Alpine Miniatures - 3rd SBCT, 2nd Inf. Div., Iraq 2007. Sneek previews.........
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Calvin
Be it an everyday play thing in the playground or as tokens on a miniature wargaming table, toy soldiers have throughout the ages have held a sentimental place in the hearts of both adults and children alike. Throughout history, warfare is synonymous with games military and political leaders play for power and control. The toy soldier albeit a plaything, has symbolic references which manifest the imagery of soldiers in real battle; an insignificant entity amidst the megalomania of war. Innumerable human sacrifices in battle amounts to mere loses in a casual game of chess. Almost all the miniatures you see here are diligently researched from historical sources and handcrafted between scales of 1/35 to 1/16 (approx 50mm to 120mm). The intricate rendition of human expression and fine details not only demonstrates the level of craftsmanship but also serves as a reminder to the fragile nature of human life. I represent no political bias though my miniature creations and my striving aim is to articulate humanity within the context of military history. Though much has been expressed through other mediums, I proudly choose this as mine. It is thus my pleasure that I present to you my weblog Perspectives in Miniature and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy your visit.
This instructional DVD published by Model Art magazine was primarily developed for the beginner armour and diorama modeller in mind. The video presentation will feature a variety of easy to master techniques used to render a 1/35 scale plastic injected moulded figure.Topics include proper paint application techniques, choice of brushes as well as some little tricks for painting fine detail. It is fundamentally a showcase of some of my methods and techniques for painting military figures and I am certain it will prove beneficial for any modeller who wishes to improve on figure painting. It is currently available in both Japanese and English.
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Thank you all for all the nice comments and keen interest on the painting of the digital camo pattern of the ACU. All of you might have guessed that I was pretty tied up trying to complete the two figures and their spare heads in the past couple of weeks or so to reply to some of your responses. Thus in appreciation for your enthusiastic support and patience, I thought I'll prepare a short pictorial description on my representation of the ACU digital camo.
My first immediate concern was to figure a way to represent this seemingly complex camouflage pattern in 1/35 scale and I found out that the most effective and manageable approach was not to copy the pattern but rather giving a convincing impression of the pattern instead.
What I meant by this is to focus on the general shape of the pattern and not on the little pixels that make up the pattern. And for this to happen one will need to take a step back and observe the pattern from a distance when all the tiny pixels appear as a series of abstract shapes. The digital pattern camouflage is rather arbitrary and one could make up the shapes along the way so long they appear to look "digital". A good idea would be to build up the pattern with Polymino shapes in mind.
Looking at the actual ACU digital camouflage, there are actually two very similar shades of grey that make up the pattern. Considering the effect of scale, I choose to ignore the lighter shade first and used the darker shade to define the general shapes of the grey. This is so that I could get a stronger contrast to define the general shapes. The lighter shade later be introduced along the areas of highlight on the uniform serving both functions of shading and representation.
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Well finally after a hectic week of balancing of work and family, I was able to get some bench time (courtesy of the national holiday) yesterday to make more progress to the painting of the second installment of Alpine Miniatures's upcoming release. Yup, it might seem sensible attempting to paint this scheme no more than once in one's lifetime but unfortunately for me I'm experiencing twice the masochistic pleasure of this endeavor.
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