PERSPECTIVES IN MINIATURE: Young Miniatures - Wardaddy, US 2nd Armored Division, 1944-45

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the words of Wilbur Smith "War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young". The pawn in this game is the combat soldier, represented by the miniature toy soldier; an insignificant being on the battlefield. Combat is the most intense moment of war, where life and death balances on a knife's edge. The results are terrifying and reveal the worst part of our human nature. Conversely, there are moments when it exudes the best of our human spirit. Most of the miniatures you see here are diligently researched from historical sources and handcrafted between scales of 1/35 to 1/16 (approx 50mm to 120mm). The intricate rendition of human expression and fine details not only demonstrates the level of craftsmanship but also serves as a reminder of the fragile nature of human life. I represent no political bias though my miniature creations. My aim is to portray humanity through the chronicles of military history and thus it is my pleasure that I present to you my weblog Perspectives in Miniature.

Calvin Tan

WWII GERMAN UNIFORMS - PERSONAL MIXES BY CALVIN TAN

In conjunction with AK Interactive, this exclusive Gen 3 acrylic paint set is specially composed with the essential colours that I use to render WWII German Uniforms. It contains 18 colours and a small pamphlet with my personal colour mixes. If you are keen to acquire all the colours on my palette to paint a field grey tunic, a splinter pattern zeltbahn, an oak-leaf pattern smock or the Kharkov anorak, look no further, this is the set for you to get started.

CALVIN TAN'S BASIC GUIDE TO FIGURE PAINTING

This instructional DVD published by Model Art magazine was primarily developed for the beginner armour and diorama modeller in mind. The video presentation will feature a variety of easy to master techniques used to render a 1/35 scale plastic injected moulded figure.Topics include proper paint application techniques, choice of brushes as well as some little tricks for painting fine detail. It is fundamentally a showcase of some of my methods and techniques for painting military figures and I am certain it will prove beneficial for any modeller who wishes to improve on figure painting. It is currently available in both Japanese and English.

CALVIN TAN'S GUIDE TO CONVERTING AND PAINTING FIGURES

In this third instalment, I will share my techniques and materials to customize and detail an inexpensive stock plastic figure. Watch as I take you through the steps on how I modify a pose, model details such as hands, belts and webbing and insignias. Learn about working effectively with epoxy putty as well as plastic styrene and paper. As a continuation from my first two DVDs, I will demonstrate how to model and paint a simple groundwork as well as an alternate approach using a monochromatic underpainting to render both a field grey tunic and the World War 2 German Splinter Camouflage pattern on a helmet cover. If you have enjoyed and benefitted from those previous titles, this edition will be a welcome addition to your journey in scale figure modelling – regardless of your current skill level. It is my sincere hope that this could inspire you to embark on your own creative adventure in this fantastic hobby. .

Tuesday, 14 April 2020

Young Miniatures - Wardaddy, US 2nd Armored Division, 1944-45

Labels: Young Miniatures, Young Miniatures - Wardaddy US 2nd Armored Division 1944-45 Posted by Calvin Tan at 18:11

This the work completed so far over the COVID-19 Easter weekend on the Wardaddy bust from Young Miniatures. I consider this as an experimental piece in an attempt to render a secondary light source onto a three-dimensional form.

Unfortunately I do not have a step by step guide on how to achieve this effect as it was mainly a trial and error process from the start, plagued with lots of back and forth. In summary I managed to gleam two takeaways from this exercise.

The first being that since I chose to depict a secondary light source from a oblique direction, the recesses will have to be illuminated and thus overturns the traditional approach of rendering highlight on top and shadows beneath. I have to make a careful observation on how the light falls instead of following through with routine.

The second takeaway relates to the appearance of color under different lighting conditions. For example, how does khaki or skin tone appear under blue light? To seek out the answer, I shone a white light through a blue cellophane onto the actual color and tried to match the tones on the wet palette to re-create in the illumination. Another useful approach is to study the lighting in the films and to observe the nuances of color within each region of lighting.

To create the illusion of blue light, the colors within that zone have to be harmonized. This involves a process called toning the palette - meaning adding a common color to all the colors on the palette to "reign" in their chroma. Harmonizing the colors thus allows those tones appear analogous.

The main idea here is to paint in the light such that the illusion of the secondary light source "moves" as the figure rotates. This is commonly referred to as Off Source Lighting (OSL) for short but I prefer to call this intrinsic lighting as the light is registered on the model itself and not outside of the figure's space.

Personally that this stage, I am quite satisfied on how this turned out. I am still trying to figure out the nut and bolts of making this approach of painting appear natural and not overtly graphic as in a fantasy subject. Lots of work ahead of me for now.

Stay safe and happy modelling.

Calvin