GB members :

Mike91978 - 1/16 Alpine's BAR Gunner

M1 A1 A2 Tanker - Alpine 1/16 D-Day

Archangel Shooter - Dragon 'Feldwebel'

AirborneDrop36 - 120mm Verlinden SS Infantry

Blunderbus

Irish3335

DaveB -  Eduard's Richthofen

PNGbrat

Ajlafleche

racedriver

igeratic

spiralcity - 120mm Verlinden German WWII Nightfighter

Looking forward to this one. I have never painted a figure before. I have several on the way will let you know which one I will butcher......... I mean try to paint.

Ok Race, as soon as you know please post it here so i can add it to your name.

I never built a figure either so this should be fun.

Since I'm envolved with 2 other group builds I like the no end date on this end so count me in too. The kit will be the Dragon 'Feldwebel'  

I'm all set to start.  Painting Alpine's BAR Gunner

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Ok Archangel Shooter, I'll add you to the list.

Mike thanks for the heads up, I'll update the listing with your kit. I also need to get mine listed.

  I have it narrowed down to three figures.  I'll let you know as soon as I decide.  Didn't realize there were so many choices in 120mm.  I found a knight in full battle dress,  but want the challenge of painting a large scale face--I think.  Thanks for hosting.

                                                            g. knox

OK PNG, just post your project once you decide and I'll add it to the board.

Happy New Year's all!  First day of the group build and I'm ready to get going.  As stated above, I'm building and painting Alpine's BAR Gunner.  This is only the 3rd 1/16 figure I've done.  That said I'm going to try to focus on blending my highlights and shadows more convincingly with this project.  Here's what comes in the box:

I'm very impressed by the casting.  No gas holes and very little in the way of mold seam lines.  You also get 2 heads, one with camo netting on the helmet and one without, so you get a very nice head for the spares box.  The left sleeve has a circle for the 29th ID patch. I'm going to sand this off and use decals for a GI of the 34th ID in Northern Italy.  Would be nice to put him in a pair of shoepac boots, but I have seen photos of 34th guys wearing paratrooper boots.  Going to starting putting him together and post progress pics soon.

Mike,

I see the hands are molded to the weapon. I wonder if Alpine does this to most of their kits.

I'm not sure.  This is the first figure of their's that I've worked on.  The other 2 figures I've done were from The Regimental S4 and Lost Battalion Miniatures. The one figure was not holding a weapon, but the other was and the hand was molded to the rifle.

I have quite a few on the shelf from which to choose but think I'll go with Eduard's Richthofen figure.  All the  leather on this guy will be a challenge.

Hey dave, nice to have you onboard. I'll add you and the kit to the list.

intresting GB

i scratched some milliput figures in the past, 54 70 and 90 mm and something in 1/72  but actually out of practice

Will follow and eventually join in future

bsyamato, feel free to jump in when ever your ready. I would be nice to have you onboard.

Is it too late to join?  I am waiting on my first 120mm to come in the mail..can't wait to start it..  it's Verlindens SS Infantryman.  Look forward to seeing all of your work, it will be my first 120mm, should be fun!

AirborneDrop36, nice to have you with us. I'll add your name and kit to the roster. ENJOY!

Got a start on the Eduard Richthofen figure. The halves (body and boots) are joined and sanded and everything awaits a primer coat.

Looking good so far, Dave!  I'm interested to see how this turns out.  I'm not real familiar with colors for WWI stuff.  Are you using Vallejo, oils, or something else?

I've got my figure in sub-assemblies and have some base coats and shading done.  I'm not a master figure painter by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy it and try to improve with each one.

Probably a combination of Vallejo acrylics and oils. I haven't done any extensive "leather work" so it will be a learning experience with lots of experimentation.  This figure offers the chance to do brown (jacket),  black (boots) and patent leather (cap bill.) Should be fun.

Mike Looking great. Did you use oils on the face?  I think you nailed the reasons why we do it.

Hi guys - nice variety of figures here.

If I may suggest, for  those that cannot resist from using a wash to bring out details, hold the figure upside down and let it dry in that position as well.  Reason being is to allow the dark wash to accumulate in the top areas of wrinkles and folds.  Even so you will end up with the centers being darker as washes tend to recede from edges.

Here is something I quickly put together as how to best arrive at discerning light and shadows for a figure.

1. - spray the whole fig in a dark shade, you can go jet black but I prefer the base colour mixed as a darker shade.

2. - spray the base colour at a 90 degree angle as well as from up top.  This will leave the the darker shade still visible in shadow areas.

3.- spray a mixed light shade of the base coat from a direction directly from up top - this represents the highlight area.

Now you can go in with a brush and create more contrast to your liking.

If interested here is an eye tutorial: http://www.planetfigure.com/articles/eye_tutorial-mark_benette/eye-tutorial.html

regards,

Jack

Hey guys, everythings looking great.

jgeratic, thanks for the helpful info. I need all the help I can get, this is my first figure so I dont expect great results but it will be a learning process.

I will post some pics of my figure shortly. Right now it is in the process of being cleaned up.

Here's a pic of the kit.

Hey guys, I have a question about attaching the limbs to the figure.

Do you normally use a filler between the fitting? I noticed the two pics above seem to have some putty between the limbs and torso. Is this just for pre-fit or a permenant solution to attaching limbs?

I was all set to just cement my limbs to torso with no filler. My fit seems smooth enough to accomplish good results.

Any help would help.

Thanks

Dave B: Thanks for the kind words.  I'm using Vallejo for everything.  The pics of the face are pretty extreme close ups and unforgiving.  I'm still experimenting with my technique and did some drybrushing on the face which left a little chalky effect that I don't really like.  Won't be doing that again!

Igeratic: Thanks for the mini-tutorial and links.  I've read about airbrushing figures, but I haven't been able to pull it off yet.  One problem is I have all these Vallejo paints and haven't had much luck spraying them.  Guess I could buy all new Tamiya paints and use those. It's only money right? :)

Spiralcity: That's just a little poster putty holding the arms in place for the sake of the photos.  I paint the arms seperately because they go across the figure and his chest and ammo pouches would be hard to paint with the arms attached.  I'll also stick them on temporarily to make sure the shading matches the rest of the figure.

The biggest problem I've had with this build is getting colors I like for the Highlights and Shadows.  I wanted cool colors to reflect the winter setting.  I'm still somewhat experimenting with this figure and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't strip the paint and start over.  That said, I'm fairly happy so far.

Thanks Mike, thats what i thought it might be (pre-fit). I just thought I would ask, I want to make sure I get the best results i can.

Regarding airbrushes and figures - although I don't know every single modeler on the planet,  I'm not aware of anyone that uses exclusively just the airbrush, at least not on these small scale figures.

For me anyways, the airbrush gives a good even prime coat and some initial colouring.  This way I'm not sitting at the workbench with a naked figure in one hand,  a 000 brush in the other and wondering where to start.    The paint brush is still very much important for the painting of the figure.

Another hint to pass on, if your figure is cast with it's head separate, leave it so and paint it and the body before attaching together.

regards,

Jack

One of the problems I've had with this airbrushing technique is I'll spray the whole figure with a dark basecoat then spray a highlight color at an angle.  When I go to put on the main color with a brush I'll do this in layers with pretty thin paint.  But in order to keep this coat from looking streaky and blotchy, I have to put so many layers that the initial airbrush coats are no longer visible.  Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong?  I know it's hard to pinpoint without seeing it in process.