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First Figure WIP- Celt Warrior- Paint update 11/25

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  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
First Figure WIP- Celt Warrior- Paint update 11/25
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Monday, November 19, 2007 6:36 PM

As the titles says, I'm taking my first stab at 54mm figures.  It's a metal Celt Warrior I got from a guy on Ebay who sells a line of casts from some guy in the Ukraine.  It was $12, not bad considering Pegaso/Seil/Andrea prices.  I'm going to try out artist oils for the first time as well.  The detail on the figure is actually pretty good, but I might give the base some more work.  I'm thinking light blueish and a purpley color for clothing, since Celts wore some pretty crazy colors and patterns, according to references.  Here he is so far:

A bunch of Winton Artist oils I got for $10 through ebay:

"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
  • Member since
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  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Monday, November 19, 2007 7:09 PM

Looks like you have the basic needs.  Using oils, you'll want some good quality red sable brushes to get the most out of them.  Figure looks pretty well detailed & should be fairly easy to paint.  Good choice for your first attempt.  Good luck & keep us posted.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 9:15 AM

Well, I've been told to stay out of the kitchen for Turkey Day Eve, so I had an excuse to hide in the basement and paint--conveniently directly under the kitchen, so the aroma of pumpkin pie and turkey waft through the floorboards.  Anyways, I found mixing colors to be a bit more complicated than I expected--it's fun, but I found myself adding colors I never would have expected to get the desired hue.  I even had to add in Viridian Hue-a dark green- to get the correct puprleish maroon color.  I added some basic shading and hilighting to the pants and tunic, and once they are dry I will add more.  I did some surgery and detached the shield from the figure where it was connected at the ankle and hand--in the pictures it's lightly glued back on and I still need to fill in the hole where it connected to his shin.  Next comes the scale-mail-ish armor of his curraiss.  Would it be accuracte to paint this the same bronze-y color as the metal on his shield?  Or would the armor be leather?  Thanks.

So, here's my first attempt at largish scale figures and artist oils shading/hilighting.  Comments welcome, constructive criticism; even better.  Thanks.

 

"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
  • Member since
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  • From: Massachusetts
Posted by ajlafleche on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 9:31 AM
That would most likely be leather. Metal was quite precious back then.

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

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 10:10 AM

Looks like some good progress.  The armor would be leather.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 2:35 PM
Thanks guys, metal would have looked cool, but I guess you can't argue with history.  I'll try and post some more pictures tonight/tomorow.
"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
  • Member since
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  • From: Lubbock, TX
Posted by MrDrummy on Thursday, November 22, 2007 5:50 PM
Looks great!  How long is it taking for your oil paint to dry?  I'm just starting too, so trying to figure this oil paint out!!
-Justin
On the Bench: 1:48 Dragon Dr. 1 1:48 Trumpeter MiG-15 Fagot B Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
  • Member since
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  • From: Playing in the foothills of NY
Posted by CDNTanker25 on Sunday, November 25, 2007 10:48 AM
He's lookin great Ian!  Well done so far, judging by your other work, this should come easy!
James on the bench: Merkava II With MCRS-20% Merkava IID 75% IDF Magach Batash
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Sunday, November 25, 2007 8:04 PM

Thanks!

MrDrummy: from my experience, unthinned oils tend to take between 4-6 days to be dry to the touch. 

Anyways, got the leather armor and flesh done.  I just couldnt get realistic looking eyes, so I just skipped it and painted them over.  the leather looks really rough in these close up pictures, but in real life form a normal distance looks alot cleaner.

Anyways, some pictures, keep in mind I still have to go back and add more hilighting/shading to the clothing, and clean up the colors/edges where I messed up.  I still have to paint in details, plus his sword, shoes, and the back of his shield:

 

"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Massachusetts
Posted by ajlafleche on Monday, November 26, 2007 7:17 AM
Looking good so far. I really like the pattern on the shield. When you've finished with him, a figure not up to today's standards, you can move on to a better figure. Keep up the good work.

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

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Monday, November 26, 2007 9:27 AM

Looking better all the time Ian.  The eyes look better as you've done them than many of the bug eyed figures with too much whites showing.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Monday, November 26, 2007 3:35 PM

That's probably because he has no eyes! Big Smile [:D]  I just painted over the eye sockets with a dark flesh shadow color, since I had too much trouble with them looking buug eyed.  Eyes are the one thing in modelling I've found that no matter how much I practice I still don't see any progress.   Ahhh well, maybe some day.  Thanks guys!

"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
  • Member since
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  • From: Sunny Florida
Posted by renarts on Monday, November 26, 2007 11:18 PM

He's looking really good Ian. For your first metal figure you are doing a bang up job. Careful, they are addictive.

You did a really good job on the leather scales. You could have gotten away with metal though. Bronze was used by the celts throughout europe. Excavations of Halstatt graves dating from roughly 1000 BC near Possou Bavaria and which are assoicated with Urnfield Celt culture yielded beautiful bronze helmets and very decorative bronze breastplates with elaborate repousse work. La Tene period celts also used bronze and iron elements in their armoring techniques. Artefacts found in ceremonial burials/sacrafices in the shallow and marsh areas of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerand yielded several decorative bronze layered shields as well as bronze breastplates and bronze and iron armor pieces.

It is theorized that this bronze armor was influenced by early greek cultures like the Mycanaens. In fact the Romans credit the celts with the development and use of ring armor or mail (mecula) as we know it and a common implement of the roman army.

Since the celts were spread across Europe, into Asia Minor and were even mercenaries in Egypt it is likely they behaved like any other army and equipped themselves as such. Xenophon, Levy, Maurice, all give contemporary descriptions of the military prowess of the celts and in some cases describe their tactics and armor. While the more sensational stories survive of the celts running naked into battle, hair lyed to make them scary looking, painted with wode or wearing only simple wollen or leather armor, archaeological evidence also supports that like other armies they could be equipped similarly with the materials at hand. They are a culture of master smiths and miners and their craft was a commodity that secured trade with other cultures throughout the known world at that period. Just like every medieval soldier was not wearing full white harness in the 14thc. with soldiers donning everything from mail, to leather hauberks to quilted jacks or nothing more than the clothes they were wearing at the time so was there several versions of celtic armor and acoutrement reflecting trends, associative cultures or campaign requirements.

Once he's done, I think yo need to mount him on a nice base to really show off your work and to frame this little art piece. It will be fun to look back on your work later and see how far you progressed from this first.

Eyes are tough and no one has an easy time of doing eyes. A good trick is to paint the right eye first and then the left. This way you don't cross the brush in front of the eye you just painted and they are easier to line up. After you lay in your base coat, paint your eyes as pop eyed as you want and then with a fine brush fill in your eye lids and it will be much easier. Then do your shading and highlights as you see fit.

Good luck.

Mike "Imagination is the dye that colors our lives" Marcus Aurellius A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Massachusetts
Posted by ajlafleche on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:15 AM
 IanIsBored2000 wrote:

 Eyes are the one thing in modelling I've found that no matter how much I practice I still don't see any progress.   Ahhh well, maybe some day.  Thanks guys!

Eyes are the bane of all figurists.

What I do is paint the face completely in my base flesh color. I then approximate the whites with Vallejo light flesh.I don't worry too much about being exact here because I'll be coming back. Next I add the iris/pupil using brown or blue. I'm currently using a #2 Kolinsky sable brush with a very fine point. To check the alignment, I look at the face in a mirror. You can tell if they are aligned better this way. I don't know how it works, but  it's like when you get your haircut, the barber looks at you in the mirror. Anyway, when I'm happy with the alignment, I narrow the eyes down using base flesh color again and proceed with highlilghts and shadows.

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

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Green "Mountains", Vermont
Posted by IanIsBored2000 on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 2:09 PM
Thanks guys! I really appreciate the advice and encouragement.  The mini history lesson was helpful too, I always like knowing a bit about what/who I'm modelling.  I guess I'll just keep mpracticing on eyes....My method was to paint them white (Now I see why you use light flesh instead of white..he looked possessed or something) then I painted little black dots/lines for pupils, and then proceeded to paint the skin, narrowing the eyes as best I could.
"Scanlon: work your knobby hands on the table in front of you, constructing a make-beleive bomb to blow up a make-beleive world."
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