After The Jump

Here's my latest...

This is the 1/16th US Paratrooper from Alpine; it's an amazing canvas and frankly, it's what is making Alpine a leader in the industry. Tremendous sculpting!

For this figure, I tried something completely different, I undercoated in black acrylic instead of the traditional matching acrylic color. I really liked this technique, since it enables me to see the shadows and highlights much more effectively. Not to mention adds a dramatic feel to the figure. He's painted in my traditional manner of "wet on wet", and the only difference is that I added a touch of grey to the base color to compensate for the transparency of the oil paints.

There's still a couple finishing touches to do, like adding just a touch of a mud and dirt along the bottom of the pants, the jacket and at the elbows. I'll go over the figure one last time and he's ready for the display case.

I enjoyed this figure, and for me, doing something a little out of the ordinary helps me to learn and grow.

I can't wait to start my next figure!

Creole Guide

Just finished up this tremendous figure from Thunderbird Historical Miniatures; it’s a slight conversion from the original release. The figure is cast in gray resin and comes in eight pieces. Each piece is cast wonderfully. Clean up is minimal, and there are a few seam lines, and they are so faint that they can be easily missed on each of the arms.

I wanted to make this a more “original” figure, and after reading Mark’s article (www.qtm-magazine.it/guidacreola.htm) I decided to go with a swampier feel to the figure. I cut off the moccasins and replaced them with bare feet from the Historex line, and instead of having the rifle over his right shoulder, I replaced the hand and rifle with a spare hand with a cigarette from the spares box.

He’s painted with artist oils over an acrylic base in my traditional manner of wet on wet.

This is my first figure from Thunderbird Historical Miniatures, and am looking forward to many more….

APG Auction Figure

He's finished!

I put the finishing touches on him this morning and he's ready for the auction block come August. I can not tell you how excited I am for this show and how much this will mean to our project this year and the future of the APG.

He's painted in my traditional manner of oils over acrylics...

I tried to capture the essence of a soldier during the Vicksburg Campaign in 1863. I weathered his pants with a mixture of earth tones and ochre's; I feathered into the blue base color while both were wet.

The blue jacket is a mixture of Indigo and a touch of Prussian Blue; highlights were achieved by adding Misty Blue to the base mix. I shaded with a touch of ivory black and purple to the base mix. The light blue pants were mixed using Cerulean Blue and Misty Blue with just a touch of grey to cut the blue tone. I added Titanium White to the base color for the highlights and for the shadows, added just a touch of Prussian Blue to base color.

11th Indiana

I'm making some progress on my auction figure for this year's APG Project. This is a 100mm Michael Roberts 11th Indiana NCO conversion; I've added a different head and tinkered a touch with his left shoulder just a little bit.

Our Project this year is the conservation and restoration of the Colors of the 5th Alabama Battalion. This flag was captured at Picketts Charge on July 3rd 1863. They came into the possession of Joshua Chamberlain and were returned to Alabama in 1943. Here's our website:

http://www.artistpreservationgroup.com/ for more information on the project and upcoming show.

I'll post a couple more in-progress pictures as well as the final picture for the auction. This figure will be at the Gettysburg Show August 7th - 9th.

When the Mighty Fall

I just finished this 54mm Space Marine figure from Games Workshop. I was really inspired by the 120mm Space Marine SBS that appeared on Cool Mini or not, and I did a little research and decided I was going to break from my traditional Napoleonic figures and try something a little different.

He's painted in my traditional manner of oils over acrylics and if you care to see how he all came together, here is a SBS I did on Timelines Forum.

None Shall Pass...

Just finished this guy last week...

I took an Art Girona figure and pulled a historex head from the spares part box, rotated the arm back and then dropped the shoulder a little in an effort to make him poised for defending an attack. When I saw the stock figure I never imagined it would clean up so nicely.

I was very impressed with the figure; very few mold lines and clean up was a snap. From start to finish, it took me a month to complete.

During MFCA back in 2002, I talked with Adrian Bay and he mentioned that he primes all his figures in black; seven years later, I finally gave it a shot...

This is the first figure I ever primed in black and really like the way it worked out. For me, the black primer helps me to see where the highlights and shadows are at and gives greater depth to the oil paints.

He's painted with acrylics over oils.

1st Regime Prussian Hussar Officer

I started with Verlinden's Prussian Leiberhessen figure for this project. I wanted something a little different with his pose, so I took the right hand and substituted it with one I had in my spares box and moved it just a little forward on the shoulder. I filled the small gap with A&B Putty and then sanded the shoulder down just a little in order to make the arm look a little more natural. My intent with that small modification is to help with the scene that I am going to put him in...

I also found in my spare parts box a 120mm saber in the scabbard and replaced the one that came with the figure. I needed the right hand to be "open" for the vignette he'll be a part of...

I added a plume atop his shako like that worn by the 1st Regiment and attached it with a small brass rod to the metal flange.

So, after the modifications and the black primer, here's what I started with...

The entire figure was primed in black and this is the first time I've painted fleshtones over a black primer. It took a couple extra layers of my flesh undercoat to make me feel comfortable about starting the fleshtones.

My fleshtone mix is pretty basic for this guy; burnt sienna, titanium white, naples yellow and cadmium red. I added a little of red madder for the shadow tone and more titanium white for the highlights.

For the barrel sash, I started off with the darker tones at the bottom and worked my way to lighter tones at the top. The red cords base tone is simply cadmium red medium with a touch of red madder, and the white barrels are titanium white and sepia. I highlighted the red cords with cadmium red light and the whites with flake white.

Here's what the final figure looks like...I talked with Conny and he suggested that I mix my own black instead of using a something right out of the tube, and instead of undercoating with pure black acrylic I mixed some brown into the color for the pelisse and dolman and added a little blue to the mix for the pants.

I pulled these color mixes directly from Conny's CD "How I Paint" Vol I (by the way, these are incredible references!). Here are the mixes:

The pelisse is alizarin crimson + prussian blue + viridian.

The pants is ivory black + indigo

The dolman is ivory black + burnt sienna to get a brown, then that brown with violet + viridian.

For the highlights, I mixed a little bit of titanium white + prussian blue into the base color and gradually built up on them as I went. For the shading, I added a little bit of lamp black to each of the base colors for a deeper richer color.

I still have a couple tweeks to make; he needs dull coating and then I'll bring out the metal highlights. But I'll wait to do that once the entire vignette is done...