I’ve always found the North African Campaign of WWII highly notable for a number of reasons and, now retired, I enjoy composing illustrations with plastic hobby kits and figures. Initially creating tactile dioramas, I rather prefer the art of assembling and painting the men and their machines. That said, I’ve begun creating backdrops with Photoshop, which allows me to create a wider range of compositions of varied contexts. Below is one of Britain’s Matilda infantry tanks, which were highly prized captures by the Germans who referred to them as the "Queens of the Desert”.
		The first U.S. advances into Tunisia were readily repelled by Rommel, but the last attempt was assigned to General Patton who successfully utilized the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Comprised of M3 halftracks with 75mm guns, many were positioned just behind the hill tops overlooking the passes through El Guettar. As Von Arnim’s panzers advanced, the TDs would pop up from behind the hilltops, fire down at the enemy, and quickly retreat behind cover to reposition themselves. It’s been noted that roughly 35 of their units were lost for 50 panzers killed.
		Tamiya’s 1:35 scale Sd.Kfz. 251 halftrack includes well rendered and dynamic figures that inspired the illustration below. In the spring of 1942, Rommel received reinforcements from the 15th Panzer Division and here I imagine a unit attached to an infantry battalion and their role in the capture of Tobruk. The 3 troops at left are included with the kit, and the 2 at right are from Dragon. While there are some fine resin and 3D printed figures available from 3rd party vendors, very few of them are action poses so I end up playing Dr. Frankenstein a lot, as I did with the M3-TD crew above.
		DISCLAIMER: Please view nothing on my website as finished work; I have yet to wear, weather or finish painting any of the builds and are all ongoing efforts. I use Photoshop 7 for composing backdrops, erasing bases from the figures in my illustrations, and as a method for plotting complex camouflage schemes that require extrapolation and don't use it to touch up my figures or kits. They’re presented here exactly as they would appear [better] in your hands. If you’d like to comment on my work, my name is Scott and you can email: scottestinnett@gmail.com or TEXT me at (619) 302-9962