Photo frustration with my airbrushed tanks

I have been painting, airbrushing, washing, dry brushing, tweaking and teasing some WW2 German panther tanks for a few months. In life they look fantastic. I'm not just saying that because I put so much work into them. They really do look great. They have bags of contrast, dark spaces that look dirty, faded out cammo (actually you can hardly tell that they are cammo, they are so faded and "dirty"), yet the dry brushing picks up all the raised areas, especially the zimmermit anti magnetic mine paste, while leaving the dark areas still looking dark.

So what is the problem? Well, the photos I have been able to take look awful. There is no exposure setting that can really show the dark areas, while maintaining any light. There is no setting that shows the light areas properly at all. The best I can do is fade the whole thing to a light colour which totally wipes out the contrast. It looks like I've done a crappy job.

My next hope is to combine images with a HDR package like GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Computer programs, or the cameras themselves, combine several exposures to produce a range of exposure that would not normally be possible. Here are three images I took at different exposure settings. Firstly, the one the camera wanted, next -1 exposure value, lastly -2 exposure values.

This is the image my camera wanted to take. It has totally zapped the contrast.  Those areas that look a little darker in the photo are really dark, with that yellow colour dry brushed over showing up the zimmermit.

Second photo at -1 exposure value.

Third photo, at -2 exposure value compared to the first, and coming closer to the darkness for some of the dark areas (which are still darker in reality)

The tanks are from Old Glory USA.

10mm 7YW Pendraken Prussian infantry

I've finished 38 Prussian battalions. This is just a sneak peak. The units are musketeer, fusilier, and mixed grenadier regiments in a variety of poses. First battalions have a mounted officer.

28mm Old Glory Sudan Camel Corps

I bought a few bags of Old Glory, mainly Renaissance and Colonial,  figures to see what they are like. I've an interest in Sudan games, having seen an article about Peter Guilder's collection in Battle Games magazine.

I think these figures are really nice. They can add some variety to your colonial games i.e. break up all those Perry figures..