Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Discussion and the builds for the SMW 2011 CBK display.

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JohnRatzenberger
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Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Imported from the old forum, but since there were only a few posts, I just cloned them into this initial one ....

Initial post, 22 April

Well, by vote of our leader, here's mine ....

Image

It only comes with a gunner, so I'll add a few figures from their US Infantry figure set.

Don't know about targets. I have a pair of 1/144 FW190, but I think they'll be too large, even if just a tail sticking out of a backdrop. I have, so far, found that GHQ Miniatures has 1/285 FW190, so that might work. I have found that White Ensign has some 1/700 German aircraft, but not a FW. Not sure what else is around -- of course I could always just fake it or maybe just show the backdrop thereby saving me the work of making aircraft and an explosion. I will have to play around with the Paul Bradley photoshop tricks ....

As noted earlier, I'll not do this with the vehicle in motion, that's fantasy ...

Also, I am fortunate that I have a pretty close to mint-condition box for the M16, if that is needed for the display.


Reply by James Perrin, 23 April

For the planes you could also cut them out of the background and add them printed on cardboard on a wire/stick attached to the background.

I think with the explosions it will be a matter of experimentation. The artwork is quite impressionistic so its up to you if you choose to go the same way.


Reply 27 April in response to Bromo's question
bromo wrote:Nice choice that,whats the plan for the groundwork? :grin:
Darn, I hate good questions :???:

It's tough with the vehicle taking up so much of the boxart, I really don't know what's behind it, other than a distant city-scape on the left and an explosion on the right. The ground looks like a slick road/field -- as James said, impressionistic.

I'm going to try edit the vehicle out of the box art then try (note use of "try" numerous times) to fill in some road/ground, then look around for something forest-y, or perhaps farm-y, impressionist-y, to fill in the background the vehicle is hiding.

Then I thought of bending the bottom up to be the base for the vehicle, using some "real" ground for the vehicle to sit on and fade into the photo-hack background.

I think the explosion will be half photo-background and half "real".

Anyway that's my vision of all this after several beers .... I'll be looking for suggestions once I have some experimentation to show .... right now, I'm started on the build. It looks as if the vehicle is a bit smaller in life than it is on the boxart so that helps perspective ...


In Progress, 29 April

Well, in-progress may be a bit misleading -- it's just the sprue shots ....

Image

but I do actually have a small start on it ... It's a nice kit - they've captured the main items well, even to the fold-down sides.
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

Very cool. I look forward to seeing this one get built.
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Question -- for the background, I should edit out all the kit text & stuff, not just the vehicle, leaving just a picture of some sort ?

Actually two -- you want the kit box also for display ? If so, I have a pristine one available.

My first effort at cleaning up the box art went poorly, back at it another time ...
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Well, it's been a while, and there is progress so I better show something.

Image

I have much of the chassis and body together. I found the plastic simply doesn't react to Tamiya Orange-top cement, so I switched to the hotter Green-top cement and parts now stay stuck together. You'll see some white card on the rear -- there is a gap between the floor and the back wall that needed filling.

I'm going to do some detail paint of the driver compartment and of the underside of the chassis, then move on. I also need to cut the wheel drums off the front axle and remount them at a slight angle to match the boxart.

The turret is not an easy build if you want the guns to elevate. You get two .50's which get glued to a mount, one assembly per side. There are two halves to the turret. The mounts should rotate in their respective turrets halves. The mounts are connected by the seat which then elevates with the guns. That is theory. The seat, and the tabs that glue into the mounts, is a bit wide. I sanded down the sides of the seat for clearance in the turret and cut down the tabs to be sure the mounts fit snugly into the turret halves. That took quite a bit of test and fit. Then I had to be really, really careful when gluing the seat (tabs) to the mounts that no glue ran into the tracks on the turret halves.

It all works now, but it took some time. Oh, yes, I drilled out the gun barrels ....

Progress on making the background is not going as well ....
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JamesPerrin »

Going the extra mile to make it match the boxart will really make it sing John. Keep up the good work!
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Brews wrote:The scene (including the railway tracks) is intended to replicate the Ludendorf Bridge, I'm pretty sure. If the driver could see that the Fw 190 was dropping a bomb in close proximity, who could blame him for putting it into gear?
Hmmm, the RR tracks don't show on the boxart (a common problem with many of the MBX kits). However, if I can ever get the M16 out of the boxart I intend to add an image of a bridge in the background, so maybe RR tracks also -- thanks for that !!! I'll go for a static M16, spinning tracks, flying mud and al lthat are way beyond me ...
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

OK, guys, put on the old thinking caps .... Mr Un Creative is trying to design something ....

First image. I reduced the kit box by 65% to bring it "in scale" to the model (even thinking about the nuances of that without a beer was tough...). The sides obviously get cut off, I want to extend the road and the bottom on the box as shown. The red line through the "middle" is a fold line. In the lower left is a vague sketch showing a bridge being put in the background once the halftrack is removed. Obviously all the lettering is removed, as well as at least the closer aircraft -- that'll be replaced by a 3D cutout of that aircraft.

Image


This next image shows you what the concept of the folded background looks like. The thing to note here is that the box art perspective assumes the observer is part of the picture looking at the Halftrack.

Image


Next is the same thing but with the halftrack sitting on the backdrop. Note the problem in that the real observer -- my camera and the show spectators -- has a vastly different perspective than the boxart, so it looks fairly bad.

Image


What we really want is the following. here I have tilted the model up to change the perspective. I just stuck a block under it, but I suppose I could bend the backdrop to less that 90-deg so the "base" tilts up a bit, then put a "skirt" in front (I can make another picture if that's not clear).

It has been my intention to have a local artist fix this thing up like a painting one two flat pieces. I guess I could try to make a real 3-d base instead ? Add work & risk that they don't look the same somehow ...

Image


Comments, suggestions ? Note that all my lines are just rough cut. While looking at this I realized my fold line should be angled from the right side up toward the city and not straight across.
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Here's a continuation of above .... Remember I was concerned with the viewers perspective not matching the box art. I made a mock-up of the display, this time tilting the base up a bit to get the nose of the M16 lifted .... Looks pretty good I think.

Image


Then later (which is why the turret is off again) I got the idea to use the RR track that comes with the kit. It has a shell crater in it so I cut the track at an angle and put the (now half) crater right where the explosion is on the right. It's just sitting there, it needs to be dug in a bit so just treat this as a concept. I also think this might loook better if I made the background bigger, say reduce the original box to 75% not 65% ??? Now this means the display would not look like the box art because there is no RR track visible on the boxart ????

Image


Comments ?
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Brews wrote:I think that there is such thing as "artistic licence". Just my $0.02. Also, as good as this artwork does look in its own "Commando-style" way, is it possible that the artist forgot to put the tracks in the picture?
Maybe, but most of the Matchbox boxart does not match the kit diorama by a wide margin -- the Monty Caravan being a famous example.
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JamesPerrin »

Using the base is a great idea and I think you could definitely go a little larger. An increase in depth will also mean the explosion doesn't appear so close to the vehicle.
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by mattbacon »

That looks great... we're going to have all kinds of funky base shapes by the time we're finished! Bear in mind that the front face of the base doesn't have to be parallel to the backdrop panel, so if you want to you could bring the front right corner out and up, which'll help keep the "explosion" tucked behind the vehicle... 1/144 or 1/200 Fw190s must be available from the wargames folks...

(Raiden Miniatures... http://www.raidenminiatures.co.uk; do a 1/285 Fw190, which could do the job... pricy at £1.35, mind..

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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

I just don't see an aircraft model in this -- it will be huge regardless. It's my plan to leave the forward (smallest) one painted in. Then I'll copy the rearward (larger) one, cut it neatly and just stick it out from the panel a hair to give depth.

The ideas to not do a square display have merit, I plsayed with that a bit before and maybe should do more considering the possible use of the RR track ....
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by SJPONeill »

1/144 or even 1/285 might still be too large for the perspective over a 1/76 vehicle...

Pitroad used to do aircraft in 1/700 but from memeory this were mainly for the Pacific theatre; Tamiya also do B-25s and Japanese naval aircraft in 1/700 (http://www.tamiya.com/english/waterline/31516.htm) -perhaps one of the radial engine fighters might suffice if modded as a 190?

Another option for small aircraft models might be to see what sort of lapel pins you can find - I have a very nice 3D Spitfire I got from Duxford a couple of years back - I know that a lot of US aircraft are availbale like this so you might get lucky with a 190...?
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

OK, opinions needed -- here's my final design of the base and I'm off to see an artist Monday to work on getting the background done up.

Image


Based on prior comments, I reduced the boxart less, to 72% not 65%. After a couple tries, I settled on pulling the right front edge out and up to get the HT away from the explosion a bit. I canned the RR track idea -- they actually don't look scale and regardless they'd pull the explosion back too close.

I intend to leave the smallest FW on the art but take out the other, larger one and mount it maybe a 16th or 8th inch oout for some small 3d. I have a sketch of putting in a faint RR track/road leading from city to a RR bridge to fill up the horion/background when the HT is taken out of the art. I'll final this with the artist ....

As for the HT, you can see running gear is now on, so it's about time to start work on the crew and some detail painting ....
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Re: Matchbox 1/76 M16 MGMC

Post by JamesPerrin »

Great work John I love it! :-) I was hoping for some dynamic base shapes, rather than flat and square on, so as to better capture the mood and viewpoint of the artwork.
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