Hi All,

The following is a OOP figure from Warriors. Its resin with fairly sharp details. I hope to mount it on a partial wintergarten of a U-Boat VIIC.




Basecoat of flesh. I've tried to give the pale, worn out look as most of the U-boat crew hardly saw any sunlight for 2-3 months while they were on patrol.


1st. shadow in:



2nd. shadow and 1st highlight in:


2nd highlight in:


3rd highlight and beard and eyes in place. Beard has been given 3 shades with the darkest underneath the chain and just below the lips.


Still need to paint in the shirt buttons and do some blending on the face and some minor touchups. Sorry the photos are so dark. Should have put in a lamp.






All comments welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for viewing.

Phew looks like U're going full speed, beach!!

As I've the oportunity to see this figure B4 painting, I'd say this is one hell piece of a gem U've got there. I like the way u hilight and shadow the baggy pant and the sweater most.

It looks like U'vee painted the chrest (on the cap) yellow from the photo... ? I thought it supposed to be gold for german Navy officer? Can some expert varify this?

Lastly, the only thing I'm picky about will be the red line of the chequered pattern (sleeves) looks abit "thick", covering most of the white base. But this's just me, who are to say this U-boat captain preferhis shirt in this style... :lol:

It's very obvious, Ur painting skill is advancing on every figure U've painted :D


Regards,
CPTan

Thanks a lot CP for the suggestions. Yeah you're right about the white squares versus the red bands on his chequered shirt. First time doing anything chequered so these should be a good practice for a few more future projects which have chequered cloth.

Actually my photos are too dark and blur, the trimming at the rim of his peak, the national emblem and the eagle are done in gold tinged with yellow. The gold trimmings on the Kriegsmarine is slightly more yellowish gold. There are no variations in the gold trimmings between non-coms and officers although between a Korvettenkapitan and a Kapitanleutenant the trimming is oakleaves for the former and scalloped design for the latter for the gilding at the edge of the peak.

Really need to improve my photography and lighting. Actually I doubt it can be seen but the cap band is supposed to be black while the peak a dark blue for officers. For non-coms its black for both the band and peak.

Nice paint job you got there CK..

I think I'm with cptan on the chequered shirt. More white on the shirt will be better. My two cents though.

Overall, a very good job there. ;)

Nice :D

Could be the angle of the pics but the left hand looks oversized?

Andrea's u-boot commander bust will be a nice complement for this. ;)

Thanks Imran & Jason. Doing chequered is something I'll need to learn with a bit more practice. I should have tried it out on a piece of scrap paper first. :)

Yes, Jason the hand does appear a wee bit big relative to the body, other than that the left hand the right arm needed a bit of puttying as well but overall it was a well sculpted figure and a both a joy and a challenge to paint. I especially enjoyed the challenge of the folds on the pants as it is more complicated than what I've worked with before. Working with a different skintone was tough and I'm not entirely happy as I wanted a more worn down, pale look. Learnt a fair bit from this one and hopefully to take to the next.

Lovely work there mr bb

It marvels me to see such quality in figure painting.....you guys are artist....

rgds
mr b

Many thanks Brian for the kind words. I don't think I classify as an artist, a bum definitely but still far from being an artist. :D I'm still a distance away from reaching a level I'm comfortable with.

As an asides I'm till struggling with the lighting to make all the shadows visible as can be seen from the new pics (with black backdrop) I've inserted in my original post. Maybe I should make myself a light tent for photo taking.

CK,
nice work but agree with CP that the shirt seems a bit too thick for the red lines.
As for the pictures, you may need to avoid using either black or white on figurines because they either trick your camera to set the exposure too high or too low. You could try Allan's method by printing our a piece of background in A3 or A4 with a blue to violet range from top to bottom. Might give you a better mid range exposure.


ps: this might just do the trick and get me started on painting my next figurine.

Work continues all though at a much slower pace on the base. I'm trying to recreate part of the wintergarten, in case anyone not familiar with U-boats its just the deck connected to the back of the conning tower where the AA gun or guns sit.

Initially I had the usual grandiose plans to do the whole wintergarten with AA gun but as usual ambition exceeded skill so everything was scaled down. Ok-dokey....to start off the plans. I used by Revell U-boat VII as the template but being 1/72 it had to be scale up to 1/35th. 0.5mm plate styrene was used.


The grating's drain holes were the most tedious. They had to be cut out with a Xacto #11 blade individually. Its crazy but there were no close alternatives I could use to replicate the grating despite checking out my usual hardware store and of course TESCO. :) PE at 1/35 does not exist and buying the super expensive conning tower from Accurate Armor or Andrea was not possible.


Thus I ended doing only 2 out of the 6 gratings. The individual grating was stuck to a balsa wood base.


Next to do the railings. For that I had to place the grating on my master drawing. The diameter of the 2 railing were determined. Cut them out of styrene rods and to get the bend I placed them on the "Beachbum Styrene Bending Supertool". The bend was done using a hair dryer but care had to be taken to avoid melting the styrene.





Next comes the upright supports. The angle of the upright had to match the 2 railings so it was back to my master plan.



Here is where most photos I've come across differ in how the uprights are attached. I opted for the simple weld design as opposed to a socket attached to the base or having the uprights inserted into the base.


You can just barely see a flag holder at the back of the most right upright. A little strip of lead foil was added to simulate a T-socket for the upper railing. Ready for priming, painting and weathering.


This is my first using styrene from Evergreen and I must say I'm very happy as it was easy to cut and shape. All comments welcomed.

Great work on the base, CK.

I believe there is a sort of puncher tools that can speed up the grate-making process.

Errr... where can I get the 'Beachbum Styrene Bending Supertool'? ACE Hardware? :lol:

Whoa... :o that's a very tedious job cutting individual holes for the base but it looks very good. Can't wait for it to complete. It will sure look stunning when painted and weathered. :)

I have to agree with you that the Evergreen products is an excellent material to work with when scratchbuilding.

Same here... where can I get the "Beachbum Styrene Bending Supertool"? Looks expensive... :lol:

Many thanks Harman and Imran. Unfortunately puncher tools that I know off cannot punch square holes. If I had one that could do slightly under 1 mm. squares I could have achieved my overly ambitious plan to do the whole wintergarten and even the whole conning tower. :D :lol:

As for the "Beachbum Styrene Bending Supertool" Mark I its not out yet in any hardware stores near you. I must patent it quickly and make millions and retire (most evil pirate laugh).

Who ordered the yummy white pizza? :lol:

Looking forward to seeing this one painted and weathered.

Very nicely done CK,

Glad you got to using evergreen, great stuff. Used the same method and stuff for Pegasus's anti-aircraft gun emplacement on the bridge.

I see a masterpiece forming soon and can't wait to see the full vignette up close.

Careful, you can get addicted to evergreen. :lol: as I did for a while and forgot to build kits SOB.

Richard.

the quality of not many men... it's a WOW kinda work i'd say...

waiting for it to finish...

Many thanks for the support Jason, Richard & Williams.

Now that you mention it they do look like pizza, perferably Hawaian delight with salami. :) The only difference is they're much harder to make and hazardous to fingers coz of the Xacto.

Don't think I'm addicted to Evergreen yet Richard. Must go home and sniff them and hold them....see I'm still ok....I only need to hold them and sniff them when I'm at home. No addiction. :P Seriously though to anyone who has yet to get it, its great for anything from scratchbuilding to modifications. Sure beats cutting up old credit cards and discount cards. Makes me want to revise my list of the world's greatest inventions in the following order:

1. Slice bread
2. Peanut butter
3. Sitting toilet bowls
4. Evergreen styrene

missed this thread over my missing period

well, excellent painting skills on the commander. so at last this bargain fig got painted jugak ye... hehehe.. mine is still hiding in the closet..

and i can congratulate you with the excellent base...The grating-holes is one i hate the most to do and you managed to did it despite your aging eye hehe :P . Well done bro!!

i agree with richard that you can addicted to styrene.....beware i might order 8 ' x 6 ' sheet nanti..


superb!! cepat2 habiskan

Beach,

I can imagine how tough is it to scratchbuild, GREAT JOB on the base (coning tower)...

There's something with me on ship railing, I love them the most (don't know why??) when I build ships.

Waiting to see the figure mounted on the painted base, I'm sure U'll add those those rusty effect.


Regards,
CPTan

Many Thanks Kapitanleutenant Sil and CP.

Yeah, the old eyes are really getting old. I should move myself upto 1/16th. rather than 1/35th. As this project is near its end I have already started on another and unfortunately at 1/35th again and involves sculpting something as small as my Joe Asli. :unsure: I'm really killing my eyes.

Will this be involving some figures from MiniArt as well??? :lol:

:D :lol: No it won't involve any figs from MiniArt, maybe coz I don't own any...yet. :P

Its a project that I wanted to do for some time but was not in my Vietnam era mood. I had hoped to do some other Vietnam subject on a bigger scale to give my eyes a rest but as usual I get sidetrack.

It will be based on this photo by Don Mccullin taken in 1968 showing a Marine Chaplain rescuing a Vietnamese granny. I like the concept, the idea and most of all the humanitarian aspect of war. If there's anything good that comes of war which is very little, small incidents like these would be it.



It was taken from the following website which I've posted before. Has lots of excellent and moving 'human drama' photos.
Vietnam scenes by various photographers

That's a good subject plus a very refreshing scene for a dio CK. Something that is more than showing the ugly side of war for a change. :)