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Post by OneZero on Oct 5, 2006 10:03:49 GMT -5
Fantastic job milspec!!! thanks for showing us the pics...it looks so real to me. did you have any special tool to cut the plastic? what you did was really amazing.
i just noticed something in this forum...i think everyone here are all artists, very talented people that also cares about history...
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Post by VeeVee on Oct 5, 2006 21:49:34 GMT -5
You're right 1-0, I think most of us have some artistic inclinations. All these scratch building of bazookas, M2's, 1/6 scale figures and dioramas, photography, living impressions, etc, are all art-related. There are so many artistic angles in which to enjoy our historical hobby. Aside from my frustrated obsession with a photo shoot, I'm also trying to write a screenplay about Scouts in WWII and Bataan (haha). Don't get too excited, I'm still reading a book on how to write screenplays and I get to read maybe just one page a day
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kalbs
History Buff
Hair is over rated
Posts: 100
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Post by kalbs on Oct 6, 2006 8:26:25 GMT -5
Don't wait to long VeeVee or I'll need to model a cane like General McCarthur before you make the movie
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Post by milspec on Oct 9, 2006 9:19:42 GMT -5
Greetings Philip,
Thank you for your compliment. Coming from you that means a great deal. Although, I cannot take full credit for the work since it required the cooperation and specialized skills of a couple of other people. This type of AN M2 in this configuration was usually employed in the waist gun positions of B-17's and B-24's. I had hoped to reproduce the receiver area and come up with the M2 HB 4x to make a replica quad .50 cal turret like the one mounted on the M16 half track. I was also planning on doing a water cooled .50 cal mg. I saw that in the movies Tora,Tora, Tora and Wake Island. Plans were derailed when I got married and I had to move to the US.
milspec
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Post by milspec on Oct 9, 2006 9:29:54 GMT -5
Greetings Kalbs,
Thanks for your compliment too. I'm still looking for the drawing that we based the .50 on. Our opinion was that the drawing was not adequate enough so we got access to a real MG and worked from there. We actually traced the dimension on cartolina and cut them out to use as templates on the plastic sheets. The .50 cal MG is a relatively simple weapon to copy. A lot of flat areas and cylinders. Its basically a rectangular box with a long tube. The cartolina templates did not survive the project. I will look for whatever other references I was able to save.
milspec
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Post by milspec on Oct 9, 2006 9:50:51 GMT -5
Greetings One-Zero,
You're welcome and thank you too One-Zero. I'm glad you guys appreciate what we did. Do you know that the best compliment we got when we finished the project was from my mom. She was the only one who appreciated most of the work put into it. Actually I think she was the only one who saw it from the time it was a jumble of scrap plastic and tubes until the final finished product. We actually used scrap Plexiglas sheets. These sheets could be cut by scoring with a sharp blade then snapping the pieces apart. Rough shaping was done with a grinding wheel then finished off with various metal files. To make the guide slot and ammunition feed area, we had to drill holes following the shape then use a copping saw to cut out the excess plastic then file away the excess or use a dremel tool for the finer areas. The hardest part was making sure we didn't file to much to keep the alignment true so that when we glued the pieces together everything would be flat and at a 90 degree angle to each other.
Prior to this we had experimented on a PRC-25 project. We had only photos to work from and no measurement and it didn't come out as accurate/authentic as we would have wanted to.
milspec
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Post by milspec on Oct 9, 2006 10:17:00 GMT -5
Greetings Victor,
Speaking of screen plays I remember we had play in high school entitled "Cowards Die a Thousand Deaths". Maybe you've heard about it. Its backdrop was during the Battle for Bataan. I don't remember the whole play but as far as I can remember it is about the son of an officer who is being court-martialed for deserting his position during one of the battles. The son is confronted by his father who is ashamed by his son cowardice under fire. The son begs his father to help him escape the firing squad. The father convinces his son that he has replaced the firing squads bullets with blanks. In the end the son faces the firing squad honorably and without fear. His father is proud of him and feels great sadness as he sees his son fall to the ground with a smile on his face and a bullet wound to his chest. It was more drama than action. I don't remember who the author is. Good luck on your project.
milspec
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Post by milspec on Oct 9, 2006 20:47:08 GMT -5
Greetings Kalbs, Here are the reference drawings that I was able to find. I hope that they can help with your M2 project. milspec
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kalbs
History Buff
Hair is over rated
Posts: 100
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Post by kalbs on Oct 9, 2006 23:07:51 GMT -5
Excellent! Thanks Milspec.
I see the scale on one of the drawings, do you have anything with a dimension? I've looked on the net but cannot find the M2. I have scale drawings of every type of reciever you could imagine but that gun
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Post by milspec on Oct 10, 2006 13:56:37 GMT -5
Greetings Kalbs,
I'm sorry to say but I don't have any drawings with dimensions in them. That is why we had to get access to a real M2 to make templates. The drawings were good to verify details. I'm sure that there are books out there with the dimensions we just have to find them.
milspec
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kalbs
History Buff
Hair is over rated
Posts: 100
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Post by kalbs on Oct 12, 2006 17:53:28 GMT -5
My first attempt at photoshop Ronin of the HK-LRRP
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kalbs
History Buff
Hair is over rated
Posts: 100
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Post by kalbs on Oct 13, 2006 22:39:01 GMT -5
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Post by legionnaire on Oct 14, 2006 0:17:17 GMT -5
Great B&W shots even the Sherman in the BG! Thanks for showing! Philip
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Post by OneZero on Oct 14, 2006 9:37:14 GMT -5
here's one more with kalbs at the beach
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Post by VeeVee on Oct 14, 2006 18:58:32 GMT -5
Sweet! I have to learn more photoshop. My only photoshop job is this conversion: And it took me forever of trial and error to do it, and I can't even remember what I did.
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kalbs
History Buff
Hair is over rated
Posts: 100
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Post by kalbs on Oct 16, 2006 9:12:32 GMT -5
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Post by VeeVee on Oct 16, 2006 15:41:37 GMT -5
Nice! Works of art indeed! You should make your own scrapbook/coffee table book organized by era of impression
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Post by milspec on Oct 17, 2006 20:31:06 GMT -5
Greetings Kalbs and One Zero,
Fantastic pictures. You guys are masters with Photo-shop. The pictures are simply amazing. I keep looking at them over and over again. They're classics. Just in time for Flags of our Fathers. What are you guys planning next? Congratulations and well done!
milspec
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Post by OneZero on Oct 18, 2006 10:21:08 GMT -5
Thanks guys!
Kalbs and i are still learning photoshop...the real master of photoshop is Ronin, which ironically has not done a single photoshop work with this shoot...but i can tell you that his work is really amazing.
what's next milspec ?...hopefully our very own Phil.Scouts next year...we want to see the last days before the fall of Bataan. we already have quite a few ideas in our minds...if u have any suggestions, please feel free to share it.
One thing though, we still have a long way to go in collecting these PS gear....it will take some time to pull this one off.
1-0
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Post by VeeVee on Oct 18, 2006 16:06:56 GMT -5
You don't need to complete everything especially if you're just doing a combat impression. For example in combat, the infantry will most likely have dumped their haversacks to lighten their load. So you won't need to have a haversack for a combat pictorial. You already have the Garand. You already have the cartridge belt. You don't have to have the actual boots especially if you can get creative with your shots. If you can get the leggings, any inaccuracy wtih the boots will not be obvious. You need the helmet though. Even then, a $20 British tommy helmet can pass if you change the chinstrap to that of an M1's. The Marui M1A1 Thompson is not accurate for the PS impression. That came later in the war. For a tommy gun, it needs to be this (there are airsoft springers of this) I can't wait! I wish I could be there at the pictorial whenever that would be.
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