tanker22

Got this the other day from my sister currently serving in the Army as a 1LT with a Medical support/ Evac reserve unit. She is over there for a 18 month tour and is her first deployment as well so alot of the stuff is a big shock to her, welcome to the real Army kid The first I have heard from her since she left and as you will see is a blanket letter to the rest of the family or who ever decided to write her. Thought it would neat to share with all of you just to give a bit of insight as to what it is like over there, what is happening and some of the things the troops have to go though. Granted she is in a pretty cushy job as the Battalion S-1 so I dont forsee much field time for her unless thier mission changes. Brings back alot of memories for me and I can relate with what she is going through. Hope you enjoy it and just remember how easy we have it back here compared to them. Hey everyone. Sorry for the mass email- I'm trying really hard to email everyone back individually. I stay really busy. I usually work at least 12 hours a day and everyday of the week. So at least my time here is going fast because of how much I work. Unfortunately, it causes me a lot of stress and I have a hard time sleeping at night. But I'm am told that over time I will get used to it. Our newsletter will be coming out soon. Sorry for the delay- it got pushed back because of our movements. But it will be out within the next couple of days. Again, I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping in touch very well- I'm working on it. The internet here is really expensive at our CHUs (container housing units) and from about 1700- 2100 is slows way down because everyone is getting on the wireless and using up all the bandwidth. I usually don't get back to my room till about 2030 anyways. I just found out how to call home- so Mom and Dad- promise to call you soon. It's just easier to email when I get a chance and it don't have to worry about the time difference. Again, I want to thank all of your that have been emailing me and sending me mail...it brightens up my day and really helps on the "bad" days. I have learned even more to appreciate the little things in life- like vehicles, phones, privacy, etc. And we have it pretty good here on base in Baghdad. No I don't eat any MREs- I eat at the DFACs (Dining Facilities) and they have plenty of food. Actually I even get Indian food here--there are a lot of Indians that work at the DFACs serving the food. Lots of chow, fruits, drinks, desserts etc. So we have more than enough food. It's not bad at all, except it all starts to taste the same after awhile. It's funny with the Indian and Asian workers...they all ask where I'm from and then assume I speak the language and I have to explain I don't. So instead of learning Arabic here--I might come back learning Hindi. LOL. We a only a couple vehicles so we walk everywhere..good exercise since I walk all the time. To put things into perspective...it takes me about 20-30 mins just to walk to lunch oneway. Communication is hard even here within our unit because we are scattered all over Iraq, and the different bases in Baghdad. The weather here is starting to heat up. We get duststorms a lot as well- usually puts a damper on our flight plans. We were delayed from Kuwait to Baghdad because of that. We are suppose to still work the same mission in Ramadi even though the construction has been pushed back. I don't think our unit will ever move there for our operations even if it does open. We will continue to perform our mission here in Baghdad I believe. But it's pretty cool here at night still. I'm sure its gonna heat up really quick soon. And all the bugs are starting to come out as well. Even though I put sunscreen on all the time...I will come back with a tan face and hands. That's gonna look funny. Our base in Baghdad is pretty nice though. Not complaining at all. I know those before me have been through a lot worse. But I see Sadam's palace everday and there are a lot of man-made lakes here that beautify up the area a lot. Other than that there are very few palm trees and the rest is dirt. There are a lot of neat building here as well. I can't tell you too much without giving up our operational security. For the most part we stay on the base most of the time. Some of our personnel travel to different areas in Iraq and Kuwait for short periods of time. I am getting some great experience here and learning a lot. I do a lot of management and dealing with personnel. I have also meet some really nice people outside of our unit. There are definately things that I will carry with me the rest of my life. I also have some friends within the unit as well. I will try to send you guys more pics of myself and my time here. I'm sure it can explains somethings far better than words can. Well, I better get going and try and get some sleep. Miss you all. Keep in touch. -Rachel

Thanks for the link Gowestover! No, I'm not done with it at all. I have a bad habit of using the head as a finger point so its usally the last thing I paint. Going to give the helmit a more kaki tint like the pics, was going to go with a white/ tan but I like slight green tint better. Guess when I say I'm almost done it means about 3 or 4 more hours of work and then the oils still need to dry too, I'm looking at about a week on it still I love both of the movies as well, suppose thats why I went with this kit. A good chunk of change though, about $70 but very cool none the less. I'll try and get a post up here maybe tomorrow with some of the highlighting/ shadding. The oils will be wet still and shiney but at least you can see the work on it.

Nice job on all of them, they are a nasty looking bunch and I bet look friggin awsome on the game table!

Very cool looking! Excellent job on the skin and blending and I like the colors

A little more work done on him this morning, getting close to being done I think. All I really have left is the highlighting on the pants and jacket and his skin. After that should just be down to the touch up phase. Has a bit of a gloss look from the oils, used a thinned down wash to get the gritty realistic look going somemore. Thats what I an shooting for at least. I dont care much for the clean, band new feel. Just doesnt fit the mini or the situation he is suppose to be in. Will probably have to add in just a touch of blood as well. Will probably go back and re-highlight some of the white just a bit as well Thanks, let me know what you think or if I need to change something/ fix Chris

You know, I've been thinking alot about the colors I'm going to do for her and am a bit stuck. The thing that keps throwing me is the marshals jacket she is wearing. Normaly I would go with some patent black shiney leather in this case but not sure how the jacket would look like that. Given the sculpt I like the way she is painted in the Pic from the company, seems to work pretty good so was planning on going that rout unless someone gives me an alternative that works. Any input would be appreciated on this and no rush, probably wont even get her primed yet for a few days, still want to finish the others first. Thanks

This is going to be a big one and very challenging, placed a standard 28mm next to it for scale once agin as I did with the 90mm Andrea I'm still working on. Hope to have that one done as well as the piece I'm working on for Rcon this weekend so I'm getting Natasha ready. Everything is pinned on her right now and will do the base once I'm closer to being done with her. Have to say I wasnt very impressed with the casting, needed alot of clean up and some green stuff to gap fill, still not quite done with that but close. Sculpting is very cool though. Looking forward to starting on her, should be entertaining. Warning!- Linked for nudity, yeah, I'm back at the good ones again Natasha Thanks, Chris

I'm sorry to hear about your lose Echantra. Think you are bing a bit superstitious though and worrying to much. Some times you need to have a bit of faith and believe everything happens for a reason. Good luck on your ultra sound tomorrow, hope it turns out ok for you, which it will of course

I've been trying to end my times at reasonable hours as some of you have mentioned, but with most of my sales going over seas its 8-10 hours in either direction for me so its kind of a toss up. About mid day for me seems to do well so far. i just put a few more up so I'll see if my thinking still holds true. I agree what he did wasnt the most scrupulous thing to do and another reason why I started doing it on my own, was just a bit leery to start selling the first place on my own. I dont know why he didnt cancel it, I asked him and he said he couldnt once it was bid on <shrugs> I hope to get good feed back from people because I'm sure it does help to some extent, but that will come with time I just try to give the best sevice I can and let them know what is going on and thus far has been going ok. All of my stuff from the last auction is still in transit so I still dont have feed back as of yet. Thanks for the advice everyone KatieG- Thanks for the kind words, another problem with working on larger kits is the cost of them to me. This one wasnt to bad about $40 but I have a 200mm Pegaso I plan to start soon that retails for 132 Euro or about $200 USD. Then figure in my painting and fees and its going to be an expensive one. These bigger ones are more just for collectors and show peices, Trust me, it looked real nice on my shelf and it kind of looks bear without it now but thats the way it goes I guess. Thanks again everyone

For the last several months have been putting quiet a few of my minis on ebay though a friends account. On one of my last auctions with him he messed up and didnt catch it until after he had a bid on it and ended up getting banned for two weeks for bumping up the bid so I finally decided it was time to do it myself. ( He placed a buy now price with starting bid of $1.00 and no reserve on it. He used a relatives account to bump it a respectable price I and ebay cought him doing it though ISP addresses I guess. Keep this in mind if you want to take the chance yourself, big brother is watching ) Seeing as how this was the way I was generating extra cash for Rcon this year I couldnt wait on him anymore and tried it myself. My main reason for having him post all my stuff was his hight rating and all the good feed back. I thought this would help my stuff sell better than if I was doing it with none as a new seller. I posted Four autions over the last week and all of them sold to my surprise. I have heard several schools of thought on how to list my stuff, one being that you should start low with your price to try and get your name out and build a client base until you are a recognized painter. I dont plan on giving my stuff away figuring if some one wants it they are going to get it regardless which proved true in all my auctions this time and most in the past. I dont really care if I have 8+ bidders on my stuff or whatever. If I get what I think it is worth with only one bidder it was worth it to me which is what happened in the case of the 150mm resin kit " Carina" I sold this time for $150. Had several comments that I had listed it to high because it wasnt a popular kit or something. With a resin model that big its alot different than a 28mm to paint and the price I asked and recieved was the lowest I would go on in this case. I am not going to under sell my work because people want everything for nothing, would just as soon keep it on my own self then. Was happy with the price for the most part but still think I sould of gotten more for it IMO. There again I'm not trying to do this to support myself so if something doesnt sell, no big deal, I can just relist it later and ajust my price accordingly What I have been doing with good results for the most part ( say 60/40% sale ratio) is starting the bid at my lowest price I will accept ( generaly between $60 and $120 since I do larger minis, 54mm + for the most part) and either setting a reserve a bit higher or just the one starting bid and let it stand like that. Obervations: 1)My new new account and the lack of feed back didint affect my sales as far as I could tell. 2)I tried to maintain good communication with the buyer being courtious and giving one of them a discount on his shipping for multiple purchases and it was appreciated. Good PR I think and would probably buy from me again in the future. 3) Had one pay with an echack which I thought was strange and still waiting for it to clear, should be today. Dont misread notifications from ebay and ship your sold items until the payment has gone into your pay pal account. 4)had a bit of a mix up with my first sale between ebay and pay pal. Seems I opened my pay pal using one email address but had an existing ebay account with another. My default computer one. The two wouldnt talk to one another and it said I had a payment waiting to be recieved but wouldnt deposite it. The step by step process keep taking me to the account set up screen to register but I all ready had an account so it would accept it. Got very frustrating for a while until I figured out I had to add the other email on to my paypay account as well so the transaction would take place. After that everything went smooth. 5) people for the most part were friendly as long as you talked to them and then shipped out the items promtly after they paid. Made sure to package my stuff very well for the shippment and pinned items that needed to be to help them arrive in one peice so the buyer gets what he orders undamaged. International shipping is the worst, customs has a bad habit of damaging things so I double box all my stuff, the majority of my client base has been oversea's to this point with most of my exposure being from CMON. 6) The whole ebay and Pay Pal set up pricess was actually very straight forward for the most part. Everything was a step by step process and pretty easy to do in general. I set up a seperate bank account just for Pay Pal as well to protect myself keeping those funds and transfers seperate from my normal checking. Whenever someone buys something it goes into your pay pal account first and can then be transfered to your bank account if that is how you wish to handle it, its not automatic though and required a funds transfer that takes approx. 3-4 days to clear as in my case. 7) You need to do painting that sets you apart from the norm. In my case the fact that I paint larger stuff and work primarily in oils helps I think. I've seen some 28mm stuff go for stupid low prices IMO that should of got alot more, but everyone seems to paint them so the market is flooded in a manner of speaking. Have to admit that T&A seems to do quiet well for the most part Branching into historicals as well to get a feel for that area but I think they will do well if the painting is good. These are some of my experience and I hope it helps anyone that is thinking about getting into trying ebay sales in the future.

This is my favorite thus far, always had a weak spot for the panther FYI- Had a friend of mine in the service, first generation born in the US from German parents. His Grandfather was on these and served in the 12th SS. At the end of the war he was actualy on the Panther H (I think?) had the laser range finder and gyro gun stabilization with IR serch light for night fighting. Realy cool guy with lots of stories if your into that sort of thing. Excellent work as on the others, looks very realistic. Congrats on the win as well!

Once again, very cool work! Excellent job on the cammo as well. I'm getting that itch to start work on a model again

Very nice, brings me back to my old modeling days where I got my start at. Do recongnize the bottom pics from an actual photo, very cool work Heisler

I agre very nice work and she looks great! Different colors but nothing wrong with that at all, kind of reminds me of some Anime looking stuff with what you did her up in. Nice job on the bones as well, overall a good looking peice of work

More work done and some detailing. Still pretty rough in a few areas so dont mind some of the neatness Think the face is coming out pretty good, has a real P.O.ed look to him. Also added a bit more color to the base as Ollie recommended thanks again for any comments and suggestions

Like where your going with the red armor, has a cool diferent kind of look to it. You could darken up the shadows with a redish brown then work to a lighter red for the high lights maybe? Nice job on her cloak, coming out real smooth looking

Nice job on the sword and the metals came out looking good. Overal nice looking work, did a good job on it Doug

Real shame to hear about his passing, His books and work on D&D got me started many years ago into RP games. Still wish I had all those those old origonal hard bound AD&D books and the boxed sets for Basic and Expert rules along with all the old adventure moduals since my son is now into playing as well. Allway thought he got the smelly end of the stick from TSR after the split from them. RIP Bro

Thanks for all your comments thus far, hopefuly can get some more done on it today since I'm off work. Ollie- the discription to the terrain that came with the mini said the ground was all a mix of redish brown earth and yellow mealie what ever that is. I actyally put more contrast into it than the origonal photo I think but still want to try and stay close to what the terrain actually looked like. Maybe I can go back and add some more yellow/ brown into it though in patches. That might help some. Thanks VV- Wilber Smith! havnt read one of those in years. Might have to bust out an old book to get in the mood for this guy

I finally got some of these guys up on ebay if anyone is interested. Hopefully I got it all right Thanks again to everyone for you help with this Chris

Excellent job on her face, overall she came out very cool, I like it

Man she came out awsome! I still cant get over that SE-NMM work on her, very cool looking

Very nicely done! The sword looks like it came out very good and I like your color choice as well. NMM came out good as well IMO. I'm not very good at it my self so yours looks pretty good for first time

Got some more work done on him. This is just the base colors and started some of the detailing, you can begin to see it coming out now more than with the black primer. Finished with the ammo crate as well. MJ- Dont think pinning is going to work on his feet. The pegs dont extend all the way through but are flush with the inside. I think trying to drill up at an angle may just do more harm than good on this one. Probably just go with the epoxy rout but thanks.

Nice, I agree the poses look great. Dwarves are just cool minis anyway you look at it.