Due to time constraints, I had to quickly photograph the practical elements used in the "painting", and isolate them later in Photoshop. Being a packrat paid off for once, as I had available an inherited train set's worth of plastic models and traincars. The refinery wasn't quite to scale, but I did what I could with it.

The gentleman is my great-grandfather. His image on the smokestacks was supposed to evoke the idea he's the Father of that facility, perhaps the man who built it or administered it. The left side of the image I created in Photoshop, aiming to match the deterioration in the old photograph. The Cyrillic text doesn't say anything specific.

The barrels and boxes I created, lit and rendered in Inspire3D. I talk a little about them here.

Detail. I had to digitally lengthen the shadow cast by the outbuilding, to enhance the scale. If this weathered Cyrillc text means anything, at least it's nothing naughty! I ran it all past a relative who speaks Russian, and they cleared it.

When I turned in the piece, I provided differently-lit groups of the CG props, on separate Photoshop layers, allowing the layout artist flexibility in filling gaps between characters. He actually took cues from my fires and tinged the character illustrations with firelight. Nice!

Chris Appel did his usual fantastic job on the character illustrations. I'm proud to have worked with the Collectors' Club and this team, and the kid in me is thrilled to actually be involved with Hasbro's 3 3/4" G.I.Joe figures collection! I owned and played with a bunch of the 1:18 scale line in the early 1980's. The hovercraft even appeared at our wedding reception!