French POW dio WIP **update: 2/26/09 pg 11**

smeagol the vile wrote:

I dislike the face sculpting on the wife, she sort of looks like a cross dresser, looks quite like a guy's face.

haha I don't know.. she definitly looks older- her face is much narrower than her husbands though, I think she just has some baggy eyes and if viewed from the front (when you can't see the bun) she does look like she has an closely cropped haircut...

I think the full view with the dress and the bun- especally when the husband is next to her- work out fine

I like the idea of old tattered/stained cloting- maybe you could carry the idea over into the dresses of the POWs- add some patches to the clothing or something?

Luftwoller wrote:

As or the cobwebs being seen, hows this sucker for a weblayer,

Camel Spider yeah? haha I wonder if they make webs? lol

There were a bunch of myths running around about those guys after that picture hit the web.

Very nice figures, though, I dislike the face sculpting on the wife, she sort of looks like a cross dresser, looks quite like a guy's face.

Thats not your fault though, the painting is great!

Another awesome set of figures Steve. The realism just astounds a mere mortal like myself. The faces look spot on enlarged on my monitor, on a table at a show theyd look Perfect. You blow me away.

As or the cobwebs being seen, hows this sucker for a weblayer,

...Guy

Thanx, guyz. Glad to get back to this project. After my stint in the group build, which resulted in a completely "historically innaccurate" RSO, I'm more than ready to get this one rolling again. I should have taken the compressed air canister over these two figures before the photo session. Boy, she sure is one ugly lady.

senojrn, Chris and Dan... I really appreciate it. Thanks for the compliments. Chris- yeah that does look like a slice of pie, now that I look at it that way, LOL! Now I'm hungry, too.

Huxy and Jim, thanks very much for the observations regarding the old lady's foots. I completely agreee- there's something not quite right about 'em. I'll do some proper highlighting and shading on her stockings, to see if that starts me on the right path. Work the granny shoes a little more. I'll post what I come up with.

Jim- as always, your suggestions have got my wheels spinning. I had planned to throw some food stains on her apron, to get started. Maybe some bouillabaisse. Hmm, now I'm even hungrier. I''l go back and age the garments a bit.

Thanks, Manny. I'm not truly impressed with them, but they turned out a little better than I had hopes for. They are Nemrod figs, and advertised as French civilians. However, I totally agree that they look like an arguing Italian couple. The hand gesturing... cracks me up that you picked up on that, too. My apologies to anyone, if that stereotypes.

Once again, thank you guys for keeping up with me on this; the suggestions and encouragement keep the project moving.

Steve 

Wow great job!! Not too bad for some civilians

I saw them and for a split second I thought the woman had dropped a slice of pizza on her apron instead of the cloth napkin that was hanging out haha can you tell I'm a hungry college student?

I like the box art version too awesome update as usual!

I was kind of thinking the civilians' clothing should look a bit more faded, as if it has gone through many washes in the washtub (of course, the lady wouldn't have an electric washing machine). Maybe even a stain or two that won't come out.

As for the lady's feet, it almost seems as if the kit manufacturer made the shoes a bit too big for her legs and the transition between the shoes and feet is too "smooth." That could be tough to correct. A pair of (older-looking) socks might help, or depending on where the farmer and his wife will be standing, maybe her feet can be in some weeds where the flaws are at least semi-hidden.

I'm stunned.. excelent!

But where the shoe meets the leg at the madame, it doesen't feel right.. it needs something, I just can't put my finger on it  

-Huxy 

Here's where I am with the French farm owners... didn't have the best lighting for the photography. Missed the daylight by about an hour, so the skin tones don't come out as natural as they actually seem.

Monsieur

Madame

Here's how they will appear, presenting their defense

For laughs, I turned the argument inward, as most couples are bound to do. This is actually how they are posed on the box art

This was kinda my first time working outside the realm of feldgrau, olive and khaki, so feel free to offer improvements /  suggestions.

Steve

Hey guys... thanx for lookin' in here. I have just finished up a group build (as you might notice by my shiny new badge), and I am jumping head first back into this project. Next up, the civilian farm owners. Amlost finished with both, will post a progress of them shortly.

Steve

Hans von Hammer wrote:

I've had to wipe my harddrive clean and start over too many times to risk storing pics anywhere but on-line anymore, lol...

Again, that must be an impressive amount of pics!

Glad to hear it's still moving along Steve, no need to rush- things are just moving more at MY speed and the quality is definitly good enough to keep me waiting

I welcome all discussions on here, Hans. Love the spider pic, too. Anything that keeps this thread alive keeps my mind on the planning for this dio. Can't believe it's taking me so long to complete this one

On that note, I have been keeping my mind on aging that barn, waiting to incorporate the junk, rubbish, personal stuff, et al the storage. Then comes the years of hay, dirt, "work shop litter". Then, I am gonna dust 'er up nice.

Camojoe2 : thanks for looking in on this one. I appreciate your compliments, and well-wishes for the completed dio. My plans for the cobwebs: more of a collection of build-up dust bunnnies than freshly spun spider webs(), mixture of grey dust / MIG pigment with Testors plastic glue. I will have a starting point, and then string it along as the glue sets. Under the shelving, in the corners, cracks, nooks. I imagine the webs having attracted and accumulated dust. For this build up, I've got barn reference pictures around here, but too lazy to look for it right now.

psstoff995: thanks for the kind words regarding the squad. Yeah, I think the cranky old farm owner is finished; in my opinion, he might be a little over-done. I will snap a few shots to see how he looks, and I'll post him up here soon. Not a lot of experiance painting non-military figs, so I am a little weary.

Steve

Sorry ta let ya down, but no, it ain't my work... I've had that in my Photobucket album for a couple years, someone sent it to me in an email... When I saw the "Cobwebs" thing, I had to jump on it...  As far making my own, I've got Photoshop, but haven't a clue how to work it.  I'm still running Windows 98 on a ten-year-old "Frankenputer" rig... All I know how to use is MS Paint and MS PictureIt! Express... I fear change, lol.. I'm also pretty good with Google Image search keywords... Comes from hours of Google-whacking when I was laid-up a few years ago...

But I do have a rather large Photobucket account... Actually, three, with about 3000 pics of various stuff, yeah... Got a couple Image shack accounts too... Some are even useful.   I've had to wipe my harddrive clean and start over too many times to risk storing pics anywhere but on-line anymore, lol... 

Sorry for the side-line Steve..

of course I just google searched "giant spider iraq" on a whim and sure enough on the second page up it popped.

Hans just truly is the reference picture master, is there anything useful on the web you've yet to find? You got one for everything

...I am a little upset now to find you didn't craft it yourself over the course of 3 hours.

But back to the post- SteveM your squad members are amazing! I really do love all the expresions, I think I missed the update as it came durring the end of my semester and everything started going crazy- and now with the holidays...

But I'll take the hectic family time over the finals any day!

Are we going to get an update with the civilan pictures soon? Maybe after the new years?!

hahahahaha oh man Hans... that's too crazy. And I'm looking at the fact that he posted that 3 hours ago makes me think you were sitting there in MS paint edditing this whole thing together.

Since you are the photo reference master I'm now going to build this up... this must be that crazy black ops stuff they're doing in Iraq that made fuel prices jump inexplicably, know where I could find like a 15/1 kit of a black widow now? Or wait, I can't tell, maybe 30/1 kit... either way, whatever is realistic.

That poor Marine looks like he's backing up! I didn't think they did that.

But no seriosuly Hans, did you even add a shadow under the spider? Glad to see you went for realism-

This would not have done

Cobwebs are everywhere in barns. I don't know how you would replicate cobwebs, though. That's one reason I don't do dios.....

Have to be a pretty damn-big spider to leave visible cobwebs in 1/35th scale...

 Steve, I have just finished reading through this entire thread. I don't usually drop in to this part of the site, as I don't do/have the skill for figures and dioramas.

 Lemme tell ya' Bubba, you have done one amazing job with this one. Words fail me.

 After having been in many barns over the years, I see they all have two things in common: lots of dust, and cobwebs. Cobwebs are everywhere in barns. I don't know how you would replicate cobwebs, though. That's one reason I don't do dios.....

 If you don't win top honors with this one, you better demand a recount.

   Camo

Thanks Will. aboard the forums. I appreciate you looking in on this one.

WOW!  That is amazing. I cant wait untill the finished product. This will deffinetly be one of my all time favorites. I love the hand built barn and the paint job on everything is amazing!

-Will

 HORNET HEADS?!?!? You are good. They look just like human heads after what you've done to them! You are the best!

 But seriously, you bring out what the "heads" need. These are really awesome.

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SteveM wrote:

Boyd- thanks for checking back in, and for your kind words. I use a Casio 5MP, and the figures were shot real close, inside the house but in lowering daylight, 200 ISO.

Steve

Thanks for the quick response.  Can't wait to see more progress!

Hey Steve,

I just checked back in on this thread after ignoring it for a long while.  MAN!  Am I glad I came back.  I can't say anything that has not already been said, but I'll say it anyways: WOW!

By the way, not only do you seem to have impeccable painting skills, but your photography is pretty darn spectacular as well.  What are you using to shoot your pics?

SteveM wrote:

Thanks, man! I did some more thinking about it last night, and I really have no solid argument for oils. Other than their ultimate "blend-ability", there aren't many other aspects that I'm in love with. 2 or 3 days after painting a face, it will not look the same as when you applied the paint. I wonder if that's because the paint "sweats" out the carrier, and affects everything underneath. Perfectly feathered blending can later appear pixilated. I've just re-blended after this, taking advantage of their long drying time. I've chalked it up to my lack of proper technique. But it does seem a bit like taking advantage of a peripheral character strength to compensate for a principal character flaw. I've just stood there, in Jerry's Artormama, looking at the artist grade acrylics and thinking to myself, "why aren't I using these?" Your vote is enough for me. I'll pick some up and begin my baby steps into the big pool. Thanks again for the discussion, Karl. It's gotten my mind off of the "here and now", and has brought some focus to an underlying suspicion about this medium. Steve

Steve: all paints change colour as they dry, acrylic oil watercolour. Its the nature of the change in refractive index of the medium as the volatile components come out. acrylics and oils dry in two very different ways. Oils cross link and often have a drier like cobalt in there. Acrylics dry by water evaporating from the emulsion and the micelles coagulating to form a coherent film. The blendability of oils is a major advantage if you want soft edges. Its one of the reasons why artists moved from the fast drying egg tempera medium to the slow drying oil. If you want to layer then acrylics have an advantage over oils.

My advice is to buy the best quality paints you can afford. Student grade has lots of transparent filler (chalks, clays and barium sulphates) as lower quality pigments. You can check the lightfastness of the pigment on the side of the tube. ASTM require that it be listed. Any of the major brands are reliable. I personally use Golden colors from upstate New York. Mark Golden is a great guy and takes a HUGE amount of care with his products. Also check out Gamblin paints from Oregon. Bob Gamblin, like Mark is a great guy and cares enormously about his products.

Good luck with it all.