6MMRPC Week Four: 8.8cm FlaK 36 Objective

Finally some progress to report! Now that the wife is back in town I was able to put some hours into the Historicon projects.  The first of my entries into the painting contest is now done.  As previously mentioned, I've been working on this objective intermittently since 2009.  It never quite matched any of my planned out armies and spent most of that time with the crew converted and primed, but that's as far as they got.
The objective tells the story of a static 8.8cm FlaK position somewhere in the rear areas.  The crew has scored their first shoot-down vs. a B-17 of the USAAF and is posing with a piece of the wreckage.

'Kentucky Jim' wasn't so lucky.

I used all Battlefront minis and scratchbuilt elements, as the rules for the contest require it.  The crew are nearly all modified, only the two on the right are not changed.  The guy on the left is a British SP artillery crewman with a head swap and resculpted sleaves, the NCO in the back was a bailed out crewman who received new legs and repositioned arms and head, the center crewman is a DAK tank commander with added legs, and the Oberleutnant with the camera was an artillery crewman who had his arms repositioned and a camera added.  The gun had its support legs removed and I built a wooded deck around the now concrete mount.  I had to magnetize the gun for transport.  The B-17 panels were scratchbuilt from heavy aluminium foil, using spare decals.

Inspiration for the decking.

Cut-down mount, magnetized, and the structure of the decking.  Balsa stock and planks cut to fit.

Decking and ground work in place, the mount is pushed back to give some space.  Vallejo pre-colored ground materiel,  AK washes.

8.8cm FlaK 36 on a donor mount, fresh from the airbrush booth, after two layers of Mig filters and an AK pin wash.

Crew painted and mounted, ammo and rangefinder in place.

After getting the crew and other items placed, I added a few wbits of grass, growing under the decking and a few clumps at the back.  I'm not a huge fan of the bare-earth look, but that's how these flak positions were historically.  Used several colors of dry pigments to break up the uniform look.  The wreckage panel was scrathbuilt from a piece of heavy aluminum foil from the top of a milk bottle, cut and scribed, rivet marks and panel lines added.  I scrounged up some appropriate decals from an old Gear Krieg model, really wanted a scantily-clad pin up girl, but no luck.  'Kentucky Jim' sounded plausible.  I also cut a piece of plastic film to fit the window.  Might try to add 'something to that big empty area but not sure what might work.  May also try to fit in a zeltbahn for interest.  

Some finished shots: