OK everyone, thanks for your patience. I hadn't had much sleep at all in the last few days and when I finished the figures, I was really just too tired to snap a bunch of good photos. I also didn't want to jinx myself before the competition so all you got was a teaser!
In any case, the project is now complete and I'm pleased to show you all the final results here, with appropriate photos.
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Final Build LogJumping back a bit, following my last report on figure one, I did do some extra highlighting in order to make the seams in the uniform pop a bit more as well as the the top of some of the more prominent folds. I also added Captains bars to his helmet.
The second figure gave me fits during the last week and there were times I was convinced that I would not complete it in time for the competition. I had several setbacks and disappointments, likely due to fatigue, but probably just as much due to "relearning". I had great difficulty duplicating the colors or the "look" of the uniform that I had done on figure one, despite having written down the color mixes and ratios. Because of this, I essentially ended up painting large sections of the figure over in order to get the right colors and this slowed me down quite a bit, not to mention adding to my frustration level!
Once I had finally completed figure two, I painted the left shoulder area of both figures with some Future and when that had dried, I added Archer Transfers for the armored division patches. The 761st had custom division patches made that had their Battalion number stitched in, but some of my references also show that they could have just as likely had "blank" armored division patches. Since there was no way I was going to be able to paint in "761" to fit in that teeny tiny space, I opted for painting out the "3" in the transfer with a mix of yellow and white paint instead. Once dry, the pale yellow was given a thin glaze of raw sienna ink to add some richness and the patches were outlined with Khaki.
Display Base(Sorry there are no "in progress" shots of the base construction as I was really crunched for time at this point! )
The idea for the base is that the men are standing in a muddy French field criss-crossed with tank tracks where the 761st sharpened their skills prior to heading off to battle. This would have been in November of '44, hence the winter gear.
I used a Thomas Art plinth base with a plaque that I had made at a local trophy shop for a very reasonable price. The groundwork for the base was created using Fast Maché which is a quicker drying version of Celluclay. I mixed it with water, white glue, sand and raw umber pigment to get a dark (rather than grey) textured mix and spread it onto the top of the base. A few patches of brown static grass were applied and using a section of track from my Sherman project, I put in a couple of treadmarks. I also removed the toothpicks locating the previously drilled holes for the figures and pressed their feet into the base to ensure they would not be "floating" on the groundwork once it was dry.
I used some cheap acrylic craft paints from Michael's to paint the base. After a dark earthy brown basecoat, I began drybrushing with lighter shades to bring out the tank tracks. After a couple of layers, I applied washes of dark brown ink mixed with Future to add depth to the track marks while at the same time making it look like very wet mud. I used a hair dryer to speed the drying process and then continued drybrushing with lighter shades of earth. This was to simulate slightly dryer mud on top and wet sloppy mud lower down. The static grass was drybrushed with pale browns and yellows to represent dead grass.
The figures were glued in place and I used artist pastels mixed alternately with Future, matte medium and plain water to weather them. The darker pastels were mixed with Future and applied where the feet meet the ground since this would be the wet mud. The lighter pastels were mixed with matte medium and applied slightly higher up for dried mud. A final mix of pastels was applied to the knees, seats, elbows, and helmets with plain water which allowed more flexibility to move it around or wash it off completely if I didn't like the effect.
CompetitionI entered this piece in the
Minnesota Military Figure Society "Boots and Treads II" show which uses the AMPS system of judging. Each entry is judged by a team of judges against specific criteria rather than against other models. Points are awarded based on the criteria met and awards are given according to the points earned.
It is with great pleasure that I can report that this piece earned a gold medal in the Advanced Figure category.
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Thanks to everyone who supported this project with your suggestions, feedback and encouragement! As the project is now complete, this will be my last update but I'm happy to answer any questions about any part of the project that I failed to cover.
All the best and thanks again for following this project.