Over the years I have done a interior from time to time.But I have never bought one of the fancy rather expensive interiors.A partial interior as seen through open hatches is good enough.I was wondering if other modelers are like me and still like to super detail and or sratch build without buying expensive after market conversion / upgrades.

Sure, lots of us here do. I put interiors in most of my APCs and some tanks. I have never bought an AM interior set for them.

Here is a nice interior scratch build. Check it out.............
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/94179#787095

Gary

That is going to be one cool amphibian. And it's a good example of a common scenario. There is no resin interior available for it (I think). So if the vehicle means enough to you to put an interior in, you are on your own. That's not all bad. Most resin sets are made to a price and there are limits to what can be cast. So if you're willing to invest a good bit of time you can probably do as well or better yourself.

If a set were available though, you've got to weigh your choices. Interior costs range from roughly $30-$80. To scratchbuild the interior may take hundreds of hours. If you have the time and enjoy the process, the choice is easy. I truly don't believe that many modelers fall into that category.

In a case where vision into the model is very limited though, a full interior with extreme detail would be a horrible waste. In the shadows inside a small hatch or viewed around a figure, even a very basic scratch interior would look smashing.

Regards, John

I agree. Shep Paine taked about suggesting the interior with a few basic shapes. On some vehicles though, if you open them up all the way, which by the way you rarely ever see, the detail is going to have to be much better. What I do not agree to is people poking maglites into every hatch to see what they can/can/t see. I had a judge tell me (per forum, as I don't do contests any more) that it is his right to do so. I say, if your goal is realism, and judging a model's realism, how much sense does it make to shine the equivalent of a 1,000,000 candle power spot down through a hatch? Not very realistic. The sun doesn't shine directly into an open hatch in any of the places I've been, and unless we get into a scrap directly on the equator, and I have my camera at high noon, I'll probably never see it. Usually the angle is such that once part of the breech is illuminated, you don't see much else. so in most cases that's as far as I want to go. Other times though...





...you just have to get a litle silly with it. I DO buy AM stuff when it's available. No sense reinventing the wheel-except in cases where I think I could better, as in the case of the M109, which is NOT the Warriors interior set, but my own.

Firstly, nice work 18Bravo! You have made your models twice what they were. More even!

While I don't know what the judges rationale was, I wouldn't have a problem with the Mag-lite treatment in itself. Unless you claim to have full interior, every part and detail that you do add should be viewed as a positive thing. If you do claim a full interior, then I suppose you open yourself up to an inventory of the contents.

Here's pic of mine that I thinks makes a point.

http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m305/hvap90/?action=view¤t=M4A3E8weatheringsm4.jpg



It was shot outdoors and the focus was the exterior paint (still in progress), but despite this, the interior is still evident. Once you paint everything white and open all the hatches it's obvious that a whole lot of something is in there.

To me, the alternatives are:

Keep hatches closed
Open small hatches but at least rough in the obvious stuctures.
Fill hatches with a figure
Do a fairly full interior

An open hatch which is a giant black hole is not an option IMHO. My opinion is colored by the fact that I find interiors among the most interesting areas of a tank. That said, I sure don't plan to put a full interior in all my models. Options 1-3 are quite viable.

Regards, John

If it's an APC with top hatches, they'd be open a bunch of the time... We ran our LAVs with the two top deck hatches (behind the turret) open for ventilation... I plan on doing my dio with them open to show off

After I finish this M1A1...