¹⁄72

The Paddler

Inspiration

The inspiration for this small piece came from a photo that I found online between other “Third Reich funny photos”, and it was shared by Mr. Larrister from KRB Collection. It shows a German soldier sitting on a fuel drum paddling with the help of tree branches in a relaxed moment, an interesting capture indeed.

Figures

This lead me to create a 1/72 figure similar to him. I then copied it in resin. All that was left was to build a small base with water. However, being all alone, it didn’t tell much of a story; therefore I introduced another figure. This time a Preiser one (in plastic), which I changed in order to look like the photographer.

Base

The base was created from plaster, fine sand and static grass. It was airbrushed with Tamiya colours and sealed with acrylic floor wax so I could give it some oil washes afterwards. After these dried, I gave everything a coat of ModelMaster Flat Lacquer and all that was left was to pour the Clear Resin.
The figures were painted with Vallejo acrylics and so was the boat that had been built with Milliput, styrene and copper wire, and copied with polyurethane resin. They were put in place and a little frame was made from aluminium sheet to hold the tinted clear epoxy resin. I shouldn’t have poured it all at once but instead in 3 layers or so, as it didn’t level properly as it dried. To correct this, I diluted Acrylic Gel Medium (Gloss) in water and applied onto the resin surface with the help of a paintbrush, also creating the waving effect. All in all, I think it became a cool little vignette that gave me a lot of pleasure building and it usually puts a smile on people’s faces!