Saturday 27 October 2012

2nd Marine Division, Tarawa, 1943


I've managed to snatch some time over this weekend to take some new photos of the new 1/16 scale US Marine from Alpine Miniature and prepare some color notes on painting the "Duck Hunter" camouflage. Colors quoted are from Jo Sonja acrylics.


On another note, next week looks set for an exciting event in the Singaporean scale modelling calender with M-CON 2012.  Like the premier show in 2008, it will be held in the heart of downtown Singapore at Sculpture Square over the weekend from 1-4 November. I will be conducting a small workshop/painting clinic on the afternoon of Saturday, 3 November. We also have invited a very prominent guest artist to grace this event and so if you're in the area come on by and have a look.

Cheers,

Calvin



Tuesday 9 October 2012

Charging Soon Towards You!


After several weeks of work,  I'm proud to showcase Alpine Miniatures latest 1/16 scale offering of a WW2 US Marine from the Pacific Theater of War. Aficionados can outright distinguish this an unprecedented release for Alpine Miniatures - one of dynamic animation - from their standard upright contrapposto figures.

Interesting to note that this figure also marks the entry of sculptor Dmitry Shevtsov's into Alpine's ensemble of sculptors. The pose and animation is spot on and rendering of folds and intricate details resonates with the high quality we have come to expect from Alpine.



Though satisfying, the duck hunter camouflage pattern was particularly tedious to execute. It is convenient to assume this pattern consisted of random amoeba shapes but close study reveals distinctively unique patterns repeated throughout. Maintaining the consistency of shapes and sizes whilst painting pattern thus took its toll of on my concentration as often went back and forth to correct the shapes. I can't say that they are perfect but at least I can claim that I done by humanly best.


All interfaces of the component parts were refitted with magnetic locks making them detachable during the painting of hard to reach areas. The carrier block for the rifle and bayonet was removed towards the end to mitigate warping and breakage.

Overall this assignment was the most demanding I had for this year - given the intricacy of the sculpt and complexity of the camouflage pattern. Nonetheless it was quite rewarding to know that I tried my best to render this commonly overlooked camouflage pattern.

Cheers,

Calvin