I have decided in the last post that we will add the pilot to the scenery to jazz up the whole outlook as a tribute to the great ace whom has his name splashed on the vertical stabilizers of the Polish 100th Anniversary Mig 29 Fulcrums. A Distinguished Service Order recipient and 16.5 kills with 4 V1 flying bombs under belt is no mean fit for this Skolski Circus leader of 315 Squadron. Leading the squad out to France in 1944 while still being sick, he went MIA and the body of the crash was located in 1947 I read somewhere.
My fellow model maker and teacher of fine arts Ee Keok Lye whom I knew for 40 years, told me to tone down on the contrasts to make it a little bit more gradual between cheek and the highlights, that I did with some basic skintone, salmon rose glazes. Result is quite gradual under the cheekbones, Quite happy with it.
I started work on the body of the bust by workin gon the life jacket. The arms needed some trimming after we allowing the glues to ooze out. The joints were then carved back to get the sewing seam line. Primed in black and overcasted with white. Both Tamiya super robust paint with retarder from Tamiya to prevent rough surface being formed. Thinner is the Gunze leveling thinner. Here the beige is done, high lighted and some shadows added beneath each fold.
Extreme shadows are added and highlights too. These are blended to achieve a smoother transition. Black is use to mark out the sewing seams.
The flying tunic is given 4 coats of Prussian blue glaze from Vallejo. Then dark Prussian blue, transparent Blue from Mig is used with some black wash to accentuate the extreme shadows, Then I continued to glaze the overall tunic with my cheap Pantel No. 4 brush.
Highlights marked in with skyblue and whites. Then I continue to glaze it with the Prussian Blue only to find it blotchy. Opening the tube, I discovered that the paint bottle is solidifying, perhaps it sat in the shop for sometime with some careless customers not tightening the cap properly after opening it. So I headed down to Midpoint Orchard Plaza to buy a replacement bottle. Costing me 4 hours, $15 in fuel, parking and Electronic Road Pricing just to but the $3.90 blue.
The wires in resin found in the kit is kind of stiff, so, I twisted some 24 gauge brass wires instead and drilled holes in the ear caps to plug. The wires are primed and attached to the duplex junction which I used the original one, I drilled a 1mm hole in the 1.3mm dia tube of resin. Care is exercised not to crack the resin part. Then all is held in place with 5 min Araldite Epoxy,
Then I worked on the risers and diagonal straps of the T10 chute. I used white, black, grey, violet and blue to get the shading.
I added the woolly pully and the purple scarf. Attached the twist release of the 4 point harness.
The head is test fitted and trimmed to get a nice fit.
The head is glued with normal Araldite Epoxy and left to set for 24 hours. The joint is painted over with dark purple shades to blend with the scarf. The metals are marked in, darkened, highlighted at this juncture.
The rank of a Major, which was posthumously award to Capt Horbachezski was marked onto the sleeve. The Oxygen hose was masked and spray painted. The yellow portion is toned with lemon yellow and white to give it a more 3D look wishing it not to look like a barber shop spin tower.
A closer look at the hose.
Started work on the dog with red brown, black, neige brown and desert yellow.
The dog is test fitted. Looks okay. I need to tone the face of the dog to highlight its facial features.
The dog is finally attached permanently with Araldite Normal. Next, I need to add the spooled up leather strap and the strap end dangling. The latter I made with CA Glue stiffened paper. The hand is attached.
The left hand and gloves are now attached and held in place with blue tack over 48 hours to cure. The right hand received some toning in orange and browns and some light skin tones for highlights to get my preferred gradual tones. I am quite happy that its done. Despite an earlier disaster of dropping the bust and it falling to pieces.