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    Invasion of France, 1940

    This article was originally published on the website: Armorama.com

    Preface:

    I wanted to write this article with the idea of sharing some techniques for simulating fire and smoke and as encouragement to those who are curious about adding some “special effects” to their projects.

    As I read the online discussion boards, the topic of replicating fire and smoke seems to come up regularly. This got me thinking about what kind of effect would look good in a photograph and I thought I might investigate what could be accomplished without a lot of technical experience.

    The Inspiration:

    The idea for the vignette came from a PK photograph I purchased from an antique store about 10 years ago. It’s framed in my studio and I look at it from time to time and wonder how it could be reproduced in model form. The image shows a street corner with a couple of dozen French helmets and other debris in the foreground. In the background, a double column of German infantry march by and the whole story of France’s defeat are told in that image. I had often thought about using a street corner and French helmets but with only a few Germans marching by as the focal point. The idea was never so great that I wanted to undertake the project until I purchased the Heller kit of the French Hotchkiss H35/39. In trying to do some research as to colors and markings of this tank, the overwhelming majority of source photos showed these tanks abandoned or destroyed.

    The little tank fits nicely within the confines of the street corner base and it seemed natural to construct it as an abandoned vehicle as so many photos showed.

    Composition:

    As I started to construct the tank, I was able to position it across the street corner with the idea of leaving some room in the street for the German infantry figures already mentioned. As the photos will show, the large tree formed an environment for the tank and the small well made the composition a little more balanced by letting your eye move away from the tank.

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