6MMRPC Week One: Historicon Painting Competion

My first week of the 6MMRPC was a quiet one, my son's fifth birthday took most of my attention.  Wargames Illustrated has co-hosted the Historicon Painting Competition since 2013, and are doing so again this year.  There will be ten categories, and I plan on entering my work into three of them; Open, Flames of War Platoon, and Flames of War Objective.  I've done very well in both years so far, winning the Iron Cross for Best Flames of War entry twice, and three other awards in category.  Let's see if I can continue the streak!
So far, I'm planning on entering a Saving Private Ryan- inspired diorama using Flames of War minis in the Open category, which allows for models, vignette, or diorama measuring 8" x 8" x 8".  I built Battlefront's Hollywood Tiger special Nationals objective marker, a tounge-in-cheek reference to the old movie practice of building a 'Tiger' on a T-34 chassis.  This technique was famously used in Saving Private Ryan and Kelly's Heroes, among other films.  I used the cupola from the early-model Tiger I to match the one used in the film, replaced the fenders which were actually too detailed, and added a few bits of stowage and appropriate decals as well.  So far, I've got the 'Tiger" base-coated, camoflauged and washed, as well as the Kettenkrad and BMW combo from the final bridge scene.  I've also kit-bashed up a Captain Miller figure, but need to fill some gaps still.

You can see the funky Soviet tracks and boxy front end and fenders.

First attempt at a Tiger with the airbrush, think the camo turned out pretty good.  Details next.

The bridge scene shows these two broken-down German vehicles, they will be included.  Capt. Miller in progress.

Inspiration.

The beast.

I will also be entering into the Flames of War Platoon and Objective categories, not sure what I'll enter into the Platoon category, but it'll be something I've already painted, maybe my Luftwaffe troops.  In the Objective category I will be entering something I've been working on off-and-on for years, a propaganda photographer getting an 8.8cm Flak36 crew to pose for a shot, maybe with some newly earned award or something.  I have the crew mostly finished, but they still need details, and I may add a few more kneeling crewmen.  I pushed the gun back and removed the rear legs as I thought it looked a bit cramped.

I'll add some ammo crates, etc. for the middle guy to lean against, plus some other items.

These will be the first FoW items I'll work on, have about six weeks until the competition.