Spare sculpting time found; made use of.

Found some time to sculpt. In case you don't know, I've got a new job doing graphics for educational games(for lack of more verbose description). I've got a lot less free time but I'm also more hopeful about the future; so there's your trade-off. I'm very happy about it.

I'll keep sculpting but it will probably be awhile before I find my stride.

So, I've added the sleeves and shoulder pads. I decided to go with a more rounded design for practical reasons - round stuff snags less than angular stuff and military types need to be low drag (hi speed). I added some flexible, sewn in elbow pads (and cuff strap things). From recent experience, you need some elbow protection for crawling around.

I also want to progress with my Open Fire! building and painting. I'll complete all the armor starting with the two remaining Stugs and then do the rest of the Panzergrenadierkompanie. 

A neat program is making the rounds for capturing GIFs so I made these out of some reserve duty videos I had lying around. 

Helmet

Attached the rifle to the body for one dude. Added the helmet for another.

Getting going

I got settled in a bit. The kitten is doing well, I'll attach a photo.

Good news; I got a new job. It's doing graphics for a game/education company. Really cool. I'm really looking forward to being awesome at it.

Having that security, will help me be more productive on our projects here. I'm starting up again, baby step like. I've got big ideas, and though less time to do them I've got a more valuable resource which is more peace of mind. A big weight has been lifted so to speak.

Here's what's what:

The macro photo reveals serious issues with the blending of the pouch lid.

Fixed it a little and took a darker photograph. ;)

Yo, I'm back.

I've been home a couple of days. If you didn't know, I'm an Israeli. Israel has mandatory 3 year conscription for all 18 year olds. Some conscripts do combat service, we call combat servicemen "warriors" or "fighters". Of those, a part go on to do mandatory reserve service. Not everyone finishes their full term in combat duty and even less stay onboard for reserve. I enjoy it and consider myself lucky to be able to take part in it.

You can read some more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces#Reserve_service

On patrol

Night ops

This kitten was abandoned by its mother - the door says "no entry". ;)

Currently I'm taking care of it at home, feeding it and what not

The LBV is a tad small

The new fashion in strap attachment.

A few words about the strap connection -  in the IDF we carry the weapon either across the shoulder - barrel down, or slung on the neck for use in action. The built in strap connection on the AR-15 and variants is for carrying the weapon on one shoulder - barrel up. That's why we use a bit of paracord or some other connection method to attach the strap. Though I used to connect the strap to the front sight in the past I recently came to the conclusion (after seeing some others) that this method (middle connection) is far preferable. The main reason is that connecting to the front sight will either obstruct the sight in some situations and/or the gas return tube heats up which might melt the paracord.