Alpine Miniatures - Grenadier, 558. Volksgrenadier-Division, East Prussia 1945

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Well finally after some anticipation, here are some previews of Alpine Miniature's latest 1/16 scale offering before it officially goes "live".

Now with regards to painting, I've always employed a method employed by legendary American illustrator Andrew Loomis called “toning” the palette. One of my favorite artist James Gurney summarizes this clearly HERE; which may I add contains a ton of other valuable knowledge which could prove extremely relevant for future projects.

As mentioned previously in my earlier post, I opted to employ a palette of cool colors to reinforce the portrayal of cold and darkness of twilight. Hence, the colors of the figure were not mixed to match the actual artifacts but instead to sync with the atmosphere. That is why it might not be a good idea to use my color notes to paint a paratrooper at Monte Cassino which might be sunny, hot and dry.

Again, with reference to the Impressionists, colors are no longer the intrinsic property of the object but rather by of the illumination of light making the appearance of its color a highly extrinsic one.
It might sound complicated from this point but I believe that this can have both intrinsic and extrinsic implications to the subject. Intrinsic meaning that the subject is illuminated with its own light rather than on an external source (the light which we rely for painting). Fantasy miniature artists have long understood this and have since exploited it to great extent in their works to depict atmosphere. David Rodriguez's excellent example greatly exemplifies this with his rendering of Gandalf.
For historical subjects, one work that comes to mind was the rendition of the bust from Benito of U-Boot commander Eric Topp, in which Spanish miniature artist Jose Caballero Delso brilliantly captured the illumination of the red light within the confines of the submarine vessel without it awkwardly looking like red paint being smeared. There is of course a principal to this method pioneered by Cezanne more than a century ago. I think I'll save the explanation for another painting project in the future.
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cheers,

Calvin

Alpine Miniatures - Grenadier, 558. Volksgrenadier-Division, East Prussia 1945

Whilst taking a short break from the workbench to ease my concentration and relax my painting hand, here is an early kick start to the weekend with some images of the painting done so far.

Whilst taking a short break from the work bench to ease my concentration and relax my painting hand, here is an early kick start to the weekend with some pictures of the painting done so far.

Right from the onset, I decided on a palette of cool colors to depict the cold atmosphere of the scene. I also made a point to avoid using straight black for the rendering of the shadows; choosing in lieu a dark blue mixed from flat black and Prussian Blue for a softer and more natural result. For the more perceptive, you will notice some subtle hints and nuances of violets, blue and pink painted within certain areas of shadows and highlights. Unsual as it might sound, a couple of colors from the Vallejo range of fantasy paints such as Squid Pink & Warlord Purple served this purpose. These colors were not used straight from the bottle but rather incorporated to cool the temperature and cut the saturation of the local colors which are predormantly warm. Consequently, this application of complementary colors lends greater dimension to the visual texture of the figure when compared to monocromatic and analogus schemes.

Currently there are still many painting concepts that I'm trying to attain with this piece but due to the lack of time due to an impending deadline, I must conclude my report for now. Hopefully if time permits, I do hope to furnish more updates and share more color notes to this painting project later this weekend.

And before I forget, here's wishing all fathers a Happy Fathers' Day!

Calvin

Alpine Miniatures - Grenadier, 558. Volksgrenadier-Division, East Prussia 1945

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Once again I'm very privileged to host a sneak peak of Alpine Miniature's upcoming release of another 1/16 scale German figure. Before one recoils into exasperated sighs of another "boring and imaginative" subject, it has to be said though many were made, few what so ever surpasses the quality put forth by such.

Sculpted by proprietor and principal sculptor Taesung Harmms, this figure bears the quintessential quality trademarks of Alpine Miniatures. From the demeanor and characterization, the styling of the Zeltbahn (shelter quarter) over the winter greatcoat and canvas webbing, to outfitting of the ubiquitous Gewehr-43 rifle, this figure resonates everything about the archetypal German soldier from the late-war period of 1944-45. As usual,two head options with different styles of helmet head gear will be provided.

Though provided is the single option of a Wehrmacht soldier, depiction to a Waffen-SS soldier can easily be done by changing the belt buckle. Some 1/16 scale Tamiya figure kits provide two options of belt buckles, allowing a spare for such an undertaking.

In this coming weekend, I'll try to provide an update to the progress on the painting of the kit from the past week.

cheers,

Calvin