I'm currently using the Osprey "Men-at-arms" series of books for picture references of my subject matter. I don't think I could afford buying real objects to work off of, unfortunately. However, by looking at some stuff that has already been created on Rednerosity, and created well, I've figured out a little better how to do some things. 

I may post my "copy" of the prop, just because it seems a shame to me to devote so much energy in something and not share it in some fashion. I mean I haven't used a shred of material from the original. It is entirely my own work. I just used the original to get ideas on how to do some things. And it is a British helmet which is pretty basic, universal, head wear. Probably every military modeler and their brother has done a British helmet at some time.Although there seem to be relatively few posted on Renderosity.

Overall my approach to things is to make things I am interested in seeing in the market. I've done a lot of animating, making things for Civilization III which I'm interested in and have found that some things I want to use in my animating are just not available anywhere out there. So I want to make things that I personally would like to see on the market. So for instance my Fallschirmjager helmet and Italian Desert Helmet are things I don't see out there much. I think I've seen a good Fallschirmjager helmet on Turbosquid but it was horrendously expensive for one object. I've seen a few reasonably priced Falschirmjager helmets but I actually like the shape of mine better (except for the chin strap which I need to work more on).

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