JRutman

Nice progress. How much does a set of Friels go for these days ? I don't buid many tanks lately(or ever) J

Joel,Shawn and Harv, Thanks all,for the very very generous comments ! J

Oh believe me,the daily aches and pains remind me of my mortality all the time ! Thanks though buddy, J

Tim and John, Thanks for the kind comments guys ! J

Thanks Bill, I am using lead foil for the slings,as usual. I find the PE examples to be very hard to get into position. I did use a PE slide adjuster on the rifle sling though. J

Thanks Gaz, I appreciate it buddy ! J

Here is the squad leader finished tonight. Happy to answer any questions as usual, J

Nice beginnings on the main workhorse of the Panzerkorp for the entire war.

Thanks for the continued support Bill ! J

Thank you Lothar,I am happy if you think I succeeded here as that is my favorite thing to try and get across. The emotion. Not easy with plastic,or oil paint,or sculpting. I have always been fascinated by the great artists like DaVinci,etc. J

Thanks buddy J

I also got a set of liners for the helmets in case you want to show them upside down somewhere. And some beautiful Garand rifles as well ! Awesome versions and it includes wonderful bayonets as well.

I received a set of LIVERESIN german helmets to day and I am pumped ! This is the only 1/35 sample anywhere that has the rolled lip around the bottom edge that was used on the vast majority of wartime helmets. Here you can compare. Look at the helmets and not the position of them. The second pic is the dragon version.

This is the set of PE I always recommend to anyone wanting to add detail to a 1/35 german fig. Lots of other uses as well.

Thanks Timbo, Nice of you to say ! J

Thanks Shawn ! I am trying, J

added the rest of the squad leaders' burden. He is carrying the wounded kids' rifle and web gear and will dutifully turn in these valuable gov't items at the collection point I will add the y straps after the breadbag dries and is more stable. This was fiddly to build for sure. J

Maru-get those young minds going onto something more than video games ! Games are OK but I think kids need more than that to expand their skills. It's very nice they have taken an interest and thanks for the very kind words. Shawn-give it a go ! You may become addicted, J

Nice !! Can't wait till you get up and running. I succumbed to using an optivisor last year for the first time. It makes things SOOO much easier !

Very very nice thing to say Joe. Also very creative I might add ! LoL One of the things that got me started on all this modification of figs is the fact that they became so cheap along the way. I could go to a show and get a box of 4 or 5 figs from a vendor for 3 bucks maybe. So I no longer had the fear of screwing them up because they cost so little. Just dive in ! The lead foil is cheap as well. Now,the resin heads ! Another story. But if you practice enough you can get a plastic head to look half decent as well with some tweeking. It's all time and effort driven. Thanks again man,that was a nice statement. J

Gazzas,Maru and Jim, Thanks so much folks for the awesome comments. I am sure it made my morning ! Maru,tell your friends and family hello in India for me ! You always have such nice and polite things to say to everyone on this forum and I am sure everyone here really is happy you belong to the group. I got around to the front of this guy last night. Added detail to the ammo pouches and figured out how to make the hanger for them out of PE. Thought he needed a set of binos as well. Have a look, The bit of foil on the bottom of the binos is supposed to be the leather part that was used to buton them to the front of the tunic so they don't bounce when running,etc. I didn't do the best on that but hey...it is pretty small. Thanks again for checking in and typing something ! J

I hadn't thought of that position but yes,that sounds very good to me. Thanks ! J

I finally wrestled photobucket back into play so here is a smallish update. I wanted to include a squad leader here. I picked an older Dragon fig from the Normandy commo troops set. Bit wide in the shoulders and beefy,like most Dragon figs so I put him on weight control using my dremel and knife. after the mods I also got rid of the sort of goose stepping walk.and added a bit more character and animation to the pose. First app of putty includes the ammo pouches,bread bag and filling in the cracks. The detail I had to remove because of re-posing now gets added back using brass wire and lead foil. Now I will move back around to work on the front, Thanks for looking folks ! J

I just used a thin wash of black. The trick is to get exactly the right thinness to the paint. I use my thumbnail for testing !

These guys are not finished but I was happy that the unshaven look didn't suck. First time for me. It could look better but at least I am improving. J