~ FIGURES ~ for ~ ! Clash in Tunisia ! ~ COMPLETE ~

OUTSTANDING--perhaps the best figure toot in this Forum.  Lots of great WIP shots as well as ref shots...nicely done.  And for the record, I think the missus was taking much too keen an interest in the butt shot...

Manstein's revenge

OUTSTANDING--perhaps the best figure toot in this Forum.  Lots of great WIP shots as well as ref shots...nicely done.  And for the record, I think the missus was taking much too keen an interest in the butt shot...

Well...hey wow.... I have been honored with the Herr Feldmarcoolguyshall's seal of approval!

Thanks very much for that one Manny!

Still not completed, but I like how he's coming along....

For the lens of his goggles, I made the 1st use ever of my new Waldron Sub-Miniature Punch & Die set. After  reading so many amazing scratchbuilders raving about this costly little tool I decided I must have one when our friend Bill found a stash of them at a slightly better price at a LHS near him, and had him pick it up for me. Usually I would make a tiny lens like this with a small bead of clear acylic or Future... but since the lens needed was nice and round I tried this and it worked fairly well. I painted the inside area of the goggle to match the helmet and put a tab of wash to diffues the freshness, metalized the rim and added highlight , and used a little Polly Scale clear as glue to set the minute lenses in place.

I did'nt have the heart to tint them when done, so left it as the many examples of clear glass I've seen on these, despite finding the nice tints on the references.. Still, something about this method has 'drawn' the helmet color up to the top surface of the lens, at least visually, so I would try something a little different next time.

~Got a good deal done on his kit, but there still plenty of layers needed! He particularly needs highlights to just about everything on his top half--

~~Especially still needs work on that bandage on his hand, his boots, entrenching tool and belt

~My DAK security man is just about there.......

I used the inks, grey and black,  atop off-wite and cream-colored Vallejo, to get this dirty looking bandage on his hand settled. It's a difficult feature to make look right...I tried a fw things and  it looks quite good now --- in person at least.---(I think the goggles look very nice in the above shot)

I wanted to try to go beyond a bit, really I think he's on par with the state of my figure painting, no better or worse,....I'd like to take a little more care even,...but there's a point I feel like I've fiddled enough...and in the interests of completing the Dio finally, I'd say  yes he's    done. (That's nothing needing editing there, it's his entrenching tool, I swear it!)

 

I shall return with more ! Thanks for your interest guys........................

~Note :  ....I failed to mention that I've been adding  Vallejo's #597 Slow Dry and a bit of Tamiya X-21 Flat Base to the Vallejo paints in varried amounts to get some effects and avoid glossy results when drybrushing. Sorry I hadn't  said it earlier

I've been making good use of the Daler Rowney Inks for some effects also. Here I've used different amounts of Sepia (sometimes darkened with black) , thinned with just a little water it gets to be very easily manipulated from opaque to semi-transparent.  I've used the ink over a white primer coat followed by a wash of yellow-khaki Vallejo mix.

Amazing figure work...I am in awe of your talents! The last figure is just so cool...can not wait to see the other goodies you have planned for this dio.

Buddho

Amazing figure work...I am in awe of your talents! The last figure is just so cool...can not wait to see the other goodies you have planned for this dio.

That's high praise Buddho . Thank you for that!

The perfect figure if you don't like what you're hearing.

 

 Work on him went pretty quickly, using methods all conventional to those seen in this blog

 

 

 

What's his problem anyway? Loud gunfire?

Maybe this guy should worry. I could crush him with my thumb!!

 

I could paint this one figure for a month, honestly, there's so much detail to be made the most of.   Long ago I promised myself not to do such a thing as I'm in it for the Dioramas and in the interest of creating them....some happy medium has to be reached...........

Over the shiny inks I've used a thin wash of Vallejo Iraqui Sand and then used that same colour on a thin liner brush to tediously outline the gunbelt and holster, to show it  recently worn to  bare leather.(maybe he had to take a tumble out when his Panzer was hit?)

 

 No trick for this except steady your handy and thin your paint only enough that it flows smooth

make a short practice stroke on a paper towel to see the paint delivery is right, and move right to where you need the line. Keep a wet brush very close in case you need to "erase" .

 

Zoom on the  nice details of this figures gloves & belt buckle especially.

This custom figure still need some more work, but bit by bit he's becoming what I need.

 

 

I believe they are turning into a coherent likely bunch, for a rag-tag unit. I think I may be closer than believed..............I'm well past half way with the figure painting.

 

Please stay tuned..................

AWESOME job on the figures, though I noticed the German soldier holding his cigarette the way Americans do and not he European way, thumb and forefinger.

deadhead

AWESOME job on the figures, though I noticed the German soldier holding his cigarette the way Americans do and not he European way, thumb and forefinger.

deadhead~ Thanks for posting--and thanks for the "Awesome".  Your observation is an interesting one, although I don't believe the two smoking 'styles' to be mutually exclusive -  Not like how you might choose to indicate the number "3" with your fingers but holding a smoke "Euro" style in the States, may make people wonder what's being smoked---eh.....deadhead? 

Just trying to help , and yes I believe the two smoking styles are mutually exclusive especially in the WWII era.

No problem. I just don't think you're right.     

Officially the German soldier was a non-smoker, but they did smoke anyways.

That has got to be one of the best collection of painted figures I have seen in awhile!

Just a couple of questions:

Do you use acrylics exclusively?

Do you use oil washes?

How did you get so darn good at this?????? LOL!

(and as for the smoking styles, I've seen photos of German troops using all sorts of fingers to smoke their cigarettes!)

I bow to your research! I was going by hearsay and an old movie. Now I feel like a dope

Oops!  I think I screwed up... I thought those German cigarettes were much longer.  Actually I wanted to say thanks for your toot because I used to add cigarettes to my two figures over the weekend.  Of course I had to cut metal wires a lot shorter after the CA dried like you suggested.  Thought it was funny... sword fighting perhaps?

Buddho~

Buddho

That has got to be one of the best collection of painted figures I have seen in awhile!

Thanks so much Buddy--Yes they are starting to get there now.

              Just a couple of questions:           Anytime-go ahead          

Do you use acrylics exclusively?          I use acylics,+tube artist acrylics+tamiya(what ever they are ) enamels,oils, inks and pigment powders for my figures--but if you mean do I sometimes use mostly oils, the answer's no, I haven't been able to deal witht the slow drying time too well Most of the work on this project is done with Vallejo and the inks and oils are for effects  mostly.

Do you use oil washes?       Not for figures, no. I use oil washes for bodywork on vehicles sometimes if I can't make an enamel do the job(usually it can)    For washes over Vallejo, use a darker version of that Vallejo color--it wont  desolve like other paints--same with artist acrylics in a tube--they dry to a plastic colored shell basically and wet color flows right over it.

How did you get so darn good at this?????? LOL!          I've been working as one kind of artist or another for 30 years, but I've been doing scale models for only 2 .  I have alot of years experience with acrylics so getting ahold of these great model paints and searching out the best tutorials from the worlds best modelers set me on the path--I have a long way to go to get where I want but studying the work and reading books, blogs, and articles from Steve Zagola, Calvin Tan , Jaume Ortiz Forns, Bob Letterman, and Douglas Lee, and Mark Bannerman, to name a few,  all gave me a boost in building and painting Figures & Dioramas     --& thanks for the question!

(and as for the smoking styles, I've seen photos of German troops using all sorts of fingers to smoke their cigarettes!)

Thanks--no doubt

Stick with---more up soon!

~deadhead~ Again no problem .....Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!

~Andy~  That's awsome!!  You really made me happy showing me that--I'm so glad it worked well for you---pretty easy to handle that way--huh?---looks like it will work great....keep me posted!

   lots more reference

 

I'm finding the metal figures are fantastic when you go to finish all the little fittments--instead of needing to paint those harness-rings a bit of gentle scratching shows the bright metal under the paint and has the real look to it.

 

Some collector got a nice haul for Chrismas! A bit of good reference for gas mask, ammo & fuelcan for us too.

This guy still has his additude problems but is close to finished

 

Here's what I mean about a production line. To speed things up some, you may as well handle the field kits all at once--each canteen, each breadbag should all be about the same anyway so layer by layer, I move from one to the next, though the DAK Sentry was basically finished alone as I was concentrating efforts then, but I'm checking to make sure everything is consistaint, though not nessessarily matching.

 

 

 

 ~~With this last figure started, they have all recieved alot of work  and soon as I have those guys above done I'll get back to the British figures and finish them.

*INDY

 

 

 

This guy still has his additude problems but is close to finished

I like that one. Seems to me like one of those seen-it-all, done-it-all 20-year veteran seargants. Don't remember where he fits in the big picture, but in isolation like above, he seems to be diciplining some of the lesser qualified / experienced replacements he is bogged down with. I find his body language a bit more assertive than a Tom Waits'ish do-no-good'er...

DoC

Thanks DOC ~ I appreciate that. !

 

*INDY

Got this man  a better looking Maschinengewehr (from the spares box ) with a sling 

The German 'gewehr' is 'rifle' in English. 'Machinegewehr' is 'machine gun' in English. The weapon in the above image is a sub machine gun, which in German is 'machinepistole.'

DoC 

You got me there Doc--you are technically correct--I was going for somthing a slight bit slang and just calling it a machinegun, as every submachinegun is indeed a machinegun .....but yes, in practice I didn't use the correct word.

*INDY

You got me there Doc--you are technically correct--I was going for somthing a slight bit slang and just calling it a machinegun, as every submachinegun is indeed a machinegun .....but yes, in practice I didn't use the correct word.

The borders between terms are a bit vague, but the general rule-of-thumb goes something like:

• If the thing fires pistol ammo it's a 'machinepistole'
• If the thing fires rifle ammo it's a 'machinegwehr'
• If the thing is too large for one man to move and handle (even under severe pressure), it's a 'mitrallieuse'

So the Tommygun (.45), Schmeisser, Stengun and MP5 (9mm) are all 'machinepistole', while AK47, M16 and MG42 would be 'machinegewhere' (with 'sturmgewehr' as a sub-class of 'machiengewehr'), while the Maxim and M2 would be  'mitrallieusen'.

DoC

~~Well maybe it was too much contrast on those trousers after all.   

I also weathered the emblem slightly that I'd afixed to his helmet with a touch of the sand-coloured pigment mix for the Dio---I used this on  his boots & the boots of some of the others too (not pictured) That Emblem is from  Eduard by the way and is coloured P.E.

Having these tiny detail items stuck-down not only makes painting a breeze, but  attachment and painting of small straps like this FAR easier too--that is some small fiddlely stuff!  I added the chipped-up sand-coloured paint to the grenades with a very pointy brush.

Nice work on those dudes!

Adam - WOW! looking freaking awesome brother, wish I could do German camo like that.

Bob

~Jim~ Thanks Jim!~

~Bob~ Thanks Bob! I know you could if you practiced at it--pointy brushes--references close---match the colors and mix enough of each to get through he job.

  Hey INDY, just catching up here. Your figures are looking great. They look nice and dirty and gritty, just right for putting into an action diorama. The pic you have with all the figures posing for a group shot is cool. They are all looking like mates right now, but they will soon be having a go at each other...

  You have some good poses going too. Once it's all put together the dio should really tell a story.

  Look foward to seeing it come together....

Boomer...

Boomer~ Ehya---Cheers for that.. They are gett'in pretty close now....all the little details.

Check back soon--almost finished!!

!