Quotes

Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile. - Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

Friday, September 29, 2023

Painting the Modelu HO Scale Transitional Era Crew Bundle - Part 2

I started things off a little differently. Normally I just move straight to the skin tones but this time I decided to start out with a wash over the entire figure. Some of the detail is subtle enough that I needed something to make things pop a bit. For this I used Walnut Brown (9136) from Reaper Miniatures. I thinned this down to a wash consistency. I used Vallejo Airbrush Thinner for this instead of plain water. 

I then painted each of the five figures with the wash and let them dry.



Time for the skin. My normal process is to paint all of the skin tones first, on these figures that's just the face. I painted all of the skin with three paints from Ammo by Mig. The first layer was Burnt Red Brown (A.MIG-0134) I thinned this down a bit, regular water this time, I didn't want the paint to be to thick. The second layer was with Red Leather (A.MIG-0133) again from Ammo by Mig, I applied this over most of the face trying to make sure the deeper areas weren't covered like under the brim of the hat.  My final color was Burnt Sand (A.MIG-0118),  thinned with water, I mostly, gently, dry brushed this straight down from the top of the head, catching just the higher areas to make everything pop a bit. Everything tends to look a little rough at this stage so I made a glaze of Burnt Red Brown and applied it on the entire face to help blend the colors together. A glaze is thinner than a wash and I used airbrush thinner rather than water for it.

I think I deleted a picture here, but at least two of them have the shadow skin color applied


Now the second layer, this is essentially the base skin color.




And then a combined step. The drybrush with the highlight skin tone with the shadow glaze,



With all of that done its time to sit back and ponder what colors I want to use on the rest of the clothing.

Thursday, September 28, 2023

World War II Project - 28mm Village Church - Sarissa Precision - The Walls Part 9

I finally figured out what to use for the window sandwich, paper! Specifically some heavy weight drawing paper. I tried it out and was mostly pleased with the result. I used the stained glass cut out for each window as a template and cut out the outline. I then held it in place and marked the areas I needed to cut out from the other side.

I glued the plastic stained glass panel in place with CA and also used CA to glue the paper on top of it. There is a "stain" on the paper from the CA soaking through a bit but paint will cover that. The paper sits lower than the built of "frame" around the window so it looks pretty good. It is a bit tedious with all of the cut and fit involved.


Cut to fit

Cut outs marked

Glued in place

Looking good so far. A little paint it should pass muster.


Thursday, September 21, 2023

Painting the Modelu HO Scale Transitional Era Crew Bundle - Part 1

I know I haven't finished the church yet. However, since that is giving me some frustrations at this point I need to have something else to turn my attention to while solutions simmer for the church. So I pulled out the Modelu Transitional Era Crew to work on. I elected to start with the HO scale crew first. 

I had an initial look at this and they look like they will be a challenge with all of the fine detail. I removed all the supports from the printing machine and did a little cleanup. Since these are 3D prints there are no mold lines or injection marks to fill in. I think the print resolution is really high since I don't see any layering that needs to be cleaned up.

After I cleaned them up a drilled out a small hole in the foot for a piece of wire and super glued the wire into place. After trimming the wire to length I mounted them on one of my painting sticks. This one that I used previously for the Preiser work so its double thick and has holes for the wire already. So far so good.

After that I pulled out the airbrush and primed them with Badger Stynylrez Grey Primer (SNR-402)

The only comment I have at this point is these guys are short! Initially I thought they were going to be bigger than the Preiser figures that I had already painted, definitely not the case. The Preiser figure scales out to about 6' tall with his hat on. The Modelu figures scales out to about 5'6" with his hat on. I don't necessarily have a problem with that people do come in different heights. I'm just curious if all the Modelu figures will scale out to be this short.

First steps complete. Drilled, wired and mounted to the painting stick


Little short, maybe 5'6 compared to the Preiser figure who is pushing 6'. Nothing wrong with it, but all five of them are this short.


And after the primer. Hard to tell, the grey of the resin is pretty close to the Stynylrez grey primer