It's my pleasure to announce that Model Maniac Page 27 - Part B is now available!
In this Part there are two new armors, one 1:16 figures and three dioramas :

- N/A's T-55 A(M) - by Samorapoom
- Tamiya's German Pz. Kfw. IV ausf. D - by Samorapoom
- Luftwaffe Field Division Officer 1:16 - by Joh
- Diorama "Wiking Division (Hungary, 1945)" - by Joh
- Diorama "Episode Vietnam (1968)" - by Joh
- Diorama "Palestinian Guerrilla (Beirut, 1982)" - by Joh

Index and sample pics :









For more pics, please visit my latest page :

http://www.falconbbs.com/model27b.htm

Enjoy viewing!

:-)

G'day mate
Very nice siege diorama by Joh, well done mate.
Cheers

Thanks for the update.

If you ever want to get in process critiques feel free to use the Rivet Review Board.

Excellent, the best dioramas I have ever seen!!




Kind of hard to do when you don't build them yourself.

is this supposed to be a joke??
They are not bad, but come on, the best you've ever seen??!!

dsc.

Yes, of course.

Don't get please.

OK sorry Scott. Some things about those dioramas:

1.picture:
- that soldier in the foreground looks pretty wierd, like he is sitting on that tank, but unfortunately I think he is positioned badly and looks very unstable and unrealistic

- some additional weathering is needed on that tank

- as it was already said before those are some shinny figures, try to use some matt varnish (spray it on) to eliminate that look

- it looks like too much drybrushing was used on that whole piece

2.picture:
- first of all the picture isn't great, because only a few soldiers are sharp, the rest of the picture came out pretty blurry

- it looks like the whole base is painted in the same color, which looks pretty strange as normal ground color tends to vary a lot

- some figures look like they could use some more paint, shading or highligting as they appear only basecoated

- again matt varnish would be a good idea

3.picture
- again too much drybrushing

- that guy on the left looks pretty funny, he is standing in a wierd way, plus he has a fairly small head

There you have it, just some advice on how to make these dioramas better.

cheers,
dsc.

Many thanks for your kind comments, lestweforget, slodder and dsc!

Falcon, just out of curiosity, how much do you pay to have these built? "Q"

I hope he has not payed someone for these dios.

I guess he did... for such a huge collection of models... it'll take a lifetime for 1 person to complete.

Matthew, the price I paid is a good price for both the modeler and me. Both are satisfied. I don't think you value the dio's by the price that I paid.

Karl, I think JM is right. You should see my collection and estimate how many man years it would take to build all those models :
http://www.falconbbs.com/model18j.htm

Falcon,

I'm with you all the way!

Hobby is a very personal thing. As long as you enjoy them that is all it counts!!

I can't say the model are the best but it's so fun to have it built! You are truly enjoying you hobby!

WC

Then all I can say is better your money than mine. Glad you are enjoying what you paid for.. "Q"

Thanks so much for your kind comments, WC!
I enjoy shopping for models, assigning them to be built, taking their pictures, creating new pages for my sites and displaying them in my howcases/showroom. Here's some pics of my happy moment late last month. I went shopping and got 13 boxes, 2 finished
armors and 2 T-shirts :

Hi Phaisal ,
Can I build some ?
Love Jenny

Hi Jenny,
If you're in Thailand I'll let you choose what you wanna build - tanks, planes, ships, dios and figures. Too bad you're so far away...

Phaisal ,
You can mail them to me . I can mail them back . We have a good postal service in Australia
I make Tanks
Jenny

Try building some stuff yourself man, it's alot more fun.

While I don't think the quality of the dioramas is more than passible, I laud FalconBBS for investing in his hobby. Here in the states (particularly in the NE) a lot of folks buy toy soldier of far less quality, and display them on "store bought" mass-produced scenes. The key is, the owner ENJOYS what he has purchased, and take pride in sharing his collection with the rest of us. I have reviewed the board severeal times, and althrough not the rule, several of the dio's he has are quite nice and appear to be well built.

As for the photos, I think that Falcon is playing with the depth of field, which causes objects in front and behind the point of focus to be a little fuzzy. Sometimes photographers do this on purpose to draw the eye on a given object... notice the scene of the insurgent has one figure in front (blurred) two of equal depth on the sides (clear and sharp) and one in the rear which is also out of focus... the two that are in the same distance plane are sharp - those in front and back are not.

Thanks for sharing Falcon. I have several customers in the states that pay for my service as well (usually figures which ship easily)... keep doing what you enjoy, and thank you for sharing your hobby with the rest of us.

Well said Keith. Falcon has made no secret that he commisions the models. Hopefully the tips for improvements are passed onto his modellers, so they can learn from them ... I think Phaisal translates them and passes them on. As for quality ... Phaisal has already explained that he is more interested in quantity, so the modeller cannot compete with a modeller who spends 6 months on a similar size dio. Live an let live.

Thanks for your kind comments, Evan, Keith and Frank!
My close-up pictures have very narrow depth of field because of photographic device
constraints. My SLR, like my bike, is 20 years old. It's a Canon T-70 with 35-70mm f3.5-4.5
zoom lenses and 2x and 4x close-up filters. When the filter is used, the depth of field
is very narrow. If I didn't use the filter then I wouldn't be able to get that close.

Frank, I didn't say that I'm more interested in quantity. What I said was I want the best
of both worlds - quality and quantity. But I don't mind sacrificing a part of quality for more
quantity. Quality is always important. I believe that the tips and recommendations you gave
in the past will help my modelers do better work in the future.

Jenny, the postal service is good but the cost may not be so. I can buy Trumpeter's new
LAV-25, KV-Is or SAM-6 for $15 - $16, but to send it to and from Australia might cost more
than that amount already. Are you living in Sydney? I have a friend there who could be
my courier in the future.