First all thank you to the following people for their support and kind comments:
Manny, Adam, Bob, Kenny, Dave, and Julian.
Second I don't know what a real artist is I am an educated monkey has simply followed directions and put a lot of effort into learning from people that were gracious enough to teach and especially to the following people:
I want to pause here and state that any technique or method I describe I learned from the following talented gentleman and their books:
Armor Modeling by John Prigent
How to Build Armor Dioramas by Lynn Kessler
How to Paint Realistic Military Figures by Lynn Kessler & Don Winar
Modeling Panzer Crewman of the Heer by Mark Bannerman
Mark Dollery Articles
Shepherd Paine and Calvin Tan
Andy\Manny\Adam\Karl
A couple of guys on the other Forum I post asked me to put together a SBS on my fourth figure which I will post here as well to freely pass on what was given to me. This is not about egos and being better than anyone else to me. it is about freely sharing our successes and failures in order for all of us to benefit and improve our outputs.
4th LRDG NWM Figure SBS
Hello Gentleman I have been off working on my fourth figure and Chris and Ted had asked if I would write up a quick SBS on the fourth figure and at first I felt that I really could not bring anything new to you guys especially due to the excellent awe inspiring work I have read on this forum. Then I thought what I could bring to the table is the experience of a first time modeler and figure painter that has only been in the hobby one year as of December and that would perhaps have value to the editors and guys that are writing articles designed to encourage and teach the new guy. This is my 21st figure and here is a picture of my first figure that started this madness last Christmas. My daughter and I wanted to do something in the sprit of the season that we could work on together so I purchased a couple cheap ceramic figures and a throw away acrylic water color set and ten minutes later she was "done and six hours later I looked up and I had created Rudy!
I will never forget the feeling of peace that had overcome me with that little escape and due to the fact that I wanted to keep my manhood and not be beat up by guys for painting little deer figurines I bought my first DML PZ.IV Smart Kit and dove in. I am in the computer industry and I know how to self feed myself knowledge so I started researching and reading 24"7.
I want to pause here and state that any technique or method I describe I learned from the following talented gentleman and their books:
Armor Modeling by John Prigent
How to Build Armor Dioramas by Lynn Kessler
How to Paint Realistic Military Figures by Lynn Kessler & Don Winar
Modeling Panzer Crewman of the Heer by Mark Bannerman
Mark Dollery Articles
Shepherd Paine and Calvin Tan
After all my research I decided to focus my figure medium of choice on Vallejo Model Color paints due to their versatility and the quick drying times and also the fact that we have young children in the house. I also use oil washes for certain applications and for outlining some figures.
After that long introduction Let's Do This!
My first lesson was to purchase the best resin figures I could afford and due to the nature of Vallejo paints proper figure prep and priming is essential. Here are two pictures of the figure prepped and primed with Model Master Grey Primer Acryl. I have also used Mr. Surfacer 1200 aerosol successfully.
I also discovered that it is very necessary to reduce the handling of the figure before during and after painting before the figure is sealed with a flat coat. This prevents leaving oils on the figure that will literally rub off the paint very quickly and is very difficult to cover up successfully. I finally hit upon a great cheap method of accomplishing this which was the purchase of four furniture legs that were predrilled with 1"4 inch bolts w
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation."
Herbert Spencer