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My attempt at tiger stripes

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  • Member since
    October 2005
  • From: St. Petersburg, FL
My attempt at tiger stripes
Posted by sawdeanz on Sunday, February 22, 2009 12:12 PM
Heres my attempt at a 1/35 scale figure. Its not my first but so far its my best. I used acrylics for the face and enamels for the rest of it. Now that i've taken a picture of it, I can tell that I need to work on my faces a little bit. The figure was kitbashed from a couple dragon kits and verlinden parts. He will be part of a diorama and the last picture shows his position. I'm still trying to figure out how to shade the pants due to their complicated camo nature. Also, when I'm finished i'll give him a quick pass of a clear flat coat.





  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Colorado
Posted by psstoff995 on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 7:20 PM

Hey!! Looks great to me, you definitly appear to have the colors down for the most part- however if you look at 1:1 Tiger Stripe camo you'll notice that the not all the black lines are "line"like and a good majority of them are more interwoven within eachother, the stripes tend to make "Y" shapes in places if that makes sense. The colors look a little too "stacked" other than that- this looks great!

 

Hmm... I'm looking more closely and I notice that in places you have indeed made the "Y" shape... so perhaps the problem is not that, as much as it's all the black lines appear to be equal distances appart? I'm not sure... I think this is very well done- especially in 1/35, I think you could leave it as is and it wouldn't be a problem at all... it's just something.... and I don't know what, it just looks the tiniest bit off...

Definitly looking forward to updates though!- especially of the rest of the squad!! Really wish Dragon would re-release some of their old Vietnam kits

-Chris

US Army Infantryman

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: East TX
Posted by modelchasm on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 7:50 PM

deanz,

Looks good. I agree with psst in that the stripes, while they do look good, they tend to all look the same. Take a second look at it and see if you see the same thing. We can't see the real thing, so we just have to go off your images.

Also, I know that you still have weathering and such to go, and the colors' boldness might be adding to the above. Getting some highlights and shadows in, might help it out as well.

Keep us posted.

"If you're not scratching, you're not trying!"  -Scott

  • Member since
    October 2005
  • From: St. Petersburg, FL
Posted by sawdeanz on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 5:29 PM
Since i've painted the figure i've seen some more pictures and some of others work and realized that the pattern isnt accurate. I'll be doing some more similar figures in the future where I will try to improve on that. I think the problem was that I got tired of trying to copy it straight from a picture and free handed it instead before studying and memorizing the basic pattern first.It sure takes a lot of patience to paint such thin lines, cuz i think they might still be too thick for the scale. THanks for chiming in though.
  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: East TX
Posted by modelchasm on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:07 PM

You can still "save" these figures. Check out my OIF figure write up ... I just got done doing a 120mm figure in ACU pattern. I know what you mean about getting tired of painting! However, check it out and see how adding in the shadows and highlight hid a lot of "concerns" that I had about the figure.

Bottom line ... don't count these guys out until you're actually done with them. I think you'll be surprised in the end.

Just my 2 cents.

"If you're not scratching, you're not trying!"  -Scott

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Massachusetts
Posted by ajlafleche on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:16 PM

Study the patterns as there are several. Then practice it on sheet stock or an index card until you get it down. I'd say the black stripes are too heavy and too long in general. Make sure you use a very fine, high quality brush to do the black and off white striping. I attempted this last summer on a sniper from Seil.

Remember, if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Colorado
Posted by psstoff995 on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:43 PM

ajlafeche!! That groundwork is awesome!! However... I might argue that the off white color is a little too white and dotted? hmm... I think one of the big problems is there are quite a few variants of Tiger Stripe camo, including some that South Vietnamese spec ops designed and wore that had some yellow in it? I think depening on what you want to portray you have a few options. The Tiger Stripe I own is more OD green and brown, with a little light colors and black is never really "black"

Mine are on the left and you can see the difference with the green on the woodland my brother is wearing on the right. The off white doesnt really stand out at a significant distance

-Chris

US Army Infantryman

  • Member since
    June 2008
  • From: Iowa
Posted by Hans von Hammer on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:28 PM

I've never really been that wild about getting every splotch and stripe to scale... The only places where a camo-pattern is easily recogizable is the long/wide, flat areas of the thigh, calf, upper arm, and back.  The chest area can be, if the figure's more or less at attention, or something similarly "stationary" and without web gear, mag pouches, and such, while the back of the thigh, the shin, sides of the torso, are usually in shadow or deep shadow in "action" poses, and the arse isn't an issue either, since the fabric's pattern is disrupted there anyway by the cut of the cloth during manufacture, especially those uniforms with re-enforced areas in that location, which is the case with pretty much all combat uniforms since the 60s...  Also, for soldiers in the field, the arse-end is usually the same color as the local ground, lol...

I stay away from trying to paint a uniform exactly "in pattern" over-all... I just concentrate on getting it right where it'll show to the viewer, and then only what shows after all the gear is on the figure... 

Your mileage may vary..

 

  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Colorado
Posted by psstoff995 on Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:20 AM

I agree- definitly about the folds and the main areas of visibility. I think my 1/16 scale figures definitly get a little bit more attention to correct pattern, but like I said- for 1/35, what you have looks great- the only problem being it looks a bit symetrical.

I agree with you about staying away from too much pattern, as most uniforms are, like you said, build in sections and patches.

I think the colors you chose and the layering looks nice, it just looks too symetrical

-Chris

US Army Infantryman

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Thursday, February 26, 2009 8:50 AM

OK, I will put in my 2cents here...My 2 cents [2c]  The pattern you are replicating looks more like the post war repro pattern, rather than the types used in Vietnam. I have several original items in my collection an the colors are lighter, and the stripes are wider. On all of them, be the base fabric, "silver" or "gold" there is no real brown in the pattern, more or an OD or Field Drab, along with the medium green and the black.

here is a shirt

and here is one of my atempts to replicate on Dragons MACV SOG set.... yes my face painting needs work... Black Eye [B)]

 

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

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