Kradmelder Ostfront.

[Rob59]

Sunny and dry outside, so time for a little photoshoot again.
Nothing spectacular, just for fun.

[Jofaur86]

Well I would say, once again, that it's a great job, the black and white looks good, the painting of the equipment or the people is great, so what? for the diorama? I don't have any adjectives to describe your staging, super realistic, the impression of being there, conclusions, I would say a thousand congratulations to you

[Rob59]

Merci Beaucoup!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Rob59, from you photos, I can almost feel the weather: cool and muddy after rain or snow, but with the sun at a low angle. Now that's a sign of great modeling and photos!

[Panzermechaniker]

That is great use of the autumn sun. Without question from September on is the best time to capture the shots of dioramas and that one is really great to look at

[Rob59]

Thanks to the both of you, but I would had preferred a grey day without any sunshine at all.
The figures would have had more stand out, now the sun takes part of the scene away.
Besides that, in sunshine you must always be aware of your own shadow while taking pics. So there were some restrictions during the shoot.
Nevertheless it was fun to do.

Taking pics in the snow has its limitations too.
Now you can walk around the scene if necessary, but in the snow you must watch your own footsteps! Once you have made a size 10 in the snow next to your tank or figures, it‘s done!
You cannot easily wipe it away.
So that are always things I have to keep in mind before I start making the scene/diorama.
As we do not have that much snow overhere, if we get any at all, I must always grab the opportunity when there is some of that white stuff.
That is the only moment I can take my Winter tanks out with the figures in white camo outfits.
In fact, almost all figures I have are dressed in winter clothing. But as long as I do not paint them completely white, and use other camo patterns, I can use them in autumn and spring too.

Rob.

[Rob59]

Yesterday I finally finished the 3 Riders, and this afternoon I made them a bit dusty/muddy to fit the bike.
As I mentioned before, the grips from the bars, were molded into the hands of the driver figure.
So to make the driver fit, I had to cut off the original grips on the bars.
But, because I want to be able to use the bike without any figures at all, I didn't glue the hands/grips onto the cut-off handlebar, only glued the hands onto the arms of the driver.
The passenger in the sidecar, had in fact an officers cap, but I thought maybe an officer would choose for a Kubelwagen or a KDF VW for transport instead of a dusty bike, so I changed the cap for a steel helmet with camo cloth on it.
This helmet came from the figure for the Kettenkrad (which is the next model I will build), so he received a normal steel helmet without any camo stuff on it.
Years ago I bought 5 metal goggles, used only one for the driver of my Winter Panzer IV, so I had 4 left.
Tried if they would fit on the faces of the driver and the guy at the backseat. Had to cut off parts of their noses, and it was good to go.
This also solved the eye problem, with which I am always struggling when painting figures.
The guy in the sidecar, wears the plastic goggles which came with the 3 figures. Just glued it onto the helmet and made a strap for it out of a 1mm plastic card.
Maybe I will make some oil and brake lines to make it complete.
And finally some outdoor pics of the complete set, bike/sidecar with 3 soldiers mounted.

[Rob59]

These are those goggles.
The advantage of them, being out of metal, is you can scrape off the paint from the silver ring around the glasses, so no stress painting the tiny lines.
I bought them in the Netherlands online, but rctank.de had them also on their website. No clue if still available at the moment.