Thursday 26 March 2009

Alpine Miniatures - SS-Unterscharführer, SSPzAbt 101, 1944

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After a week of anticipation, here's the final box art with the revised heads after a visit to the shrink. :P
Ok, bad jokes aside, overall this was generally a very nice and straightforward figure to paint. I highly recommend it to the beginner whose main struggle would be the head and there will be two in the kit to practice on. The leather suit lends itself an aura of stylish class in contrast to most conventional combat uniforms. Its rendering too was not a complex issue as I soon got hold of how. The secret lies essentially in manipulating with both the satin and matt finishes.
A satin finish when compared to a matt one will have a deeper appearance. This attribute greatly enhances the illusion of depth when strategically applied within the deepest shadows. The satin finish was also extended to the mid-tones, creating the sheen of leather. This could be achieved by glazes of both oil paints and acrylic inks.
With the mid tones and shadows addressed, the highlights were rendered with glazes of matt acrylic black. Though most of my acrylic paints are tainted with Tamiya Flat Base I choose to incorporate with a little more than my usual dose into the black, producing a black chalky mixture. As a result, I do not lose any of the colour's properties and still get a tone light enough to contrast against the shadows.
Adding more dimension to the leather suit, effects of chafe and wear were applied along the edges of the suit. This lends itself more contrast to the suit, enhancing the crisp details of the sculpt.

I would have much preferred to have more insignia such as the runes and rank tabs of the inner tunic. Despite this, its simplicity does inspire the obvious potential to convert him to an U-boat crewman or even a solid basis for ambitious conversions.


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Calvin



Tuesday 10 March 2009

Young Miniatures - US Marine, Iwo Jima 1945

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While the upcoming Alpine Miniatures figure by Mike Good is on hiatus due to some revisions, I've started to resume more work on Young Miniatures US Marine bust earlier this morning.


Calvin



Saturday 7 March 2009

Alpine Miniatures - SS-Unterscharführer, SSPzAbt 101, 1944

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Taking a short intermittent break from the painting of Young Bok's US Marine bust, the past few days have been involved in the painting of the box art for an upcoming Alpine Miniatures release.
Sculpted by Mike Good, whose good name is no stranger to the figure/military modelling fraternity (no pun intended) this 1/16 scale figure is a simple study of an SS tank crew clad in the ubiquitous leather suit commonly issued to U-boat crews.


The figure was easily pieced and together with the embellished groundwork was primed with Flat Black. With the face painted,it made the work appear 90% done.


It soon proved however not to be the case as I attempted for a more realistic rendering of leather on a larger scale using both acrylic and oil paints.

Tune in next week for more updates.

Calvin



Tuesday 3 March 2009

Young Miniatures - US Marine, Iwo Jima 1945

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Just when I thought that I could take things a little slower after the school semester is approaching its end, I found myself taking on another project to prepare a module syllabus for one of the schools I'm currently teaching.
Although the deadline for that job is rather tight, I still managed to squeeze some time off early last week to start painting Young Miniature's latest bust offering of a rugged study of a Leatherneck Marine at Iwo Jima.

Clean-up was extremely easy(courtesy of the heat gun nonetheless). I did however decided to omit the kit's plinth in lieu of a 7mm brass rod instead as it looked more compatible with the wooden base.

I will not delve more into the painting of the bust up to this point as I'm preparing that material for a new section on modelling tutorials for this blog. Nontheless I do hope you'll enjoy the pictures of the work done so far.

cheers,

Calvin