PERSPECTIVES IN MINIATURE: SS-Brigadeführer, 1/24 scale

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the words of Wilbur Smith "War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young". The pawn in this game is the combat soldier, represented by the miniature toy soldier; an insignificant being on the battlefield. Combat is the most intense moment of war, where life and death balances on a knife's edge. The results are terrifying and reveal the worst part of our human nature. Conversely, there are moments when it exudes the best of our human spirit. Most of 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 of the fragile nature of human life. I represent no political bias though my miniature creations. My aim is to portray humanity through the chronicles of military history and thus it is my pleasure that I present to you my weblog Perspectives in Miniature.

Calvin Tan

WWII GERMAN UNIFORMS - PERSONAL MIXES BY CALVIN TAN

In conjunction with AK Interactive, this exclusive Gen 3 acrylic paint set is specially composed with the essential colours that I use to render WWII German Uniforms. It contains 18 colours and a small pamphlet with my personal colour mixes. If you are keen to acquire all the colours on my palette to paint a field grey tunic, a splinter pattern zeltbahn, an oak-leaf pattern smock or the Kharkov anorak, look no further, this is the set for you to get started.

CALVIN TAN'S BASIC GUIDE TO FIGURE PAINTING

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.

CALVIN TAN'S GUIDE TO CONVERTING AND PAINTING FIGURES

In this third instalment, I will share my techniques and materials to customize and detail an inexpensive stock plastic figure. Watch as I take you through the steps on how I modify a pose, model details such as hands, belts and webbing and insignias. Learn about working effectively with epoxy putty as well as plastic styrene and paper. As a continuation from my first two DVDs, I will demonstrate how to model and paint a simple groundwork as well as an alternate approach using a monochromatic underpainting to render both a field grey tunic and the World War 2 German Splinter Camouflage pattern on a helmet cover. If you have enjoyed and benefitted from those previous titles, this edition will be a welcome addition to your journey in scale figure modelling – regardless of your current skill level. It is my sincere hope that this could inspire you to embark on your own creative adventure in this fantastic hobby. .

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

SS-Brigadeführer, 1/24 scale - WIP

Labels: SS-Brigadeführer LSSAH 1/24scale Posted by CALVIN TAN at 18:30

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Holidays are finally here again which also means it's time to returned to this long overdue commission for a collector friend of mine. I'm glad that the tedious process of sculpting and detailing are finally over. It's almost a week old into the painting and there are still a couple of areas like the hands, breeches and several parts of the tunic that need some more attention.

Though taking it easy, I do hope to get him finished by this week and get back to painting the 101st Airborne bust from Young Miniatures.
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Calvin

9 comments:

Andreas said...: wow I love him very nice sculpt and painting too.I'm paintng the alpine Jochen Peiper now and I must say that painting the face under the hat is very difficult.Have you got any tips?

best Regards from Germany

Andreas; 17 December 2008 at 01:38
Anonymous said...: It so cool~~!!!
I always respect you and I'm so sad that I couldn't see you at Korea... ㅠ.ㅠ

Have a nice day~~!!! :-)

My best regards,

Kim.

P.S : I did correct that my blog can allow writting a comment by anonymous. If you can make a chance for visit my blog, any comments welcome, HaHa!! :-); 17 December 2008 at 11:10
Anonymous said...: He looks a bit young, doesn't he? Is he supposed to be a historical person?; 17 December 2008 at 19:02
Andreas said...: ehhhm maybe hands are a bit too big?Or is it only on the photo?I noticed a few minutes ago...; 18 December 2008 at 02:08
Oliver Kovacs said...: Hello Calvin! What can I say? super painting as usual. I agree with Andreas the hand of the figure is a little bit big...

regards from Hungary

Oliver; 18 December 2008 at 05:47
CALVIN TAN said...: Thanks for the kind words.

Kim,
I will check out your blog. Great work on the Latorre figure BTW ;-)

Andreas,
I'm afraid that it's very difficult for me provide any tips unless you explain what's causing the difficulty.

Andreas, Oliver, yes, the hand are noticeably large as I wanted a much "rougher and masculine" gentleman. If you may, my decision was to not to create an archetypical example but rather to make this also a unique character study. I must admit that it's not a common sight to spot people with large hands but I've seen several with such characteristics and knowing so I decided that such a quality will help in the characterization of one from a menial origin.

Calvin; 19 December 2008 at 11:50
Andreas said...: ah sorry, I mean the eyes under the visor caps.Sorry.Its very difficult because you can't see so much.How did you manage it only good light?; 20 December 2008 at 01:30
Oliver Kovacs said...: Calvin
You are right! the fact is fact this is a great figure with a great painting!

PS. If you have time please visit my blog and please tell me your opinion about my waffen SS bust.
http://bodiart.blogspot.com/

best regards
oliver; 20 December 2008 at 03:23
CALVIN TAN said...: Hi Andreas,

I understand your predicament. There is this saying " Let sleeping dogs lie".
Since the visor hides the eyes and makes the brush inaccessible to painting the eyes, my advice is to leave the eyes alone. Instead, paint the eye bags below and the brows above to create the shadow of the eye slits. This I feel will give a more convincing appearance for that scale then trying too hard to paint the pupils and whites of the eyes.

Calvin; 24 December 2008 at 15:29