Hello Gentlemen:

John Bowery: Thank you for the suggestion. And yes, I am familiar with
using copper wire because of it is bendable for better positioning of arms
and hands. I do appreciate you taking time to reply, John. I hope I can come
to Indy this year. We will see. . . Snow and sleet are factors to consider
driving from Kansas City.

Chip: Thank you for your kind words about my base and the fence. I do
appreciate it.

rick

I like it alot. Well doen Rick!

WELL DONE, Rick !

Hi Rick !
WELL DONE, my friend !!!!! You've certainly inspired me to "dig-out" my Tamiya 120mm Afrika Korps figure (the one with the cameleon) to give it another shot . Cheers !
Kenneth .

Hello Dimitrios:

Thanks for taking time to have a look see. I appreciate your kind words.

Kansas Jayhawker

120mm Africa Corps Sgt. . . .

Hello Kenneth:

Thanks for taking time to post your comments, Kenneth. I do appreciate
the encouragement. Re that Tamiya 120mm Africa Corps Sgt. . . oh yes,
I have done that figure. And I changed the right arm all around, with him
raising the pith helmet up in the air as a welcome sign. He was offering
liquid libation to an unseen soldier from the wine bottle in his left hand.

I think that head offers a lot of possibilities. As you know the top of the
head is flat to accept the helmet. So I puttied it and made a head of hair.
At least that part came out OK.

Oh Kenneth, I really messed up that figure. The arm was way too long,
my proportions were way off. It seems I don't see the problem until after
I complete the durned thing. I threw it in the trash before I moved
to another house. . . Oh gee. . . I am sure you will do
a much better job on it. I hope you'll post pictures for us Planeteers to see.

Jayhawk

Sorry for the such late reply to this one mate but i have only just saw it today as i was out most of last night.

I really think the way you persaveared with this one even though you hit some obstacles was well worth the effort mate, it would have been far too easy to give up and move on but you didnt and thats because you have the discapline needed to learn new tricks, and they say you cant teach and old dog new tricks, Blaaah, just kiddin mate

Nice work on this one Rick and the effect of fading that fieldgey uniform has turned out very nicely and syour work on the groundwork has really improved in leaps and bounds.

Lovely job mate, catch you soon,

Stevo

This old dog is howlin' . . . .

Aw Stevo my friend:

Well mate, this old Dog is howling' up a storm, . . . with glee. I do
sincerely appreciate your kind words. And of course, the key word was
discipline. An important principal in model building for sure. And in life
as well. . . but I won't get up on my soap box about that issue!

I kinda snuck this one in on ya' . . . just yesterday after completing the
photographs. Now my old old neck and shoulders are tender from gluing
in each individual ivy leaf on the vines (roots from a hedge in the front
yard of the former house) . . . but I'll recover, I am sure.

Thanks again, Steve. and G'day mate,

rick the Old Heimer. . .

Yes but it was well worth the effort mate, exellent job and very nice scale mate.

later dude,

Stevo

Hey 1969. . . We got to quit meeting like this

Aw Steve, you're sneeky. . . Good thing I checked again. Well. . . yes, it
was worth the effort. And there is no prob blem mo with the neck and
shoulders right now, mate. Everything is smooth sailing, steady as she goes.

Except for the weather. We go into the deep freeze,
Once again, here in the Heartland America area. Whoa, . . . Durn burned
Ground Hog. . .

Jaybird.

Nice work on the figure and groundwork Rick.

Cheers David

Thank you David:

I appreciate your kind words. . .

rick

Hi Rick,

Nicely painted figure, particularly the the face (eyes), and the detail on the collar. I know what you mean about running into obstacles when modeling. With my conversions, take the SS Sturmmann for example. He is contacting the ground at five points. I've never modeled anything touching at five points. I had to paint parts of the gear on the figure with the figure attached to the ground work in order to get proper posing/placement. It was frustrating! I stuck with it though, but almost gave up! Each conversion gave me huge challenges, but it seemed to get easier as I progressed and learned from my previous mistakes.
Keep up the good work Rick, and thanks for helping motivate me to keep modeling.

Jim

Jim? Is it this cold in Minneapolis???

Hi Jim:

I really do appreciate your comments, Von Luch. And thank you for taking
the time to go into detail about your figure where 5 different points were
to be touching the "ground". Wow, I can see where that would really be a
lot to think about, trying to get each proper step in the proper order. But
like you, I decided to stick with this guy. . . And I'm glad now that I did
because the exercise taught me a lot about figure conversions, and hopefully
those lessons will make these minor conversions easier in the future.

And I am happy to hear you say that something about my build helps you to
stay motivated. We are here to help one another, for sure.

rick

PS. We're in the deep freeze in the Kansas City area and going near zero
tonight. I wonder if the Heating Utility Company will be sending out
thank you cards?

Hi Rick!

It's around Zero I think right now. We just had a front role through that dumped around 8 to 10 inches of snow in my back yard, just got in from snow blowing an hour ago, thank god for my 10 horse John Deer! (big driveway). It's also good to have one of those, I think they call them roof rakes, to pull the snow off the roof to prevent ice dams.
Rick, a point about weapon straps. I'll post an older figure conversion I did six years ago from the Dragon kit Barbarosa, guy drinking from water bottle. He has KAR 98 rifle slung over his right shoulder and Panzerfaust over the left/ I'll post Pic's tomorrow. A technique that I use to achieve a tight strap is I 'll attach the weapon first to the hand or were ever it is on the figure I want it, then I'll take a piece of lead foil slightly longer than what I need and I'll super glue one end or point A, let it set up, then i'll bring it to point B or in your case the shoulder board and I'll guesstimate how much slack I'll need, measure it up and cut the excess with a small hobby scissors, once cut I'll use a tweasers and drop of glue and carefully set the end of the strap to point C, letting it set up. Once set up I'll use a sharp #11 and scrape off and rough edges, doing the same with point A. You can always tweek things once the glue sets up.
Always do a dry run first to fit the strap, But it has to first be glued to point A in order to pull it over the areas your trying tp fit then go back to permanent placement. Oh, and make sure to add a drop of glue to point B as well, keeping the strap tight as you work it around to point C. I hope I haven't confused you. If I have just read it few more times, it will make sense sooner or later ! Rick, this technique works great. Good luck! I'll get those pic's out tomorrow.

Jim

Thank you Jim, for your time. . .

Hi Jim:

I really do appreciate your time; it does take a while to keystroke in that
kind of a helpful hint. And yes I could understand what you wrote with no
difficulty. You're coming in 5 by 5, loud and clear.

I'm working on another 120mm figure, this one of Tamiya. And there will
be a similar situation with the MG 42 w/ bi-pod over the shoulder. I am
sure you have seen this figure. Box art scan will be below.

Thanks again, Jim. I'll check back later to see the image you'll post.

Jayhawker