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FEATURE
Armorama.com AMPS 2007 Award
wbill76
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Texas, United States
Joined: May 02, 2006
KitMaker: 5,425 posts
Armorama: 4,659 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 06:36 AM UTC
Dave O''Meara announces the winner of the Armorama.com AMPS 2007 International Award: James Wechsler''s diorama "The Hard Way".

Armorama.com AMPS 2007 Award



If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
bulivyf
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Praha, Czech Republic
Joined: April 03, 2006
KitMaker: 2,450 posts
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Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 07:15 AM UTC
Excelent job!!!!
GALILEO1
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Maryland, United States
Joined: April 18, 2006
KitMaker: 1,794 posts
Armorama: 1,431 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 07:29 AM UTC
WOW!!!! What a SUPER job!!!!!!

Speechless!

Rob
Tarok
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Victoria, Australia
Joined: July 28, 2004
KitMaker: 10,889 posts
Armorama: 3,245 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 06:09 PM UTC
Fantastic dio!!

Is that the DML Gen2 figure set?

Rudi
TankTrap
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Invercargill, New Zealand
Joined: December 08, 2006
KitMaker: 456 posts
Armorama: 403 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 06:49 PM UTC
Wow thats amazing.
how do you do that water?
SGTJKJ
#041
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Kobenhavn, Denmark
Joined: July 20, 2006
KitMaker: 10,069 posts
Armorama: 4,677 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 08:04 PM UTC
Wow! Excellent job.

The only thing that struck me was that the Shermans should have been more wet and shiny above the water line due the waves etc. Like the drum on the beach. However, that does not distract from the diorama being excellent.

How did you do the water?

Thanks for sharing
Gunny
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Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: July 13, 2004
KitMaker: 6,705 posts
Armorama: 713 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 08:45 PM UTC
Congratulations, Mr. Wechsler, and my comments echo my site mates, great job overall...very nice dio, great action...thanks for the experience, Dave!
Cheers,
~Gunny
ericadeane
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Michigan, United States
Joined: October 28, 2002
KitMaker: 4,021 posts
Armorama: 3,947 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 11:56 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Wow! Excellent job.

The only thing that struck me was that the Shermans should have been more wet and shiny above the water line due the waves etc. Like the drum on the beach. However, that does not distract from the diorama being excellent.

How did you do the water?

Thanks for sharing



Jim and I spoke about this very issue. He said from photographs he had and writings of tankers who made the wade into shore, the surf remained mostly off of the tank's upper hull. Jim is a great stickler for detail (as if you can't tell) and he modelled the "dryness" according to his best research.

BTW, that historical point was not taken into account and cost him in the eyes of some of the judges that day sadly. Ahh, such is life. Jim continues to literally crank models and dioramas out constantly. He posts most of his work over on TL.

Amongst Jim's other entries at the AMPS Show was also the winner of the "Fish Tanks" theme award: he modelled a great M4A3 amphibian , swimming along during the Okinawa invasion.

HTH, RC

sweaver
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Kentucky, United States
Joined: April 19, 2007
KitMaker: 759 posts
Armorama: 410 posts
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2007 - 12:57 AM UTC
THIS IS AMAZING!

How did you do the water.
ericadeane
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Michigan, United States
Joined: October 28, 2002
KitMaker: 4,021 posts
Armorama: 3,947 posts
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2007 - 02:38 AM UTC
Here is Jim's own write up and more pictures:

http://www.track-link.net/gallery/4994
Wexman
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California, United States
Joined: May 11, 2004
KitMaker: 16 posts
Armorama: 12 posts
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2007 - 02:46 AM UTC
Thanks for the nice comments. Special thanks to Armorama for hosting the 'Best Sherman' award.

Here's the answers to a few of the questions in the posts above.

All of the figures except the guy throwing the hand grenade are the Dragon Gen 2 figures. There's the four in the kit and I made a 5th from the left over parts and a set of legs in my spares bin.

I made the water using a product called Envirotek Lite. You can find it in art supply stores (in the US, Michaels carries it). It is lightly tinted with Tamiya acrylics. The white water is made from the white top of a kitchen sponge. The sufrace is made up from home silicone caulking (the water soluable kind) and the whole thing is coated in a product called Acrylic Varnish, also available in the art supply store.

The note about the tanks being wetter is accurate. In retrospect I wish I'd made a darker section that was glossy wet but it was too hard to do once fully mounted and to be honest, I was afraid I'd wreck the whole thing.

Jim

Jim
BillyBishop
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: March 20, 2002
KitMaker: 347 posts
Armorama: 167 posts
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2007 - 11:15 AM UTC
Congrats Jim!

Well deserved

Cheers, Michael
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