JRutman

Shawn,Bill,Boris,Mustang and Brian, Thanks gents for the excellent comments here. It made my day for sure ! And Brian,to make a fine point here. They are using the standard German poncho to carry the poor chap. Every soldier had one and they were extremely versatile. They could be used for a rainy weather cover of course,but also you could combine them to build quite large tents. They were printed in the Heer pattern cammo on both sides. J J

Pete,Joe,Mark and Joel, Thanks gents for making my day a bit brighter after the horrible news from Manchester this morning. J

I made a model for him back in the 90s but it was in 1/700 scale. He really liked it . It was all that was available at that time. Living community yes,certainly. The pre-war Navy was a much different animal that what it later became. All the capital ships had baseball teams,for instance. The "big leagues" were the battleship teams of course. My Dad was a good pitcher that tried out for major league baseball at home and was just selected to move up to the team for the USS Arizona. The transfer was awaiting orders when the attack on Pearl happened. That would have changed everything! But the community thing was very real. My mind is now fuzzy on details but Dads' ship was in the fleet at Wake or Coral when we lost a fleet carrier early in the war. He remembers a lot of guys from the old bunch weeping as they watched it slowly sink. Part of the family was dying. J

He was on the heavy cruiser New Orleans in Pearl Harbor during th attack and in all major fleet actions after that as they had to fill in for the now missing battleships. They were OK till the night at Tassaforanga when NO had her bow blown off by a Long Lance torpedo up to the second turret. After hasty repairs they had to BACK at low speed,un escorted all the way back to Australia,and hence to Bremerton Wa. He then transferred to the brand new heavy cruiser Quincy. They took FDR on the initial phase of his trip to Yalta and then were at Normandy for the big one,down to Cape Horn and back to join the fleet off Japan getting ramped up for the invasion of the mainland. Told to steam off the coast and wait. Truman dropped the two big ones and it was all over. He joined up 1Sept 1939 and mustered out in late 45.

Thanks all,for chiming in with such nice remarks. It was a rainy day yesterday so I got some painting done. The cost of war,

Brilliant story my good friend and even more so I think,because of the very personal connection to it It touches myself even more as my Dad was involved in a partial sinking during that awful war. J

I can't remember if I ever posted the start of this one o those many moons ago when I first began on it so here we go from this point on. This is a Masterbox set that I worked on a lot already,replacing all but one head with Hornet ons and all the gear and helmets with Dragon GenII stuff. I also updated the figs to mid 1944 by carving in gaiters and low boots,plus getting rid of the pleated pockets. Body language was changed as well and a lot of under cutting accomplished. I re worked the poncho a lot by carving,under cutting and adding putty here and there. Last night I replaced the casualties' one foot with a bare foot and added his injuries with putty. I began the cammo paint on the poncho. The water marks were made stark because they would be washed out later by the rest of the shading,etc if I didn't. Here we go so far, ANNNND photobucket is down AGAIN !!!!! What a stinken pile of equine excrement PB turned into. J

Thanks you two for the very generous comments! J

Shawn Lothar and Teresa, Thanks folks for the very generous and thoughtful responses! J

Jim and Joe, Thanks for the very generous remarks guys,it always means a lot to me, J

Thanks again fellers !

Thanks guys. I suppose it would help if I actually posted the pic I was referencing ! Duh. The linen is hanging out to dry,a practice I still saw a lot in Germany during my 6 years there. They did that a lot,even when not being laundered,just to keep things dry from the moisture trapped in the room. Thanks guys, J

Thanks man,I 'm glad someone noticed I took teh time to post all those pics!! J

And the obligatory shot to show the size in real scale using the ubiquitous paint bottle! J

OK,see if I can make this work

Sorry gents, I was having so much trouble with photobucket I got lazy about posting pics because it got to be a real chore. This thing is finished now. I am calling it "The Retirement". If there is any interest I will try to battle the bucket and post more pics. J

That is some very very impressive weathering and special effects painting there brother. J

Would be nice to see a forced perspective dio with this steaming along and the Connie flying overhead. Finish it by next week ? J

Joel,Harv,Teresa and Pete, Thanks so much friends for the excellent comments. Teresa,I had a bit of practice as I built a few doll houses for my ex-wife and other young ladies over the years. Bigger scale though ! J

Thanks Hubert! The old soldier on half pay is almost ready for paint to be slathered on. Waddaya think about the new pose I came up with to deal with the fact that I lost his pipe ? J

Thanks Jim and Joel for the great comments ! J

Thanks guys,for the great comments. Eye patch ! That is a great idea ! You are on to something there. Blood and gore...nah...not this time. The peaceful setting was the whole point here,to help me decompress a bit. J

Thanks Pete,nice of you to say !

Joe and Dan, Thanks Gents for the kind words. That is also one of my favorite movies. I have the DVD. J