Customer Reviews

MODELING AND DETAILING GERMAN ARMOR (Expert Modelcraft DVD)

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If you are looking for a dvd that shows you how to build and detail armour, this is probably going to disappoint you. It covers very superficially the actuall building of a JadgTiger (Dragon kit# 6285). You see the author build a wheel, a battle damage on the front of the tank and put together the tracks. The entire rest of the dvd is about painting only. It covers the painting and weathering really well, so if you want to get some ideas on how to weather armour, this is a very good reference as we all do it a little different and there is no right or wrong way about it - you might like the authors aproach, as I did. I was actually looking forward to seeing him building the whole tank and attaching the photoetch etc, but no such luck... I found out that seeing it being done can replace many books that explain how it is done so I thought to take my chance with this dvd. Given that I paid only $16 at Amazon, I think it was not a total loss as there are interesting techniques being taught although not pertaining to the building and detailing of the vehicle.

Watching this DVD after viewing Realistic Armour Finishing by Marcus Nicholls is like watching a 'C' grade movie after watching a blockbuster, Academy award winning film!
Now my modelling skills stretch only to advanced beginner so I eat these DVD's up, looking for the 'professional's way of doing it'. Looking at this it appeared 'clumsy' and just plain wrong.
Case in point was in the weathering phase where he (the author)went to simulate 'chipping' using a sponge. With the amount of paint he put on the model parts to simulate the chipping he must have thought the Germans kicked the guts out of the tank not just walking over it to leave that trail of destruction! With the emphasis being "little is more" he flies directly in the face of this.
Apart from some ideas on foliage and introducing me to the product 'Mr Surfacer', I got nothing from this which is a real surprise because my skills aren't that advanced. I have gone back again and again to Realistic Armour Finishing but I won't be going back to this.
I assume this production company selects its contributors and they must have some 'cred' in the modelling world so I'm hoping this was just a bad day and it isn't his best work.....I hope!
Overall, given what I know now, I would stay away from it and invest my money elsewhere.

A great video for building a hunting tiger, but not so great for general model building German armor. You really have to interpolate the ideas for building the ONE tank into your building style and figure out how the ideas and techniques will apply to your non hunting tiger model. IF you can do that then you will enjoy this video.

I was somewhat disappointed after watching "Realistic Armor Finishing Techniques". I still picked up some useful ideas, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

It was worth getting this DVD, although I wish there would have been more extreme close ups of the finishing techniques as they were applied. As with any DVD instructional video, much may get by you that you will quickly forget unless you take notes or something. That's the beauty of books - you can usually quickly find the section and pages you are looking for. What would have made this video indispensible would have been a presentation explaining what color paint finishes were used during which years, what style camouflage -hard edged, soft edged, ambush- was used when and where, and what vehicles had Zimmerit(From late 1943 almost to the end of the war virtually all German AFVs had Zimmerit applied). How can such an important detail be ignored in something that is specifically about detailing German armor? Since these things, paint and Zimmerit, are often discussed in modelling forums and the information is so important to accurate detailing of German vehicles, especially armor, it's surprising and disappointing they were totally omitted. Interior colors such as that of communications gear, instrumentation, etc. was not covered either. I would LOVE to see a Zimmerit finish applied both via pre formed resin and by putty and the various Zimmerit tools available to hobbyists. Anyway, I'm still glad I bought it and would do so again. Maybe somebody will make a DVD to add to this one with the paint and Zimmerit info on it.

he builds and paints a large, but simple, dragon's king tiger. deffinatly a beginners dvd, nothing complicated.

Boring good sleep movie. good for beginning modeling, other then that sleep away ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh tank dreams !!!!!!!!!!