Pretty realistic. You might want to fix the reversed lettering on the background tank.

I'm an avid model builder myself and I make very accurate and detailed models of aircraft, spacecraft and military models. Since this contest is more about Photoshop skills I won't be using my models in this contest. Most people may consider them toys but model makers don't. Using such a model does make believability in a real world setting easier. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you didn't have to do any Photoshop work on the "toy" to make it look real.

I want to stress the point that this is NOT wrong or off theme! By definition a toy is "an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something: (as) a toy car." You did create a very good composition and the Photoshop work is quite well done. It's just my point of view regarding how the realism is achieved.

YOU SQUISHED THE LADY!!! (the original photo) Super cool. While I understand Spaceranger's dedication to model builders... (If you ever meet someone who put a ship in a bottle, hide all your sharp silverware if you say TOY) I think this chop is simply amazing.

I do believe a model can be considered a toy for this contest, as many models are available at toy stores... granted, if you've ever been in a hobby store or specialty Model shop the sophistication and "adult" attitude required to assemble them is mind boggling. Ask any one who has done a wooden model that requires an EXACTO knife to cut out the pieces...Yikes, I could never do it, I like my fingers too much. GREAT WORK AUTHOR.. and good luck

Congrats.....

WooT WOOT! Congrats even with the squished lady

Thanks guys.

Congrats!

congrats

Congrats!!

nice and clean work. well done !

Congrats Steve , nicely done

nice one!!

This is absolutely unbelievably good. I really can't believe how good it is. A MASSIVE well done !

Incredible! Brilliant idea with the hair.

very nice

Thanks guys. In case anyone is wondering, the hair isn't on the source layer.

amazing! good luck!!!

I'd love to see a more detailed SBS for this. Maybe a tutorial?

Breeze...!!!!

This is awesome. Very good work. Not only is this a fantastic work of quality but I also loved the whole idea of it. Specially the wind and flying papers.

OK(RED FACE), I was going to respond to 273Kelvin with some extra details. As I was beginning to ready a post I revisited the rules and it became apparent that I was breaking one of them. On my leaves and my trees I enhanced them with Bevel/Emboss + texture which is a no-no. I eliminated said effects I am re-posting with said items removed and re-done manually by masking with brush and dodge/burn. No difference will be seen except upon extreme zoom. Apologies for this mis-step.
By all rights the mods should remove this and make me re-submit.

All apologies.

Author, it's very appreciated that you are honest and wanting to replace the entry. The last weeks however the (digital) drawing rules have been losen up *a bit*, to give authors some more freedom.
Soon there will be decided which rules will maintain and which will be removed, until that time people are a bit more allowed to experiment with for example the things you did.
For your case, if you want to edit your entry, you can do it. Resubmitting your work should not be necessary.

This pic is so brilliant. Well done on being honest about the rules - glad it doesn't need resubmitting anyway. Its terrific. I would also love a more in depth SBS so that we can learn and appreciate it even better.

I will elaborate on a few of my steps. As i said before, there was originally bevel/emboss, and from the bevel/emboss sub-menu, texture applied to simulate bark texture. That is gone, but the results are similar. The leaves originally had similar fx applied. The blowing leaves were done with a brush i made from a simple oval shape. I adjusted the scatter and angles to what I would think were some natural positions. The fog was done by altering a soft round brush by adjusting scattering and other settings like flow jitter. These are very useful for clouds also. There used to be an excellent tutorial from, I believe, one of the Photoshop Talent members that taught me this technique. I can no longer find that one.
The stones were just drawn with simple one point perspective. I used a variety of stock PS brushes and used the color picker to select colors that matched the source colors. The background hills are a combination of soft brushes and spatter brushes using fall colors with some jitter variations. The blowing papers were drawn with the pen tool and their lines of text were made by spacing my brush settings and applying a very slight scatter.
I hope this helps. I will be glad to answer any more specific questions.

Congrats again Steve love this one

Very nice work, and this would not have made it months ago, I am all for opening up the drawing to let the use of the tools in. we need more creativity in here. well done and congrats.

Congratulations!

Thanks guys!

Excellent, I love it!

OH wow. beautiful details in this drawing.. very impressed, im not sure i can even draw anymore. You have just inspired me to give it a go

Very nice, like something you would see in the book. Great detail, well done.

Thank you all. The praying mantis is probably my favorite insect. There is always a place where they can thrive behind our house. They are one of the only insects that can turn their heads as this one did to look at me!

High quality entry, I love the 'unfinished' look of the background.

Thanks Rob!

Nice job! I bet it was quite tedious doing the stones but the stones definitely add to the composition...Best of Luck

Fantastic work author,great composition...best of luck

Beautiful detailing. Excellent job!

Wonderful!!!! Love the detail. Well done author

wooooooooooooooooooooooow!
Really nice job!Visually very pleasing.

Thanks for your kind remarks.

Top Notch Work.

Damn this took a while! Bravo, author!

Fantastic!

wonderful, I love the details

Amazing

Thank you all.

Congrats, a well deserved win

Congrats on First Place Win