A Happy 2008 to One and All!

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As some of you might have speculated, the hedgerow was definitely for another figure project. And without due, here's a sneak preview of the vignette involving Alpine Miniature's next release; two Panzergrenadiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division, Regiment 25 clothed in the ubiquitous Oak-Leaf camo smocks and Italian camo overalls. It's a welcome change from Taesung's current line of figures that are designed in "neutral" standing poses for the 1/35 AFV modeller. I have my suspicions that might be due to an overwhelming plea for more "dynamic" figures from him. I sincerely hope that more modellers will peg their money to their requests so that we might be able to see more genres of such figures from his hands in 2008.

 

Happy New Year,

Calvin

Season's Greetings and One Year On....

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Wow! it did not occur that this blog has been going on for a year now. It has been really fun and encouraging to receive many positive responses and queries about my works and techniques (especially the one about the Fimo Deko Gel). So just to kick up a notch from the small clump of undergrowth from base of the SS Deutschland figure I though why not make a hedgerow during this festive lull based on the techniques described HERE .

Dried sea-foam weed was used as a base to construct the hedge. The texture of the stem is re-created with a thick coating of Gesso primer(type used by artists to prime their canvases)

The sea-foam weed is undercoated with flat black applied with an airbrush.

The individual leaves are carefully attached on to the sea-foam with superglue (yes I know, it's crazy)

Got a little cross-eyed when I took this picture.

Three days old and there's still a lot of bald spots to cover. Thought it does not look like a Christmas tree but it will have to do for me. So here's wishing everyone and all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Calvin

Tutorial on Modelling Buckles and Straps.

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Here's something I've just put together in response to some emails I've received with regards to modelling straps and buckles. Hopefully this will be of use to some of your figure, AFV and of course S&M projects (not that I'm working on one at the moment.. :P )

Eduard photo-etched mesh.

Remove a square from the mesh.

Straighten the sides by filing it against a needle file.

The buckle

Straps could be made from recycled 3M Post-it notes.

Attach buckle with superglue.

Create the bulging strap in the center of the buckle.

Stiffen the paper with oil/lacquer-based varnish. It could be lightly sanded with a grit-400 sandpaper to remove any paper fibres when the varnish has set.

The finished result.

Calvin

SS Deutschland, France 1940 - Finally Done

Finally added the finishing touches to this figure and photographed it against a scenic backdrop.

Took a trip down to the M Workshop this afternoon to snap some pictures of KG Lim's (aka Chef Lim) latest masterpiece; Tiger E, 502 PzAbt,Russia 1943, inspired by a 1/16 build from the Osprey Modelling title Modelling the Tiger I.

It's a Tamiya base kit enhanced with some minor detailing (no over the top excessive super detailing here) with a hand rendered green camouflage pattern in Vallejo acrylics. Hope that you will enjoy the pictures as much I had taking them.

cheers,

Calvin

SS Deutschland, France 1940 - Almost Done....

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Just a quick snapshot of yesterday's progress. I've finally survived the ordeal of attaching the rifle sling and horizontal straps of the Tragestell 39 and what largely remains to be refined apart from the sloppy areas is the SS-VT Plane-tree zeltbahn. Hopfully all will be completed by this weekend and on to another overdued commission.

cheers,

Calvin

More Adventures in 1/35 Scale Garderning

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Spent the last weekend tidying up the sloppy paintwork on the figure as well as rearranging the botanical arrangement of the groundwork. Spent the whole Sunday afternoon individually attaching the Fimo Deko Gel leaves to recreate the low lying shrubs. My only comfort is that I don't have to do this under the blazing sun. I'm pretty satisfied with the results for now and should be back working on the figure this week. Maybe someday I'll use this tedious method to recreate a section of the Normany bocage!

Calvin