Young Miniatures - SS-Schütze, LSSAH, Ardennes 1944

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You can say that I'm really "Busted" for this month of September as I side-track once again from the SS-Brigadeführer sculpt to finish painting another bust from Young Miniatures.
I suppose the main source of joy in painting a bust is that it truly allows one to focus their attention on what I deem as perhaps the "most interesting" aspect of the human figure, i.e. the head and shoulders. It seems that anything beyond this region is mostly regarded as a chore; which also fundamentally explains why there are so many half painted full figures residing in our cabinets as well.

Selamat Hari Raya,

Calvin

SS-Brigadeführer, 1/24 scale - WIP

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Here's a quick update to the 1/24 scale figure depicting an SS-Brigadeführer in field parade attire. The majority of the sculpt was achieved with Kato Polyclay with the exception of the hands sculpted in epoxy putty. The head is a resin casting from the original polymer clay sculpt as with details like the shoulder boards, belt buckle and badges. The the Iron Cross and German cross are from DML and Aber respectively. Though over-scaled for 1/35, they proved perfect for 1/24; making a right from a wrong. This weekend will probably see me working on the Portepee and officers' aiguillette. The last headache before the the painting commences....

....and speaking for headaches, I'll share this little joke told to me by Sudhesh(who in turn heard it off the radio)

It's a beautiful warm spring day and a man and his wife are at
the zoo. She's wearing a cute, loose-fitting, pink spring dress,
sleeveless with straps. As they walk through the ape exhibit and
pass in front of a very large gorilla, the gorilla goes ape. He
jumps up on the bars, holding on with one hand (and 2 feet),
panting and pounding his chest with the free hand. He is
obviously excited at the pretty lady in the wavy dress.

The husband, noticing the excitement, suggests that his wife
tease the poor fellow. The husband suggests she pucker her lips,
wiggle her bottom, and play along. She does and Mr. Gorilla gets
even more excited, making noises that would wake the dead. Then
the husband suggests that stage let one of her straps fall, she
does, and Mr. Gorilla is just about to tear the bars down.

Now try lifting your dress up your thighs... this drives the
gorilla absolutely crazy. Then, quickly the husband grabs his
wife by the hair, rips open the door to the cage and slings her
in with the gorilla. "Now, tell HIM you have a headache!"

Cheers,

Calvin

Hauptsturmführer, SS-Totenkopf Div.

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I've finally got through the lethargic slump of adding on the finishing touches to this short painting exercise. One exception here is that the satin effect of the leather coat was rendered in oils as it was much more convenient than acrylics; especially with larger scales such as this.

Overall, it's quite a simple and friendly kit to build and paint. The characterization of the sculpt is very well handled by Young B Song; making it truly a pleasure to paint. As mentioned , I kept it to a short painting exercise so as to alleviate whatever stress I'm experiencing with the other project I'm currently undertaking. Anyway more pictures of that soon.

Calvin

Military Modelling Magazine, Vol38. No.11

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After months of deliberation (no doubt on my part), the full detailed write-up on the LSSAH, Taganrog 1941 project is finally available as a two-part article in the current and up-coming issue of Military Modelling.

Calvin

Young Miniatures - Hauptsturmführer, SS Totenkopf Div.

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A small package from Young B Song arrived at my home earlier this week and upon careful unpacking revealed some pleasant surprises. Though I was supposed to be finishing the sculpt of another commission, the irresistible urge to start painting one of the package's contents made me swap my sculpting tools for paint brushes instead. The clean-up was pretty straight forward; with no cumbersome molding plugs to remove. This process was further quicken by applying heat to soften the resin via a heat-gun and carefully slicing it away with a fresh scalpel blade. This resulted in minimal sanding, no grinding plus one could even slice though an inch of solid resin like a hot knife through butter!

With the clean-up done, painting began with my standard preference of Vallejo Acrylics over a black primer undercoat. I particularly enjoyed painting the face; the chiseled features tempted me to push my contrasts a little more. In addition, the larger canvas also allowed me to incorporate more tonal variations to the flesh tones such as hints of green, blues and purple; previously limited on a 1/35 figure.

Here's the work done so far after three days of intermittent painting. I'm trying hard to discipline myself to get pass the "feel-good" phase to complete the leather jacket and left hand.

Calvin

T-34/76 (1/48 scale) by John Tham

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This month the spotlight will shift to Singaporean armor modeller John Tham whose works have been making waves in both local and international waters. One such particular is his superb rendition of Tamiya's 1/48 scale T-34/76 enhanced with updates from Hauler. This gem of his won John's first ever international award at the World Expo 2008 in Girona last July and it's with great pleasure that I'm privileged to showcase some pictures of it here.

 

Work in progress shot revealing John's neat and delicate construction.

 

 

 

 

John with his well deserved Silver medal from the World Expo-Girona, 2008.

Calvin