British Tankie Finally Completed

For those guys who just saw what I did, earlier, this morning, got in 30 minutes of work with super diluted black Vallejo mixed with Matt Varnish and some good old matt black from Andrea. To add to the gruffness of this WWII hero. I wanted to depict the cold, so, I still left the face a little bit on the red side. Then I added in the beard shadows under the cheek bones, just enough to let the tonal cues below to peer through.

Hope to get all your comments out there.

British Tankie Almost Completed

Over the week end, it was a flurry of work, over 20 hours is put in to get it done. Hope it looks ok. But having check Young Bock Song's figure in his website, I decided the face was too clean and need some gruffness added. So, I am gonna put in the beard lines later and to give the hair a little more definition.

Completed bust on stand from M Workshop.

Front view

Left Front View

Front Oblique

Rear View

British Tankie Face Done

Last two weeks had been hectic, right after M Con, me and my son had to pack in 6 hours, we find ourselves flying to a foreign factory to do some project for the Army. Stayed for 9 days. But we had 2 days over the weekend to catch some sightseeing.

Night view of  Eastern Taipei from the 89th Floor of the Taipei 101. 

Appreciating good coral sculptures. Its great to see this work of heavenly art curved out of one solid piece of rock! Now back home, we take 1 hour a day to continue on our little tankie.

Blocks of colour done. Burnt Cadmium, Flat Brown for the shadows, Sunny Skin Tone with 20% Salmon Rose, Basic Skin Tones for the highlights. The intermediates are done later with the wet method to mix between the colours of the highlights and the shadows.

Mid tones are added, 4 tonal mixes to smoothen the skin tones. Luftwaffe Green is glazed in shaven areas. In 4 layers to prevent over shadow the skin tones below to form a translucent layer concentrated on the shadows.

Modulated the forehead and dotted in the super dark grey/blackish spots to form stubs of beard. More touch ups on the super highlights on the top of the cheek bones, the lower eyelids and top half of the eye brows.

Beret is sprayed flat black Mr. Color, then highlighted to German Sea Grey. Cap batch is masked off from the rest of the beret and drybrushed with the same grey, drybrushed with Flat White to form a dynamic base for the silver coating over which we will apply using Vallejo Air Aluminum.

The cap badge is drybrushed with Aluminum, shaded with diluted black, then highlighted with Chrome silver to form a 3D look. Next, I need to work on the Woolie Poolie. Problem with that is that the paint tended to look too glossy, I also added the black recess line with the super duper Escoda brushes. More on that on the uniform which is kind of tricky, British Uniform for the Cotton Overalls, lighter Khaki for the smocks, yet the Greenish Woolie Poolies underneath round the neck. 

There was a lump on the H of the FEAR NAUGHT cap badge that I intended for the base that needed some work. There were some minor bubble spots on the cheek bone area of the face, nothing that cannot be solved with a trusty Olfa scalpel.

More next time.

British Tankie Part 1

New from Young Miniatures. Washed it thoroughly in soap, as usual. Coated it with super diluted surfacer. Then super diluted (80% thinner) of Mr. Color Flat Black.

Then I dusted on low pressure on super super diluted Mr. Colour Flat White from 11 to 1 o'clock to create the highlights and accentuate the shadows.

Then the bust is coated with 4 coats of super diluted Vallejo English Uniform.

The deep recesses are accentuated with diluted Vallejo Matt Black (70% water and retarding agent). The overall effect is quite satisfying.

Sioux Elder Part 2

I further enhanced the wrinkles and the highlights. We also painted the underlining of the top eyelids and flesh coat the lower eyelids to get the eyes to look at the correct proportion.

The skin was also given two glazes of orange brown and vermillon to get the skin tones to be a little bit more reddish tone.

More of the face before we put in the eye brows and shadows due to the hair on the forehead.

Sioux Elder

Finally, got enough courage to tackle Young Miniatures' Sidoux Indian Elder. The subject is very complex, with the amount of work required at the ornamental clothing as well as the advance years in the facial features. This is further complicated by the need to paint in variation tones that I have not attempted before, a red skinned American Indian!

I bought this figurine locally for 18 months and never got beyond opening the box to admire the sculpt.

First step was to hand paint the undercoat using Mr. Colour Surfacer 1200 that is thinned with 200% of thinner. Then a thin coat is done with arms and seam imperfections filled in.

The head is spray coated black using the Pylox Matt Black can from a distance. After 3 days curing, I dry brushed the surface with Vallejo matt white. The head is then mounted onto the bust and coated with 876 Brown Sand that is added with 100% retardant, 200% water. 3 thin coats are glazed over.

The head is then washed gently with 814 Burnt Cadmium Red. Kolinsky Sable 0 brush is first loaded and then tripped over the edges of the cup to off load most of the paint. Then place on 120g A4 white paper to offload it further to prevent unsightly brushstrokes.

The areas that are above are coated with highlights made with 876 Brown Sand, second highlight is scaled back on area with 25% added with 815 Basic Skintone. Shadows are created with 25% added with 814 Burnt Cadmium Red. Deeper shadows had 5% added to this shadow colour and concentrated in the deeper creases and wrinkle lines repeatedly. The lower edge of the upper lid is painted with this same colour that is added with another 10% of flat black to define the shape of the eyeball. Under which the cavity is filled with off white. The pupil is painted 100% black and then shaded with super diluted tint of the base colour, in this case, 876 Brown Sand. The bottom edge is given the 25% darkened colour to form the base of the eye. At the stage of the photo above, this is translucent. 6 coats are needed to form a solid lower lid.

Lower edge of the eyes are being added layer by layer. Wrinkles are further defined with Zero strokes of Burnt Cadmium Red with 40% of black. The skin tone is too too cold at the moment, 3 glazes of 981 Orange Brown introduced some warmth to it.

The eyes are now defined, skin is warmth up, the forehead needed to be stroked with wrinkle lines and glazed over with very thin layers of Basic Skin Tone added with a tint of Vermillion to give forhead some attention. Given the very fine lines and effort made by the sculptor, I wanted to inject some real interest in this part of the head before I add in the eyebrows. I wanted it to look shiny and reflective of some sunlight, like a true Red Indian under the Arizona sun.

Next, is the blending processes for the basic shadings to provide and smooth tonal graduation look over the whole cheek areas and the frontal cheek and nose areas.