Dear all,

This is Miniature Alliance earliest 1/35 figure sculpted by the talented Calvin Tan. The figure must be a decade now but quality of the sculpting is still excellent for today's standard. I admired this figure for a long time and finally Paul Quek sent me one and I had the chance to paint it up. A break from the usual Axis...

It is painted later part of the Burma Chindit war time where the uniform is in "Jungle green" instead of Khaki. Hope you like it and feel free to criticize....





Chao
Allan

Hi Allan,
good to see you still busy painting despite so far away from Malaysia. Hope all is well up there in the middle kingdom.

I, too really love the Miniature Alliance kits and have yet to start on one but definitely will make it a project for Merdeka2010 especially the Japanese NCO and Commonwealth soldier.

As for your latest, I can see that you have pushed the top down contrast really high for this piece. Even the highlights and shadows too, especially on the uniform. Personally, I prefer your earlier works as I find this too stark a contrast. Your earlier works really blended very smoothly for the eye for me.

The flesh tones are superb as usual.

As for the background, something doesn't sit right for me. I find the vegetation a bit too loose especially the plant which is a bit slanting. I was thinking the vegetation should have the same concept as the painting concentration by making the eye focus to the centre. That particular stem is pulling my eye and attention away.

My 2 cts. When will you be back?

cheers
Loo

Lovely paint work as usual. :)

Allan,

As usual, master'w work.

Can U tell me what's the code code (Vellejo I presume?) U've use for the Jungle green uniform. Need to find one for my Tugu project....

Thanx in advance.
CPTan

Hi ah-Loo,
Always like your feedback and you indeed have eagle eyes that spotted every little details which make your input always interesting.

yes you are right, I extend the contrast significant more in this figure... I try to change my painting style incorporating more illumination from artist perspective instead of just paiinting a beautiful smooth figure that is monotone and too common nowadays. Here I play with light where you can see the right sleeve color is totally different from the left sleeve (same as flesh) where the light source reflected. Equally on the trousers where it is a lot deemer, so as the flesh part. See another photo below which I did not post earlier. Indeed a few of project down the road I will try to explore this techniques to an unconventional method, forcing viewer to see where I want them to see..not sure if it will succeed or fail... no pain(t) no gain-mah



The background vegetation originally I wanted to use photoetched leave using Calvin's style, after 30mins trial, I said forget it it is going to take me a month to bend a leave one at a time, thicken it and then paint them individually.. so I opted for my garden's plant... not as fine as I would like but ok for 30mins work... and can pass-lah.. again the actual figure is much darker then the photo as usual because of the lighting I used for photo shooting. So it wouldn't appear as stunt as it looks in the photo..my lousy photography skill.


Hi CP,
The vallejo reference
Based color - US Uniform Green + Medium Brown (code 876)
Highlight - base + sunny skin tone
Shadow - Base + Prussia Blue (add tamiya flat base as Vallejo blue is satin not flat)
Final deepest shadow - add black


So, finishing your Tugu....

Allan

Nice my friend. I can see where you're going with the shading. And that was exactly what youve been trying to impart on me - the creative painting style which is supposed to leave the other also rans lagging. Would work well on fantasy figures especially the flaming female figure ( Pegaso I think ) we talked about. Very true what you said about anyone can paint to near box art quality but I don't yet have the stomach to try this style.

With this piece the viewer is still not 'forced' to view it the way it's intended and leaves them confused. A light source would work, just like the German you did warming by the fire. Since I don't think you can place any light source for this one, wouldn't sticking to the norm be better? Alternatively if you must go with this style perhaps a kind of backdrop which simulate light coming from one direction might help catch the viewer's attention to see it the way you want it to be seen. That way you don't need other props to emphasise the light source. With the backdrop you used the light seems to be coming from below and I think that took away your intended effect. Otherwise I'm sure you'd have gotten it spot on with the figure per se.

I had wanted to get a Miniature Alliance figure for Merdeka. Their 1/16 Gurkha and Commonwealth Soldier Far East is sooo suitable but pricey for me so I settled for the smaller metal Hornet one you see posted. I would have bought one like yours but my usual retailer did have it. This chap is rare and I vaguely recall seeing it only once somewheres. So people send you free figures, huh? I must find friends like that ;)

Cheers
Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Good to hear your "voice" again.... thanks for the feedback... I do agree with what you said and if you see this figure in life you will see the focus of the source light reflected on part of the vegetation, the face, partial angle of the clothing and even the grass.. plus I nailed a "Title Plate" on a round base that force the user to view where the figure has to be placed at where the plate is centralised... again just my dirty tricks to trick user eye..if all fail , Ha!!! :D

That's is the beauty of art vs. science... you said what you want without logic sometimes.... :P

Allan

I congratulate you on stepping out of your comfort zone when painting this figure.
If we dont push the boundaries we will never know how far we can go.Personally I like it , lovely flesh tones as for the shading , pants in the jungle get wet with dew or from wading.

woow! this is very nice..
superb bro...master work...
awesome just awesome... :D

Hi Arul, Enghui

Xin Cam On (Thank you in Vietnamese...)

Allan

Personally I really like the higher contrasts. The full frontal in the pic of your 2nd. post really shows off the effect of the higher contrasts. This would look even better up close and personal under less bright lighting as its really more realistic in the sense that if this chappie was under the jungle canopy the bottom half especially the crotch and lower legs would really be dark.

Looking forward to seeing more of your "experiments' on higher contrasts Allan. Thanks for sharing this one.

Hi Mr Tang

Thanks for your kind words... so what figure are you up to now?
Anything you build for Merdeka?

Allan

:D :) No need to be so formal Allan.

Currently working or at least trying to work on finishing up the painting of Andrea's Jean-Luc Picard. I was suppose to have finished it before my brother got back but he's already back and I have yet to finish it to give it to him.

As for Merdeka, that another loooooong WIP. Suppose to finish off my sculpt of a elderly lady sitting on a rocking chair and thinking of her son who perished while serving during the Emergency period.

The lack of motivation is just killing me. Its good to see you having a chance to squeeze some time to finish some lovely figs. Not too much travelling I hope for you this year.

Hi CK,

Hope your modelling spirits will come back.. may be some Red Bull will help??? The old lady figure sounds exciting.

Anyway, I finished a DAK Panzer figure from Doug's Miniature over the weekend. My personal record. About 11 hours all in all from prime to finish, end result is quite good.. follow Diego Ruina's style for a change.

This figure is for a good friend to fit in his Panzer III G Africa Korps... My Adobe Photoshop kena virus.. so waiting to reinstall and will then post some photoes here.

Allan

Since I saw his work on Pegaso's Templar Sargent Diego Ruina in my humble opinion is truly the King of Painting folds and creating moods. The man's work is truly inspirational.

I find myself drooling slightly in anticipation of seeing your work on the DAK figgie. 11 hours Wow that's really fast coz I still remember you telling me it took more than 2 hours just to paint the chicken in one of your vignettes where a GI stands over a German prisoner. Here's hoping your Adobe Photoshop gets sorted out reaaal soon. :)

Pardon moi for asking but would there be any good linky's to observe Diego Ruina's works?


BTW, CK's been squeezing Donkey's lately. Essence of Donkey's seems to pep him up quite a fair bit. They don't give much juice per donkey though and are in short supply lately, hence the current slump. He'll be a-ok once they are back in season. ^_^

Hello friend

For some reason Diego's home page disabled already but you can see some of his work in below thread

http://www.imx365.net/bbs/thread-111073-1-2.html

Allan

this link have malware, can't view with google chrome

:P Alamak.... just type Diego Ruina in Google and it should gives you some good link of his work

Allan

Sorry to hijack your thread Allan. For those interested in taking a peek at Diego's mouth watering work here is some he did for Pegaso. Click on the photos for a blowup. (WARNING: Poison Ahead)

Templar Sergeant (still one of my favorites)
Crusader
Teutonic Knight

We now return you to your regular program. :)