Why me..?

I just finished my second ever 1/35th figure; and I gotta give Tuesung at Alpine his props; this is an amazing figure! Here is the way I started this figure...the tanker straight from the kit. I had a nice talk with John Long, and he suggested that instead of having his head looking out in the distance, that I angle it downward focusing on the ammo crates below him.

I tinkered with the head and was able to cut a tiny notch in the front of his neck and built up just a touch of putty at the back of his neck to fill in a tiny gap from the new angle of the head. Once I had that done, I started with the priming.

I primed him using Tamiya grey spray primer; a couple dusting was sufficient and once that dried for a couple days, I started with the acrylic base.

The late Bob Knee told me about JoSonya acrylics and I am a huge fan of them; they go on incredibly smooth, have great coverage and accept oils very well! I used them exclusively now instead of the Andrea and Vallejo paints. I undercoated all the areas where the shadows were most predominate with a mix of prussian blue and black. I let that dry for a couple days, and then went back and laid in a black undercoat for the tanker jacket and prussian blue for the pants. For the boots, and belt I used a mix of carbon black and earth brown for the undercoat.

I painted the face first using my usual mix of oils and then went to work on the black leather tanker jacket. I used a mix of brunt umber, mars black and indigo to get the base color, and then I worked in just a touch of purple for the deepest shadows. Highlights were worked with a mix of white and prussian blue into the base. The color I wanted for the highlights was a very pale blue since I wanted a cool contrast between the gloves and the jacket. For the pants, I used an oil mix of prussian blue and cobalt blue and shaded with a touch of indigo. Highlights were achieved with just the same pale blue mix for the jacket. The ground work was a blast! John Long supplied me with the crates, and I worked them into the ground work so that it gives the appearance that the crates were left some time ago. I gave the entire base a couple washes of JoSonya's earth brown, let that dry and then washed some burnt umber, sepia and a touch of black. Once that had dried, I added the rocks and winter grass and then dried brushed in the winter highlights using a mix of a pale blue white to give a cold feel to the groundwork as a whole. I painted in the deep crevasse with a mix of sepia and ivory black.

The crates were undercoated with some beige JoSonya and then given a couple washes of burnt sienna and raw umber. I highlighted them with a mix of napels yellow and white and then went back over the wood grain with some black to give a contrast. I still have to dullcoat him, and then one final picture! Here's the final picture...