This article is the continuation of the "Abandoned Bergepanther" article and it completes the scene of the French street vignette. Like most projects, this vignette evolved as progress was made and I had time to study it. I had originally intended to depict a scene with the tank abandoned as in the contemporary photos. Actually, that isn't entirely true. I had originally intended to finish the tank as the method to prove the suitability of the laser etched zimmerit sheet. However, the vignette of the abandoned tank on a street really came pretty quickly as I started to make progress on the tank. I decided that I could make good use of a Curved Road kit as it had enough room for the tank to sit in the street. I thought I would add some mature trees in the raised area behind the fence and the scene would have some vertical elements to form a backdrop. I didn't really want to do the work to make the trees, but I still wanted a backdrop of some sort. So I scrounged up a building facade I'd done awhile ago for a possible new kit. That's one of the benefits of having a lot of half done projects stashed everywhere I suppose. The photo shows the tank on the Curved Road base with the facade and I was pretty happy with the composition. I thought a little more and realized that if I used the building facade, I would probably then be committed to making it into a kit. That's when I decided that if I was going to create a new building kit, I wanted to get something else out of my queue of "future releases" and went ahead and started the Music Shop. The Music Shop is one building I have aspired to create since I took a photo of a facade in Belgium in 2000. At the time, I wasn't necessarily thinking of creating a model of that particular building but probably making a painting of it. I knew I wouldn't be trying to exactly reproduce the building and I do take more liberties with details in my paintings. But the time appeared at last to be right to get into the design and details of this facade. The photo shows the scratch built master in progress. The building incorporates a few different materials, basically whatever will achieve the results I am looking for. Working from photos of actual buildings obviously has its advantages but there is still a fair amount of design work, decision making and editing that has to be done in order to create a miniature with the right amount of mass and character. You will notice for instance that I changed the size of the window openings after assessing the overall appearance of the upper story in relation to the ground floor. Actually, the measurements of the roll up doors and the width of the facade really took some working out on paper and in foam first. The facade ended up being cut down in height also...after the moulding detail was added. That kind of modification is bound to happen as you see the facade in full dimension and particularly on a base next to some figures. The stylized roof shingles were originally going to be included as laser cut pieces as in our Farm House kit but the economics of having them separate would have affected the price of the kit and there was no reason to facilitate the opportunity to make a battle damaged roof when the roll up doors were going to be cast in place. This next photo shows one of the first castings I did before I sent a clean article to my casting contractor. I include it to show the comparison between the original fabrication and the solid product in resin. Go to page 2

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