FineScale Modeler 10 2002

If John Smith could share just one piece of advice with his fellow modelers it would be, "Get your references first." Following this advice led John and his 1/35 scale M1 Abrams to a People's Choice: Best of Show award at the AMPS 2001 competition in Maryland. John had wanted to build an Abrams model since training as an M1 gunner at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He held off, though, because he hadn't found the reference photos he wanted. Years later, while in the Vermont National Guard, he arrived on post one day to find an M1 Abrams with its engine in a hoist, and he grabbed His camera. That was the beginning of a labor of love. John knew he wanted his model detailed accurately inside and out, and that meant kitbashing and scratchbuilding were in order. He began by backdating Dragon's M1A1 (kit No. 3516) turret and hull. Then he added the tracks and gun from Tamiya's Ahrams M1 (kit No.35124).

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FineScale Modeler 03 2004

As a kid, Mike Siggins always wondered why the German characters on the Hogaris Herocs TV show were so afraid of being sent to fight in Russia. I hat led to an interest in the history of the Kastern Front in World War II. About the same time, Mike built his first model. Over the years, the two interests converged into a focus on modeling late-war Kastern-Front dioramas. Mikes 1/35 scale diorama, Too Little Too Late, depicts the final resupply of a pocket of German troops in the city of Poznan shortly before it was cut off by the Soviet army in February 1945. Mike wanted to convey the raw conditions and desperation brought on by lack of food, water, ammunition, and shelter. He immersed himself in books of period photos to get a feel tor the poses and facial expressions of soldiers struggling in snow and mud. "It also helps," he says, "if you live in an urban area where it snows to get the look of fresh late-winter snow on top of old snow." A resident of State College, Pa., Mike knows a bit about such conditions!

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FineScale Modeler 03 2003

Plastic-model giant Revell-Monogram and its German sister company; Revell AG, have been sold for the second time in 14 months. Alpha International sold the two companies Nov. 15 to Chicago-based R-M Investment Group LLC, which is a holding company for three entities -Morton Grove, Illinois-based Revell-Monogram; Bunde, Germany-based Revell AG; and Revell-Monogram Asia-Pacific Ltd., based in Hong Kong. The latter is a newly created firm that will distribute and market Revell products in Asia. John H. Long, chairman and CEO of R-M Investment Group, says the firm is made up of several private investors, including himself and Jim Foster, who is now the president and COO of Revell-Monogram and Revell AG. "There are no institutions involved. ... These are all private stockholders," he says.

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