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

Thanks smeagol (my Philly homie GO EAGLES!). I can only take partial credit for two of the poses; the one who is bent over laughing was heavily modified, and the one pushing away the farmers has someone else's arms from the spares box. I love my spares box, and sometimes I take it down from the shelf and open it up just to look inside. It makes me happy to read all the little baggies

("hands w/ weapons", arms left: sleeves rolled", heads germ: camo cover")

Justified Anal Retention is one of my favorite parts of this hobby! Thanks again... eyes are hard and I appreciate your compliments.

Steve

Eagles?  What about The Philllies!?

I cant wait to see those figuers in the building.  All that detail you put into it, and the WIP shots made it looks as if it was going to be some really serious drama kind of scene, but seeing the figures, its well, as you said earlier, quite human.  Cant wait!

    Steve this just keeps getting better and better.  The figs are something else. And the expressions are priceless.

smeagol the vile wrote:

Eagles?  What about The Philllies!?

LOL! Yeah, well, the Phils don't need me at the moment. I missed the game today, but I heard that I hadda better Sunday than Donovan did. No biggie, plenty of fight left in him.

The germans and the barn are all gonna be supporting roles; the POWs = where I need to nail it. Wish me luck.

Thanks a lot, panzerguy. I appreciate you looking in, and your encouragement!

Steve

Steve, these are unquestionably the best faces on any figures I have ever seen! 

The expressions are just simply amazing, stupefying, incredible, etc--all the superlatives apply!

What an amazing dio this will be--juston the strength of those facial expressions alone!

WOW--I'm seriously impressed!!

Wow, simply awesome. Uniforms, equipment, faces, the lot. Ditto what Doog said, these are the best figures i've ever seen.

Could i trouble you for a "How to" tutorial? Mmmmmmm? Please.

Doog- thank you so much... praise from the master

subxer- thank you, too! You guys is too kind. Seriously. Much better face painters out there, I just steal from them

Fast Heinz wrote:

Could i trouble you for a "How to" tutorial? Mmmmmmm? Please.

Heinz- I'm flattered by the request. Afraid there's not much I have to offer for a toot, just trial and error. I will see about snapping some shots when I do another one of the faces. Until then, I only have suggestions:

1) don't drink any caffeine within 2 days of painting a face

2) I use oils... for caucasian flesh tones, use Vallejo's Beige Red for a base. That's ajlafleche's discovery, not mine (Al- if you're out there, thanks a million for that. It's perfect).

3) Optivisors  Optivisors Optivisors

4) Hornet  Hornet  Hornet 

4) I smoke incessantly, as face painting can be nerve-wracking. Just keep the butts on the other side of the bench from the thinner. If I keep from blowing myself up, I consider that a successfully painted face.

Thanks again, gents, for the nice words.

Steve

A few points:

1. WOW

2. WOW

3. WOW...

These are some of the best figs I have seen in terms of expressions and purpose...their poses are perfect for the story (especially like the soldier telling his guys to, "Back off/calm down..."). Some serious figgies that will do your barn justice. Are all of the poses stock? Top Notch!!!

Steve Your attention to detail really raises your figures up from the crowd. They have facial expressions...and are posed in ways that don't look kit like. And the materials liik like different materials, leather, fabric, metal etc.

As far as the historical accuracy of the uniforms go...as long as they look like something from The Great Escape, I'll accept them... uniform/rank details don't mean a thing to me!

Hey, thanks Manny, Vespa. I appreciate your collective "eyes" for details.

Manny, Oberleutnant straight outta the TANK box (I drool over my own TANK collection); Obergefreiter 1 (pushing back farmers) is parts from my spares box... Warriors torso, with spare straight arms (to get the feeling of warding off), tilted a Warriors head for a look of confused authority (hopefully); Obergefreiter 2 is a Gunze Sangyo figure, straight OOB, with the addition of a Hornet head; Gefreiter is Warriors with Hornet head;

Obergefreiter 3 (laughing)

was originally this guy:

carved his trousers, resulpted some folds and seams, attached some spare arms and a Warriors laughing head, added helmet; Feldwebel is yet another Warriors figure, spare left arm, with an alternate head, tilted for incredulous expression.

That about does it, as far as any modifications go.

Thanks again for the comments, and continuing to check in on this thread.

Steve

Steve, I have to ask you this--I see that you use oils to paintyour figures. I used to too.

Do you notice at al that, over time, the "white" of the oils seems to leach out and leave your faces a much darker shade--almost as if you hadn't even highlighted them?

I say this because I started looking at older figures and noticing this consistent phenomenon after reading t in another magazine/forum; I can't remember which? But my older photos really looked "dark" after a few months. The white oil paint reallly just absorbed into the base coat.

Look at some of your older figures--do they look darker than you remember them?

Yeah, well, thay can. I remember having this conversation before, and I still think about what we discussed. To me, it seems like wet highlights will definitely sink down, and disappear into wet mids and lows underneath.

As a result, I have tried a new approach, which doesn't really have enough time under it's belt to fully be judged. But, in the case of some of my latest dudes, I reapply the highest of highlites after a week or so of curing. Then, I hit it again about a week later. I move slow enough for this to not hold me back LOL!!.

That's where these current figures are.

Some of my older figures kinda seem pale instead of dark, but I guess I have tried a new approach to every set I've done. Additonally, I have only been painting figures for a couple of years. So, again, no real-time tested figures. But, I wonder if sealing the figures has anything to do with this fading.

I wouldn't be surprised if, in a year, I have fully moved over to Vallejo shading and hightlighting. Is that where you've moved? I just don't have the acrylic technique down yet. With your heads up to the fading issue, it's definitely worth considering making the transistion.

Steve

Stevem I've started using Windsor and Newton's Artist Acrylics. They seem to work pretty well--they seem to have a nice, super-fine pigment to them that allows for subtle shading and tone.

I don't seal my figures, and I've found that since using the acrylics, they don't "fade" at all. I've heard that Vallejo paint is the way to go, but I really HATE the paint bottles they use! Making you squeeze out paint just so you can even get at it? What a way to waste paint, IMO! WHat a shrill marketing strategy!

I hope these don't fade out on you--they really look spectacular! 

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

No problem, Steve! I'm happy to help, sincerely, becasue I know the feeling of looking at your soldiers after a few weeks or months and having them look like you left them on a beach in the south of France without sunscreen--man! What a tan! LOL!

Hee's a great place to start for a base color---Burnt Sienna + White.Makes a perfect base coat, or even a skin tone! Add a little Yellow Ochre to tint, and a little more Red to do lips, with all the highlights then added as you normally would.

Believe it or not, the whole shading issue doesn't take a whole lot of re-training;they don't stay as wet for as long, but it's worth it for me to have exactly that same finish that you sweated over for an hour, blending and touching up, two, six, or twleve months down the line!

Hey Jim... thanks for checking in. Yeah, I'm finishing up with the civilians. Mandatory OT, and a great big Xmas show I played last night, had halted progress ths week.

Just got to finish the civilialns, the POWs, and then it's all about the 50 (or so) items to paint for the jarn bunk / storage. Gotta finish an RSO in there somewhere, as well, for a group build.

Holy Bee-jeezus Belts!

FANTASTIC WORK! What scale are those? If they're 1/35 you're a miracle worker!

 Those are incredible! Hilarious! I love the expressions. Great work, Steve. You rock!!

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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.

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:

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!

 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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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

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

 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

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...

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