I really didn't do much research before last year. Then I had this Academy Tiger w/ interior and I decided to look some of the info up on the internet. It was at this point I found the DG's Like Missing Links and Armorama. I found some really good material on the Tiger so when I got a Dragon Wagon I decided to look again. I found my lust for knowledge became insatiable and I had to do more and more research for each project, culminating in a trip down to a nearby NG armory where I took nearly 600 pics of an Abrams to satisfy myself that I had everything I needed to do one perfectly. Here's the down side, I now have so much information that it is cumbersome to look through to find what I need, and I have to do everything so perfectly to justify all the effort that I haven't finished a model in six months. So when I started a Nashorn last month, I found four or five pics on the net and went to. Depending on the subject I might go to extremes again, but for everyday stuff, I will read the reviews and not worry about it so much. If anyone cares, I actually did something on the Abrams again last night after a three month strike.

Rob

To some extent, yes.

For the M113 series, I have pictures of the interior taken at several locations and CD copies of many of the technical manuals.

For the Panther A and G, somewhat, since I can get access to them at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, other than that it is books.

I'm not sure if I'd count internet pics as 'original research', if so then yes for lots of IDF stuff.

Mike

Research!? Research!? Now where did I put that book on the Panzer 4...ah here it is under the Tiger Tank Book by Uwe Feist. I have ton's of reference books to scour, and if that ain't enough. Every model show I go to if I have a kit of somethng I haven't built yet, I take a ton of pictures of the subject. I also scan the gallerys of several model sites for more pictures, and if Finescale Modeler has a how to article, into the model box that goes.