Saturday 7 March 2009

Alpine Miniatures - SS-Unterscharführer, SSPzAbt 101, 1944

_
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



9 comments:

Andreas said...

Great Paintwork as always,and mike did an very good job too!Is there a possiblility to paint one part of the uniform in another color?
Looking forward to see him finished

regards from Germany

Andreas

muncheberg said...

The leather jacket is really realistic,can i ask how to make it?Paint gloss varnish for oil paint?

Anonymous said...

Thats a great looking figure!

You know I was looking at all the photos Of the U-boat uniforms used in Normandy and noticed all the trees in the photos have no leaves on them? So I wonder if they were used when it was cold, months before the invasion when the SS were training in France?????

Glenn Bartolotti

Anonymous said...

Hi Calvin,

As usual, very nice in progress. The creases and face are beautifully done. Just one question is the head fit nicely or just the photo, look a little big compare to proportion of the body for once...

Allan

Rudi Richardson said...

Hi Calvin,

Great work as usual. I must agree with Alan, though, that the head does appear out of proportion. Is it a camera trick? Or really so?

Andreas: the figure wears the black leather jacket and naval leather engine room trousers intended for Maschinenpersonal. With the exception of perhaps the M1943 Einheitsfeldmütze, which might be done as camo although unlikely as tankers normally wore it in black, one is pretty much limited to a black scheme with this figure.

Rudi

Anonymous said...

Great paintwork as usual Calvin.

I must agree with Allan and Rudi that the head looks too large. That was the first thing that caught my eye.


Cheers
Basil

Anonymous said...

Paint work is outstanding as usual but i agree with the oversized head comments. Apart from that, great figure!

CALVIN TAN said...

Hi Chaps,

thank you all for your kind constructive inputs. Taesung and I too share the same exact sentiment about the figure's unusual proportion.
It's now therefore in the midst of a revision as I write.

The leather jacket is rendered with oil paints and acrylic inks.

Calvin

Anonymous said...

Great news Calvin.

I'm always reluctant to take a shot at a new figure, but it would have been a shame for this to go to market as it was. The rest of the figure looks great and with the head sorted, I'm sure it'll be a winner.

Cheers,
michael