Special Forces Figure ***COMPLETE - 13MAY09***

modelchasm wrote:

So, psst ... now that finals are through are we going to see more progress this summer or are you taking summer classes?

Sorry- I read that and forgot by the end of all those pictures.  Too busy drooling haha

To answer your question- no summer classes, just work. I don’t work too many hours, but believe it or not for a 20 year old that spends a lot of his time between classes posting to a modeling forum, over the summer my social life gets pretty packed. But as far as progress goes, I’m planning on finishing a few Vietnam pieces, this being one of them, and if not finishing this dio- really knocking out a lot of it.
The reason I didn’t make much progress during the school year wasn’t so much class load as it was running EMS and being a Resident Assistant. I’m not going to be an RA next year and I’ll have an apartment with a little modeling section in my room. So I’m not sure if I’ll make more progress over the summer- or next fall! haha
But thanks for asking.

camo junkie wrote:

i like to tease people and take a jab "once in awhile"...

But yeah, for the small size of the base, it’s either going to be a little hint of groundwork, or something like a display model where you have the figure standing on top of a unit patch or something. And if it’s a hint of groundwork, I’d just say go for a little gravely/rocky sand, maybe a little dash of static grass, nothing fancy. The figure’s the center piece after all.

psstoff995 wrote:

As far as the base...

how 'bout him standing in front of a half humvee!!!

guys, im just joking all the way around...i like to tease people and take a jab "once in awhile"... . but again, im trying to refrain from talking about me....what im doing etc...(its hard because i want to offer some advice etc.). its your build and i should be focused on your problems/issues...so if that makes sense (im sure it does) then just take my words with a grain of salt sometimes... . i know what your saying too model!

as for the margarita's... the hamburger's......the music... and whatever else.........

btw, happy b-day to me last friday the 7th!!

camo junkie wrote:

you guys know what your doing and dont need me to play socrates here!! (someone will get that) . post some pics buddy looks good!!

Oh, Ye wise deities of ol' ... please grace us with your ye ol' wise wisdom of experience and margaritas and cheeseburgers of paradise ....

Ok, that was a little much .... Quit being alouf there camo. I wouldn't ask your opinion if I didn't want it.

Painting is coming long this morning, I've decided not to lighten the uniform as now that I'm adding more darker colors the uniform is lightening up on its own. I figure I've got 1-2 more colors to add before I start in on the weathering process. (I love acrylics ...)

Anyway, I'll post pictures later when I've got more done.

Oh, and I'm sorry for the typo on the "mom" comment .... my pet tumble weed got in the way while I was typing...

modelchasm wrote:

Don't forget to call you Mom today!

ummm....model....why would i want to call myself mom??? j/k damn cowboy!! btw, im glad u looked up margaritaville as apposed to...well...never mind...LOL. are you guys really all that concerned about seams???? does it really matter that much?? its ok if you are...i certainly dont want to take away someone's desire to get every last drop of detail correct...i wold just never get anything done. and i would probably end up totally bored in the middle of any and all builds i do/paint. just me...whatever.

your right (i.m.o.) model...nothing wrong with the uniform...in fact the green looks pretty damn close to where no one would say...what the hell is that! at any rate...im tired of sonding like a broken record player (again p.o. you may not get that reference ). you guys know what your doing and dont need me to play socrates here!! (someone will get that) . post some pics buddy looks good!!

Well I checked out my DCUs and psst, you were right. The reinforced areas of the knees and the elbows are pieces that are sewn to the outside. My bad. I usually pay more attention to the seams, but I guess I got out of habit a bit .... I didn't even have to think about it for 1/2 a second with my OIF figure (yeah, just try to find a seam there buddy!) But, I'm not all that concerned about it. As first conjured up, this one will be going out to my buddy as a "thank you" gift, so I'm not all that concerned that he's secretly a contest judge. Also, camo, while I was checking out my DCU's seams, I picked up a Webster's and looked up Margaritaville and what do you know! .... You picture was right there! HAHAHAHA. Its not that you don't care, its that you are happy in your work. You can still "see" the finished product the way you wanted it even if the helmet might be a little jacked.

After sleeping on it, I came back to the figure this morning and (in new light non the less) it looks fantastic. The colors are spot on, although I may still lighten up the whole thing a bit. It shouldn't take long.

I'm hoping that I'll be done with the figure today .... I still have no idea what I really want to do for the base. Boo......

Will post some more pics later today. Don't forget to call you Mom today!

looks to me like its coming along great. the green looks good as well!! what color was the vest b4 you painted it? did ya try the yellow db? just curious. btw, glad to see im rubbing off on someone.... see what u guys dont know (i think) is that i dont get too fussy over my stuff because im only showing it in pics and not at shows!! therefore, while i want it to look good, if its something that requires alot of effort or better yet (will cause me to screw it up after i just got to a point i like...more than likely)...im more apt to just leave it alone. see for me there is always...ALWAYS one little thing in the end that i screw up whether a model, a fig or whatever...(my delta force helmet for example) and it drives me CRAZY!!!!! so im more apt to just leave it alone to avoid the unpleasant cursing that will follow with redoing it!!!!

however, to me model the guy looks great. just the fact that you made him from scratch is amazing! the camo is coming off good too!! i like it! keep us posted!

psstoff995 wrote:

Only issue being the pattern you’ve panted crosses across a few seams... so I’m assuming it’s a patch on the inner pant leg and the 3 tone camo on the outside remains intact?? But as long as your 3 tone doesn’t cross over any seams that join two separate sections- I’d say it looks great!

Hmm .... I'll have to look at it on my DCUs. But, I doubt that I'd change it at this point. (Man! Camo's rubbing off on me ... )

I did go back, however, and change the color of the vest and other equipment. After staring at it for about 10min, I just didn't like the color. So I went back and looked through my paints again and I found it. MM's "dark tan" is almost a perfect match to coyote tan. Once I get it all weathered, I'm sure it will look much better.

As far as the uniform colors, I wanted the green to blend a little bit more with the base tan .... so I'm going to go back over it with a light wash of the base color until I get it were I want it. Then I plan on giving the whole thing a wash of really thinned black until I getting the shading down I want.

Anyway. I'll post those pictures when I get to that point. Thanks for the pointing out the seams...

***UPDATE*** 

Sorry that it's been awhile. I haven't had a lot of time to build let alone check all that's been going on here. Seems like everyone is staying busy, so that's good. So, psst ... now that finals are through are we going to see more progress this summer or are you taking summer classes?

Well, I thought that if I showed my ugly mug here, I'd better at least show an update ....So here goes ...

I'm pretty much complete with the face/ head. I'm still not 100% on if I'm going to add in a 5 o'clock shadow or not. I've got a few more coats of Future to add to the glasses and I've got a small "decal" to add to the cap, but other than that ... it's pretty done.

I've gotten a lot done with the body, but it's going very slow. Given what I've gotten done, I'm going to change the belt and the knee pad to be black, and the camelbak is going to be either OD green or foliage green. I'm also going to thicken the dark brown stripes on the uniform a little. I think they are too thin. The golves will the OD w/ black detail. And the weapon will be painted black and then heavily washed/ painted with tans and browns. I'm not all that excited about the coloring right now, but granted I've still got a ton of weathering to do.

Here the original green came out to .... green. So I gave it a wash of the base color to lighten it up. It helped a lot, but I may go back over it a couple more times before I add in shadows and highlights.

I want to keep going on things tonight, but I'm going to force myself to take a break until tomorrow. Give me honest opinions/ thoughts. Don't hold back, I've never done this camo scheme, so I need to know.

Enjoy!

not THAT shadowy

Yeah... I'm not sure, that might work, or maybe if you can find some small particulates to add to the wash? Like super fine grit sand? Something to give it a little bit of texture without appearing like its way over scaled? The only thing is I think if you used the Q-tip, you might get some textured paint sure, but if you left any kind of sizable chunk behind, it might look like an eyeball sized clump of hair. I think you should practice a few techniques on a flesh colored strip of styrene until you find something you like.

But if we're talking about stubble as opposed to a few days of beard growth- don't forget that in this scale, if you're going to detail that small, I feel like that'd be comparable to adding a third dimension to a unit patch to represent the threading. I think, for the small size of stubble, you can get away with maybe giving the appearance with paint alone, now if you want to get an old brush, and dry brush on the 5 o'clock shadow- that might work as you'd get some individual, bristle sized "hairs" painted on, but I don't think you'd have to go 3D with it as far as texture goes- just my

Yea, that looks good psst, but I'm wondering how I can make the paint look a little more 3D instead of just washing it on. Maybe do a wash, and then go back over it with thicker paint and dab at it with a Q-tip to get the paint to "stick up" a little.

Sound stupid or do you think it would work?

psstoff995 wrote:

Unfortunately, I think it’s one of my better figures I’ve painted, and it was my first attempt at resin and 1/16

yeah...he looks good from the pic!

I never thought about preparing for finals with crack... hmm

Just kidding! But yeah, I guess it’s more a WWII thing to go with 5 o’clock shadows on the soldiers, now we do see a lot of 20 year olds on the front lines, I’ll tell you, I might be able to show a 5 o’clock shadow, but it’d be 5 o’clock three days after I last shaved...

Haha anyway here’s how I do it, get some blackish/dark brown oil/acrylic/anything that you can thin out and glaze on, and just lightly wash the area, and quickly dab up any extra, it should be a real runny wash, and it might take two or three applications, but what’s nice about that, is you have much more control about how dark it gets.

This is the 5 o’clock shadow on my 101st Airborne figure (same kit as model’s OIF “Flash Out”)

Unfortunately, I think it’s one of my better figures I’ve painted, and it was my first attempt at resin and 1/16

yea ... I was going to ask about that ... the facial hair I mean. Most SF guys (that I work with at least) don't really "grow". Now those that operate in Afghanistan ususally do. It's really more a culture thing than it is a "bad-arse" thing. In fact, SF are still held under the Army's appearance and grooming standards ... it's just that MOST of the regular Army takes things like haircuts to the extreme.

Anyways ... I always prefered a short guard on top just b/c its cooler ...

As far as my buddy goes ... he never had a beard, but with dark hair, he usually looked like he had a like scruff ...

Sooooo, the question is ... how do I replicate that on the face. Right now it just looks like a REALLY clean cut guy!?! I figure a wash of the same color as the hair, but how to a make it look ... well, rougher? How do I keep it from looking like a dirty ... clean cut guy?

adding that flesh tone made it look good. not that it didnt. i have always done the same thing with oils...added a pinkish flesh tone to the face, arms hands etc.  however...this isnt my build so...it looks good and is coming along well.  (like u didnt know that anyway). thanks for sharing!

p.o: thought maybe you were smoking crack in preparation for your finals up there or something. saw that early yesturday and was like "ok"...but at least i know now what was up!! as far as the beard growth/shadow...really depends if he should put it in or not...most soldiers being average aged at 20...no real growth there!! just my

psst ... don't freak out just b/c finals are right around the corner! Not sure what you were trying to get across up there, but yeah ... good luck with that!

**UPDATE**

So I thought before I turned in for tonight I'd post some update pics for today. I got caught doing a lot of chores today but was able to get some more paint on the face. In fact, I got the highlights done as I was waiting for these pics to upload ... God I love acrylics!

Here, I've applied a wash of MM burnt sienna, concentrating mostly on the cease/ fold areas ...

Here I've applied a dark brown, Vallejo's Burnt Umber, to the recesses of the face with a 000 brush. I also used the burnt umber color as a base for the hair. I'll be washing the hair with a burnt umber/ black mix and adding highlights later.

And now something that I did on a whim ... I didn't do this on my OIF figure and I shold have b/c it came out great! After a cautious burnt umber treatment, I went back and added in MM's warm flesh color. Before, I had just blended the dark wash w/ the base coats and the highlights. Not sure why, but this layer really needed to be added in. Even in these pictures w/o the highlights, it could almost be called finished ... anyway ...

As always ... comments and crits welcome.

modelchasm wrote:

Yes, there's a notch out of the cap's bill. Not intentional, but I've tried to fill/ reshape it twice w/ no luck. Any suggestion would be great.

Hmm... for stuff like that, I usually get some real thick putty (like mighty putty quality I guess?) work it in there with my hands and try and trim it up best I can while it's still wet, then sand after. Also like allan said, maybe CA a piece of styrene card underneath as a shelf to hold your fill in until it dries, then sand it down to size after?