P is for Posing

I've been without Internet for a couple of days, and spent the time trying to get my Picasa folders sorted out, and dump a lot of electronic junk, and came across these which I had a play with a couple of years ago. I was trying to get scenic backgrounds that looked at least half-real!

It's not that easy, you have to keep an eye on the lighting in the picture, the lighting in the room, any light coming through windows, any shadows cast by you - hovering over the 'studio' and the camera's flash!

A couple of Matchbox kits sat on the edge of the great Sand Sea, looking for the reconnaissance oppo's of the wily Desert Fox; Rommel. It's interesting how the contrast camouflage some vehicles used in the Western Desert are quite effective with the sharp shadows cast at dusk and dawn. Here a faint reflection of the vehicles on the glossy paper is the 'fail'!

Airfix ready-made begins the assault on some mountain pass in the Balkans, on a search-and-destroy against Tito's Partisans. Another thing you need to watch is the scale of the background, and really, the marker-posts in the middle distance are a little big for this toy, a 1:48 or '35th scale AFV might have looked a little better?

Esci armoured ambulance heading out in the evening, after the battle to good good deeds for either side, the war in Libya and Tunisia was not the apocalyptic blood-fest of the Eastern Front, nor the dogged-slog from D-Day to Berlin, having many a gentleman's agreement and moment of decency. In this shot I could never get the perspective right, despite propping the half-track on a lump of blue-tac and moving the picture around.

This is a (Humber?) command car in white metal, I can't remember the maker - possibly Skytrex? It's a lump, and worked quite well with a crop that leaves a lot of the background...Monte Cassino perhaps or Malta?!