Sunday 1 February 2009

Alpine Miniatures - 5th Royal Tank Regiment, North Africa 1942

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Following a piqued interest in WW2 Allied subjects after the rendition of Young Miniature's bust of the US 101st Airborne at Bastogne, the offer to paint Alpine Miniature's latest offering of Allied/Commonwealth figures was gleefully accepted early last January. Though the painting only commenced just a week ago due to a short stint of Army reservist duties, much of the lost time was made up during the Lunar New Year holiday period.


Looking at the unpainted figures, I don't think there's more need to elaborate about Taesung's top-notch sculpting. I sincerely hope that this will come greatly appreciated by WW2 Allied modellers whose yearnings from Alpine to put forth such a release seemed long neglected. And though the head gear and insignia makes them to be tank crews, I do see the possibility of them being converted to personal of a LRDG Chevrolet 30 cwt Patrol Truck or a SAS jeep. (remember, we are only limited by our own imaginations).
Point to mention is apart from the usual extra pair of heads provided, the seated figure and double-figure set is scheduled to include a very cute Retriever pup (possibly a company mascot) which appears to be craving for a Scooby-snack.
A small section of a North-African well was modelled out from epoxy putty to accommodate the seated figure. The stone texture was created by deliberately first allowing the soft putty to blister under extreme heat in the toaster oven such that when cured and carved with a scalpel, it reveals a pitted surface resembling stone.

I opted to prime the whole set-up with a very dark red mixture of Gunze Sanyo Flat Black and Character Red so as to give a dark yet warm base to work from.

The main areas on the figure receive their respective base colours applied with an airbrush to hasten the process. 

The colour mix used for the battle dress consisted of US Field Drab, English Uniform and SS Camouflage Black Brown. Darker shades were achieved with a darker mix comprising of more SS Camo Black Brown. Lighter tones were comprised of varying mixes of English Uniform and Wood. The Khaki Shorts were rendered with mixes of US Deck Tan, Dark Sand, Pale Sand and Stone Grey. Darker tones were done with a darker mix consisting of more Stone Grey and by the same token lighter tones were done by increasing the amount of Pale Sand.

The seated figure was clothed in a standard issue cardigan which was painted with a mix of Russian Uniform,US Field Drab and US Olive Drab.

The standing figure is almost completed whilst the seated figure still has some prominent areas to render. More of that later next week...

cheers,

Calvin



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Calvin.

These figures are so cool and I hope to see compledted photos soon.
:-)

Happy lunar new year~~!!! :-)

Man-jin, Kim.

Curt-EYE said...

very nice. like the looks on their faces. very English looking. still trying to get good results on the figures i paint!!!! Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Superb. On both counts. I have watch Taesung's posts on the various forums with interest. I for one will be buying them. Hopefully there will be more in the future.

Great to you paint some Allied stuff too;)

Anonymous said...

First class nice to see some british they look great
I am new to your blog site I just dont know what I have been missing cant wait to see more
Joel
PS you helped me getting dot44 camo right

Andreas said...

Again a stunning work from you.I espcially like the faces and the cardigan.I started to paint Peiper and his companion.I would be happy If you tell me your opinion on him :-)

Regards

Andreas

Rudi Richardson said...

Hi Calvin,

As always simply fantastic.

When Taesung told me of the imminent release of this new set I was wondering who would get the painting commission - I'm really glad it was you, as this makes a nice change for us viewers to see you paint Allied.

What a great start to the year!

Rudi

Anonymous said...

Hi Calvin

good work, see that you are working faster and faster without compromising the quality. hope to see this in 2 weeks time in Singapore.

Meet you on the 16th or 17th Feb. Let me know

Oliver Kovacs said...

Nice work, congratulation!

CALVIN TAN said...

Apologies for this late reply. The past week was about finishing off the final vignette.
Again, thank you all for your most encouraging comments. Here's looking forward to seeing some renditions of new pair of Allied figures from you guys. And hopefully one in an Australian bush hat as well.

cheers,

Calvin