Dragon 1/16 101 Airborne Figure - progress

  Hey Irish, awesome start mate. I don't have this figure in my 1/16 collection. He looks good, especially after what you have done. I may have keep an eye out for this fellow.....

  You have done an excellent job in cleaning up the details of the figure. The details are a little soft on these Dragon kits but with some straight foward cleaning up with the right knife, you can make a huge improvement.

 One thing you can do that looks good is to gradually cut up under the pockets. Cut up enough so that you can fold up the corners of the flap. Looks pretty good. Just be careful not to break them off.... It's probably too late for this now as you have put paint on. But it's a good trick for next time. I have done the same thing with my Otto Skorzeny figure. Makes everything look much better!

  Love the paint work so far too. You get a big thumbs up from me....

Justin...

Hi Justin,

thanks for the kind words, I have been building for 30 years, and have finally gotten to the point that I am proud enough of my stuff to show it off.  It may be hard to tell in the photos, but I did undercut all of the pockets to give them some depth-the one on his left leg actually has a nice void where the pocket folds over and I hollowed it out to make it look like it could open up.  I will keep up with some new pictures, working on the face and rifle now.  Much appreciated

?action=view¤t=101airborne003.jpg&newest=1Hi all,

just finished the base, as you could see from the first pictures I like to cut the top of the base off and lower it a few inches, just so it has some depth to it.  I used two different types of ground cover (celuclay for the berm, and regular old wall putty for the base).  I mixed in roots from weeds, pebbles, and dirt from the gutter to give it some depth and form.  The weeds are from some lichen I found, I havent found anymore though, so I used it sparingly (it was perfect for this scale, so I will be using it again).   Sign is from Verlinden, I cut it into pieces so that it would look more realistic Pactra water based paint for color, and drybrushing lighter color for raising the detail.  Started on the head and hands, going to do a few coats of detail, and try to bring out his expression.  I had to sand down some of the face lines and his lips because they did not look right. 

Last thing I need to do is paint or decal the "US" on the back of the pack - trying to find the right decal, or just carefully paint it on - hope to finish him up this week or the next

?action=view¤t=101airborne005.jpg?action=view¤t=101airborne002.jpg&newest=1?action=view¤t=101airborne001.jpg&newest=1?action=view¤t=101airborne007 1.jpg&newest=1

I wasn't able to look at the pictures... links may not be working.  I look forward to see more of this...

sorry all, I guess I messed up the links up - second try!  Any feedback anyone has would be great (good or bad, I want to get better at this!)  Thanks all, much appreciated

The photos are working now.  I liked the way you painted the uniform.  I don't see any reason you should change.  GREAT job!  Only thing I am seeing is shiny boots but I assume you are planning to tone it down and weatherize it next...

thanks for the comments deafpanzer, I noticed they look uber-glossy in the pictures - definately need to tone them down, and blend them into the groundwork.  Working from photos online, they may have looked like that in the barracks, but that went away once they landed in Normandy.

Irish3335

  Any feedback anyone has would be great (good or bad, I want to get better at this!) 

   Irish....  your way too modest mate. I am not sure how you improve on work like you have done here so far. This is some of the best figure painting i have seen. I really could not make a comment on where you could improve. The uniform painting is fantastic and i really like the flesh tones too, the colour is great.  You deserve every one of the five stars on your post.

   Your viginette base is coming along nicely too. Those plants are great. What did you use?

    The only thing i am disappointed in is that more people haven't commented on your post. Maybe they are all speechless with the quality of your work...

    Justin...

Hi Justin,

thanks for your kind words, much appreciated.  I had a mentor in my club who really spent a lot of time showing me the right way to do figures.  I cant emphasize enough how much getting involved in clubs and learning from members will improve your models (any models).    The earth material is celluclay for the mound, I used a rock to give it some shape.  For the flat portion I used wall spackle material to give a different contrast between the two types of earth.  All of the plant material is courtesy of my backyard weed supply, and some lichen from the hills behind my house.  I was fortunate enough to see a log with a lot of thin stems coming out the top that look just like tall weeds in 1/16 scale, so keep an eye out when doing yardwork!

just finishing up the rifle sling and some facial details, and I will post the final results here soon.  thanks all for looking

Hi all,

well all done, this is the fastest I ever finished any model - partly because it had very few hitches, and it was a fun and easy build.  Hardest problem I had with it was the rifle, and the sling - the rifle was cockeyed (see the box picture, it is prettty awful) and the fact that there is no sling with the kit - used the thick Verlinden foil for the sling, it is 3 parts and it has over 70 holes drilled in it to replicate the real thing.  Also, the face was sort of soft on some details, too much on the grimace (had to sand down the cheeks a bit to make him more like the box picture) Thanks for looking, and I appreciate the comments!  Last photo is my next figure, going to do my favorite subject, WWI - photos soon to come

Nice work with this figure, Irish. Very nice skin tones!

Steve