that up and apply that over an undercoat of a sand color for caucasians.

Paint in Burnt Sienna into the recessed areas and feather it into the base coat.

Apply Titanium White to highlight areas and feather that in.

I'm sure you have the Shephard Paine book. It has a section on that to help identify the important areas to highlight and shadow. Shadow and highlighting make a huge difference on faces, and with oils you can take your time.

Bob,
Thanks for the tips. I am happy with the MM enamels though. I am not real big on oils and/or acrylics. Call me old fashioned, but that is what I like.

As usual Gino, thats some fantastic work. The DML figures looks pretty good...i might go hunt around for those.

very nice dio Gino.
what I like is the body language of the figures- you can see how disgruntled the Grunts look (no pun intended) and how relaxed the Tankers seem.