Faces Part II

Hey All!



Finally getting round to finishing my tutorial on Faces.

First off, lets make this clear - these steps are not necessary have a good looking army. They go above and beyond...sanity. Your painting progress will slow to a snails pace, and you will constantly nag your mate and/or kids to 'check out this guy face!'

I use Vallejo Model Colors from top right to left:

876 Brown Sand
817 Scarlet
803 Brown Rose
342 Highlights Flesh (white and flat flesh same-same, I'm just lazy)
845 Sunny Skin Tone
955 Flat Flesh
822 German Camo Black Brown
872 Chocolate Brown

Try to keep the paint thin. I add about 1/2 drop of water to a full drop of well-shaken paint.  For all face-painting, I use a 10 year old 'Windsor Series 7' 000 along with my cheap dollar store 3.50x mag reading glasses.

Step I. I start by selecting a white-primed figure that has been block-painted and let dry overnight (if you are in a hurry, into the oven for about 15 minutes at 150-170 degrees Fahrenheit). I begin painting an undercoat of Brown Sand on the face and hands.  This figure looks pretty beat-up and has a few flaws in the casting (bent nose, no eye on right, and messed up helmet) but will be a good example to work with as you will run into problems and have to compensate by creative painting and re-carving detail (in extreme cases).

Step II. Using German Camo Black Brown, I then add in the eyebrows and a small underline shadow to the underside of the nose. When painting detail this small, make sure you are not low on blood sugar or your hands will shake and it doesn't hurt to have some Tantric breathing exercise techniques in your toolbox! I find I actually do slow my breathing when painting faces. The right eye socket on this figure is in a bit of a cast crease so was a challenge!

Step III. Again using German Camo Black Brown, I then add in a vertical line for the eye in the middle of the eyebrow and paint the lips basic shape.  Don't worry if your eyes are too long or big, just try to keep them equal distant relative to each other or your mini will look cross or bug-eyed. Battlefronts figures made by Even Allen usually have a good representation of the mouth but you can paint in whats not there for the poorer casts.

Step IV. Using Chocolate Brown paint in the shadow on the edges of the nose. Then mix in flat flesh and outline the creases around the mouth. Also using this mixture, cut down the shape of the eyes to a more realistic proportions by painting over the bottom of the eye. Do not paint in the white of the eye, it is out of scale for 15mm. Only use Flat Flesh/Chocolate Brown mixture (or your prefered color choice.)

Step V. Using Flat Flesh, mix in a little Scarlet and wet this out to a wash consistency. Not too Scarlet or it will look like clown makeup! Add this to the upper cheek area and follow the line of the mouth crease.  Also paint in above the tip of the nose.

Step VI. Take Sunny Skin Tone and hit the highlights on the top of the nose, the bottom of the chin, the top of the cheekbones, the edges around the mouth crease, the jaw, and most importantly, the top lip. Connect the top lip to the edge of the jaw by highlighting the edge under the mouth creases. If adding a 5 o'clock shadow, at this stage, mix in an itty bit of Black with Flat Flesh and thin to a wash. Add to the upper lip, chin and jaw-line.

Step VII. Using Brown Rose, paint in the lower lip, making sure to leave a small shadow underneath and on the outer edges. Don't paint the top lip, it only shows as a highlight and shadow. If you paint it in, your figure will look like it's got a lipstick obsession. 

Step VIII. Using Highlights Flesh (or add white to your flesh - sooo damn lazy) hit the extreme highlights, the tip of the chin and nose, upper cheekbones and the upper lip.   At this stage, I took my x-acto and smoothed the helmet brim as it was dented.

Step IX. Dot in the ear locations with Flat Flesh. Add a shadow under them with Brown Sand. Using German Camo Black Brown, paint in the shadow under the helmet and cut down the shape of the face. This step can be a bit tricky but try to leave a thin line of flesh above the eyebrows.   

Step X. Now is the time to re-evaluate your painting. clean up any mistakes and reduce the eye size if needed. A good job can be ruined with bug-eyes. I cut down the eyes a bit using Flat Flesh.

Thats it!

This fellows face took about 5 minutes of face painting and 2 hours of photos! With practice, you can get similar results.

 Finished figures, flatcoated with Vallejo Matte Varnish 26.518. I re-shaped the left figures nose as it was too long.

These автоматчики will be part of my Stalingrad-era Guards SMG teams.

BTW, click on some of my ads, the wife thinks it BS that I will get paid, I'm starting to believe her!




Cheers!

Troy

Fall Blau Beauties!

Hey All!

My first post for 2014!

Finished up a platoon of Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf Js armed with the L/60 for my Stalingrad German forces. Lots of goodies added; tools, stowage boxes, gun barrels, Notek lights, headlights, tow hooks, racks, wirecutters handles (missing?) helmets etc.

I have gotten away from putting on aerials as they are harder to store and ultimately get bent. Tried to fix up the fenders/wheels/running gear but finally gave up. I am beginning to realize that I have to prioritize my hobby time and feel 2 hours on one mini just getting the running gear cleaned up is too much.

In the interest of saving a bit of time, I have began experimenting with various spray colors to prime armor with. I realize there are Army Painter sprays for 15 bucks but primed these with cheap $5.00/can Krylon Grey primer and the result was great. Good coverage and not too dark.

A shout out to Doms Decals, in my opinion, the best decal company out there for all your 15mm needs. I used a combination of 6mm GHQ and Doms decals for these minis.

I must say that I spent far too much time reworking these with add-ons and fixes and I was planning to add some other things but finally had to say 'Enough!' I have many terrain items and soldiers to paint so need to move on! 

Above, card for the Panzer III from Schwere Kompanie Rules...you know you wanna...

I for one am excited by the new BF plastic vehicles and have recently purchased the T34/76 - T34/85 combo kit. The detail and tooling of these tanks is magnificent! I am sooo done with the blobby irregular shaped details of the resin and lead/pewter of BF other kits! Even their more recent offerings have very unsymmetrical details and such. I don’t see going away from the metal soldiers but Plastic is where its at for vehicles. 

Now what to do with all the kits I already have...!

Troy

Canadians - Eh?

Hey All!

Felt a bit of patriotism on Canada Day so decided to do a test run of some Canadian Troopers (and take a break from Germans and Russians!)  I wanted to solidify color choices so mostly worked on one figure.  I bought the BBX11 British Rifle Company a few years back with the plan that at some point I would do up a D-Day Canadian force fighting in Normandy.

The sculps are a bit blocky typical of BF style and are pretty good overall with the only major bitch (am I ever happy?) is the Mk.III ‘turtle’ helmet modelled. On many of the figures, it is more flat on the sides than it should be. I played around a bit with one figure, scraping off the netting and adding one made of nylon stocking (stole from the wife - not mine...really!) 

All my color choices for these figures will be updated in the "Recommended Colors" link on the left side of the blog.

I plan on painting them up to represent the 3rd Canadian Division, specifically the Royal Winnipeg Rifles of the 7th Infantry Brigade. The divisional patch is a blue/grey square with the Regimental patch above it. in a black arc with white lettering.

The advancing bren gunner pose (center minis - below) is  a bit dwarfish. I removed the legs on a couple otherwise great looking minis and added some bulk with epoxy. I then attached some longer legs from two spare riflemen. The different legs and a new head make it difficult realize that theses are the same mini. You can really make your figures unique with simple conversions.
These sculpts are unique in that they are the only ones modelled with the bi-pod folded back - not forward - which BF chooses to do with most of the Brens to strengthen the barrel (see figure below-left). 

Personally I wish BF would model the Bren bi-pod back as this is the most common method seen in pictorial evidence. Ill be careful with the barrel ok? 

As well, I added a new head sculpt and a carrying handle on one figure that is missing on all of the Brens. 

Stay tuned...

Troy

 

Marder Mash-up 2.0

MARDER III UPDATE June 2013...

Hey All!

Marder finished with crew added:
Capped figure modified from Finnish stock, loader with a head transplant.

Painted in the extra details on the elevation handwheels - hard to see but looks the part and was easier than scratchbuilding the wheel spokes.
Nickle added at my wife's insistence for size reference.

 Now to finish up my Pioneres and Guards...



Taking a break from building terrain, I finally got around to finishing this Marder III that I began last year (!) on Fathers Day. My how the time does fly! I used Tamiya German Grey as a basecoat, Vallejo for everything else, Dom's for the decals and will be adding in a couple modified crew figures to the fighting compartment.

BTW, BF DID send the replacement body, no questions asked! Their customer service is in my opinion, without a doubt, the best part of their business!

Normally I use Tamiya for basecoating and panel highlighting and Vallejo for brushwork but while having a bitch of a time with my Iwata HP-SB Plus airbrush, I discovered a new way to airbrush Vallejo Model color. Instead of water/Windex/thinner, I used straight Winsor & Newton Acrylic blending medium. It keeps the paint from drying out in the airbrush but you must be careful to not to use too much pressure (20psi or less).  Due to the longer work time, the paint will spider-web out from the contact point if oversprayed.

The wheels and running gear on this mini were as many other BF products, very poor. I must say though, the new plastic running gear on the Panzer IV J is light years better so here’s to hoping BF remasters the tracks on their best sellers…

Rivet detail and such are a bit un-symmetrical but overall, give the impression of the bumpy surface of the Marder III. The amount of scratchbuilding added to this vehicle was more than I do normally and isn't recommended for the casual gamer but does add lots of interest to an otherwise average-looking mini.

I went substantially lighter than normal to compensate for the apparent darkening of colors when flatcoated with Vallejo Matt. I also added in a light buff to the base coat and panel-highlighted to represent settled dust. Although I did add a bit of mud, I didn't want to overpower the onderlying paintjob. I also added grease trails on the running gear that show up in many pictures of the Czech Pz.38(t) chassis in period photos.

Cheers!

Troy

Hey All.


I had a bit of time this weekend - happy fathers day - to do some scratchbuilding to a favorite subject of mine, the Marder.

I began by digging out a couple of Battlefront GE104 Marder III (7.62cm) blisters I bought a few years back and discovered that one mini had a very bad cast track and many air bubbles on the chassis. I fired off a email to BF's customer service and decided to build the good one while waiting...One thing that occurred to me was that I usually do not open a blister until I am ready to build it but one should as there may be parts missing upon closer examination! I hope this is not an issue with BF!

I decided that the sparse mini needed some sprucing up...

I began by drilling out the holes on the chassis drive and idler wheels. I also drilled out the small holes in the perforated fender stowage box. As the gun is fixed it stands a pretty good chance of being bent by gamers so, although well detailed,  I replaced it with brass tube. I also hollowed out the muzzle break.

 As per reference photos, I added tools to both fenders, wire cutters, hammer, and shovel. Also I removed the molded on Notec light and replaced it with  a fire extinguisher. As well, I added a second one to the rear of the fighting compartment.  

A spare gas can, helmet and pail rounded out the rear of the vehicle. I reinforced the pail with a block of solder to prevent its removal by less than careful gamers.

Many small details were added to the fighting compartment including elevation wheels, cocking handle, gunshield bracing, right side breech shield, gunsight, periscopes, spare rounds and a gas mask container. I plan on simply painting in the wheel detail on the handwheels later...

I added a tarp to the left side as well as tarp stands to the crew compartment. The iconic ZB53 (Besa) hull MG detail was pretty slim so I remade it with thin wire wrapped around a flared-out piece of solder. I wrapped this in a foil shroud and installed.

Must resist the urge to scratchbuild the rear seat...Currently I am looking for crew figures in more action poses...stay tuned!

Troy

Buildin' Bloggin'

Hey All!
A running entry on a pet project of mine, namely the Battle of Stalingrad. Pictured above is my first attempt at a ruined building using foamcore board, cereal box cardboard and PVA glue mixed with drywall mud. The design is rather simple and I plan on adding more detail in the next one which I have posted below.

One belief I have about wargame terrain is that it has to be playable. Its no good if you have this wonderful terrain that your minis cannot sit properly on. For this reason, I try and think out what is needed and what will cause issues with mini placement. For example, if this were a real destroyed building, there would be piles of rubble and debris scattered around the footprint but this would not allow minis to be placed. What I plan on doing is making up some rubble edge and corner pieces and butting them up to the building. This allows the rubble to be shifted out of the way in order to place your minis. As well, on the next building, I will have a removable back that lets you place minis on the individual floors instead of having to disassemble stacked floors.


The next building will be based on 4-floor concrete apartment blocks seen in pictures of the battle. I decided to make a building based on this picture:

I begin with the next building by laying out the basic idea on the foamcore with pencil. I plan on adding in a removable back after so only designed the three sides. Approximate heights and outer walls are sketched in, window/door cutouts marked and once happy, I draw in the fold lines with a marker.  Just remember to put the lines on the opposite side for inside corners!


For working with foamcore, you need VERY sharp blades - and many of them. For general straight cuts, a drywall knife with snap-off blades will do but window/door cutouts will require an X-acto. When cutting the folds, only cut through the first layer of paper, then bend. You will get a strong corner on one side and will have to add either a paper/cardboard edge piece or square corner to cover the exposed edge on the other.

Once I got the folds figured out, I laid the building flat and cutout the windows and door. You have to cut past the edge so the corners are sharp and any cuts that show will get covered up with PVA/mud later.

I find that its best to cut on the building outside as the inside opening tends to be less square due to the angle of the blade through the foam.

So I had some time this morning to add on the building...I enlarged the bottom windows and added sills made from cardboard.  I then added outside corners made from square-cut basswood bought from Canadian tire for 1 dollar for 3 feet. As well I added some detail work around the door.



I marked out the areas that would recieve damage and cut them out.

 I didn’t realize how true this was going to be! I ran into a problem when I attached the floor. I used hot glue instead of PVA and the work time is very short. Even with the floor reference line, the glue set before I could align it properly.

 The floor was crooked and caused the building to sit uneven…now what? I tried to remove the floor but it caused the walls to buckle and then I had a melt down…and smashed the whole thing into the garbage…it was probably save-able...but not after I crushed it... 

You know...I learned something today; sometimes its better to have to wait on glue to dry instead of trying to rush with something else...Hot glue = destruction!

When I was younger I used to rush when building plastic models, not waiting till glue or paint dried to do the next step and see the finished product and the results were predictable. It wasn't until I watched a friend building a Stuka, the same one I was building, that I realized the patience needed to do a good job. In the time I built mine, he had only assembled and painted the wheels and bombs. He took the time to plan and paint parts before assembly. He removed the parts from the sprue with a hobby knife, I broke them off with my hand; He painted things and set them aside to dry, I tried to glue wet painted parts together...

Once I took the time, my models improved dramatically and I became much less frustrated and truly enjoyed building. I think I need to revisit this lesson...

Other things I learned...

- Ergonomic license will be needed to model ceiling height extra high so you can get your mitts inside to place minis.

- Don't try to model everything, including extra floors; two or three is sufficient, any more becomes fluff.

- Plan everything out and use reference photos.

- Maybe im drinking too much coffee?

I'm not giving up. I will start again on a similar building and add to this thread.

Troy