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It is called "Mistaken Optimism", the title was given by my American friend, a Historian. I think the title should reflect the mood I tried to show. The scene takes place during the first successful days of the German Offensive in the Ardennes in December, 1944. The victorious Wehrmacht soldiers stand above the injured US soldier (Jeep Willys driver). The driver couldn't escape, and now he is caught and questioned by the Nazi officer. His leg is bleeding (I'm afraid this may be a controversial point). The Scout Car, the Jeep, the ammunition and weapons are the German trophies now. But the optimism of the Germans is mistaken. Everyone remembers the end that followed.
The idea to create such a scenery came from just a range of model kits I had sporadically collected. Then, I decided to do everything I could from the scratch, in "economy class". No photo etched parts were used, as they are rare to appear in shops of my area. I used an old Italeri's M3 Scout APC (now produced by Zvezda), and two Tamiya model kits for this scenery, "German Soldiers at the Field Briefing" (35212), and "Jeep Willys MB truck" (35219) with its driver's figure. The M3 was painted a heavy worn winter chalk camouflage over base olive drab. The decals came from an old Tamiya's M4 Sherman kit. Side mirrors, ropes, and some stowage were added. The officer in a Finnish fur cap is converted from Italeri's Panzerjager I tanker figure. Tamiya figures were made straight from the box, and were just slightly converted. The pose of the Jeep driver was changed in order to depict the injured one, and a 'woolen hood' was added, an improvised device to avoid December frost. Painting was made in accordance with the instruction and the box art (my special compliment to Tamiya!), but I tried to show different camouflage patterns that could appear in Wehrmacht that time: e.g. the officer features an Italian camouflage blouse. Some small but important parts were added to the Jeep: the T-shape locks on the hood, wires, and the tent rolls. The dead tree is also scratchbuilt. The trunk is made of a "real' pine wood sticks, and all the branches are of a plastic sprue. Some dried unknown plants served as bushes, and bunches of rope as grass. I used baking soda and teeth powder for "snow mixture", everything on a PVA glue. In order to make smaller spots of snow I used thick white RETYPE correction fluid.
The scenery photo was made specially for Tamiya Pachi Photo Contest 2000 (still expect the results), that's why I had to remove all non-Tamiya subjects like M3 and one of the figures. The backstage was taken from Mr. Dick Dietrich 2000 Calendar "Flowing Waters" (Published by Tide-mark Press Ltd., and borrowed from the wall in my office).
All photo works by Mr. Andrey Vasilyev, by Nikon camera.
Alexey Fominykh
Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
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