bonehead
A Fixture
Well the cat is out of the bag. Paul at the Model Cellar has announced these figures that have been on my "to do" list for nearly half my life. The subject is a pair of German "fliegertruppen", the crew of a two-seater observation aircraft. These fellows were acknowledged as teams that worked closely together to get the kind of photos of battle fields and such that would be useful to the war effort.
They were known colloquially as "Franz und Emil", apparently a prewar (WWI) vaudeville team. Many years ago when I worked for Testor Corp. I started acquiring photos and info for these figures always with the intent that i would someday sculpt them.
Twenty or so years later, Tamiya were having their annual model shows here in California. The main requirement for this show was that all entries had to begin as Tamiya model kits. The top rewards were free trips to visit Tamiya in Japan!
It occurred to me that I could easily do these figures with their bulky clothing as "conversions" from Tamiya 1/16th scale plastic figures. So that is what I did. Somewhere underneath all that sculpted clothing are a Tamiya tank commander and Luftwaffe pilot figures. Buried would be the right term. There really is nothing left to show their origins. I simply used the Tamiya kits as convenient armatures on which to sculpt my figures.
Well, Tamiya-con is gone and the figures were never completed for that show. But thanks to Paul at the Model Cellar, I did finally finish the figures. The final piece of the puzzle was when Wingnut Wings issued their German observation plane kits with nice photos of the hand-held cameras used by such crewmen. I enjoyed scratchbuilding this piece of equipment....
Cheers!!
Mike
They were known colloquially as "Franz und Emil", apparently a prewar (WWI) vaudeville team. Many years ago when I worked for Testor Corp. I started acquiring photos and info for these figures always with the intent that i would someday sculpt them.
Twenty or so years later, Tamiya were having their annual model shows here in California. The main requirement for this show was that all entries had to begin as Tamiya model kits. The top rewards were free trips to visit Tamiya in Japan!
It occurred to me that I could easily do these figures with their bulky clothing as "conversions" from Tamiya 1/16th scale plastic figures. So that is what I did. Somewhere underneath all that sculpted clothing are a Tamiya tank commander and Luftwaffe pilot figures. Buried would be the right term. There really is nothing left to show their origins. I simply used the Tamiya kits as convenient armatures on which to sculpt my figures.
Well, Tamiya-con is gone and the figures were never completed for that show. But thanks to Paul at the Model Cellar, I did finally finish the figures. The final piece of the puzzle was when Wingnut Wings issued their German observation plane kits with nice photos of the hand-held cameras used by such crewmen. I enjoyed scratchbuilding this piece of equipment....
Cheers!!
Mike
? When.......Where??!!!
