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Fighting Elite in the East
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, December 28, 2012 - 06:59 AM UTC
So I got this little kit for Christmas:


It looked promising just from looking at the box, and the camo smocks are pretty well detailed. SO! Basically this is more or less a practice build for me, but the figures are great so I'm hoping they come out good. So far I've started the guy on the right:







The helmet cover is great too



So up next is more clean up, and working on the face and hands. Any feedback or suggestions are more than welcome

Thanks for looking!

-Conor
panzerconor
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Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2013 - 05:01 PM UTC
Back again, fellas. I didn't get in quite as much as I wanted to over the past few days, but this is where I stand. I got his face done for the most part:





I didn't put any white into his eyes, I think leaving it out helps give the impressions that he's squinting. And as far as I know, that's what the box art says he's doing. The skin tones look pretty crummy in the photo, but that's just my camera for ya
I'm about halfway through the pants too:



Tamiya German Grey, Model Master German Feldgrau (1/2), and flat black thinned out. All that, and that's what I got. I put on a flat coat on too, before I put the shadows in, because the pants were wayy too glossy. The photo quality isn't too great, but the shadows on his pants are the ones I put in, so I'm happy with that.

I'm waiting on Vellejo paints until I do his camo smock, so until I get those I'll start the guy on the 2nd from the right. I'm hoping the Vallejo is a good step up, because I ordered all the paints used on a German camo SBS on here. So that's all for now!

Peace out dudes

-Conor
jrutman
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 03:06 AM UTC
Conor,
I am happy to see you tackling this set. It looks like a great set to practice on and has nice details. You have made a nice beginning on your painting. I think that you should re-work the guys right arm though as it is in a illogical position and no one could hold that MP like that for even a few seconds.
It looks like the problem started with the ammo pouch under that arm. It needs to be more tilted. Check out the box art and the space molded into his tunic and you will get the idea. Then his arm should have the elbow moved back some to get the hand closer to the body,once again,as in the box art.
It takes me hours sometimes to get the position correct and I keep checking my own arms and body to see if the pose is anotomically possible.
J
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 04:27 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Conor,
I am happy to see you tackling this set. It looks like a great set to practice on and has nice details. You have made a nice beginning on your painting. I think that you should re-work the guys right arm though as it is in a illogical position and no one could hold that MP like that for even a few seconds.
It looks like the problem started with the ammo pouch under that arm. It needs to be more tilted. Check out the box art and the space molded into his tunic and you will get the idea. Then his arm should have the elbow moved back some to get the hand closer to the body,once again,as in the box art.
It takes me hours sometimes to get the position correct and I keep checking my own arms and body to see if the pose is anotomically possible.
J


Yup I noticed that problem too. At leat it's not too hard to fix. I might just slice off the fingers and make my own ot of putty, because I can't seem to figure out how to get him to grip the gun without it looking like that.

Thanks

-Conor
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 05:38 AM UTC
I don't waste any time. I had about an hour of free time this morning so I went ahead and sliced up the arm. His pointer finger and thumb actually came off when I removed the gun...




Better, worse? I can't really tell yet. Now I've just got to shape up the putty a bit more.

-Conor
Plasticbattle
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 06:23 AM UTC
Hi Conor. With that pose, I would put a strap on the mchine gun and hnag it over his shoulder. his hand could then be holding the strap. What putty are you using? It looks old/dried out/crumbly.
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 07:52 AM UTC
It's tamiya putty, and it's pretty unpredictable. Sometimes it's like you said, dry/crumbly, and other times it's very smooth. I've worked on it a bit more, and eventually it should look okay. No guarantee though

-Conor
weldingrod
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Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 08:07 AM UTC
Nice start on them figures,looking at the box art,the mp40 shoulder stock frame thingie is under his arm,working as a leaver to hold the gun up.
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 08:23 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Nice start on them figures,looking at the box art,the mp40 shoulder stock frame thingie is under his arm,working as a leaver to hold the gun up.


The figure on the back of the box is holding it a completely different way though hahaha. I probably should modeled it more like the box art rather than the diagram on the back I'll see if I can put the mp40 stock on the gun, because that is a really good point you made sir.

-Conor
weldingrod
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 08:37 AM UTC
Hope its some help,only way I can see he would be able to hold the gun like that,the gun has abit of weight to it,or he has very strong hands and wrist
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 05:04 PM UTC
I've held an actual MP40 before, it didn't seem too heavy. I'll figure something out.

At the end of the day, not too much has changed on our friend here


But until my Vallejo paints arrive, I've got our 2nd friend to work on:



-Conor
dioman13
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Posted: Friday, January 04, 2013 - 05:44 PM UTC
Hey Conor, if it had a full clip/magazine, it will really be front heavy. If the sliding stock comes with it you should be able to attach it and have it tucked under the arm. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll send you a few from the spares box. Might have to cut off the end to fit it in place, but looks like that will fix it. And the sling added over the shoulder would make it even nicer. Good ideas guys. The Vellego paints are great. I am in the process of switching over from Model Master to them. Just be sure to keep some water around as they skin over quickly, and a brush full of water added as you go along will keep them very pliable.
panzerconor
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Posted: Saturday, January 05, 2013 - 03:44 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey Conor, if it had a full clip/magazine, it will really be front heavy. If the sliding stock comes with it you should be able to attach it and have it tucked under the arm. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll send you a few from the spares box. Might have to cut off the end to fit it in place, but looks like that will fix it. And the sling added over the shoulder would make it even nicer. Good ideas guys. The Vellego paints are great. I am in the process of switching over from Model Master to them. Just be sure to keep some water around as they skin over quickly, and a brush full of water added as you go along will keep them very pliable.


That's t rue, I didn't think of that. I like Model Master, but it really is time for Vallejo.

-Conor
panzerconor
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Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 08:55 AM UTC
Progress? Nope! Just painted the face...well...started to at least.



And I couldn't go any further, until I got this in the mail today:


So now I can paint the smocks and get going on these guys again. The Hornet heads are for a different project. I was actually able to start on a figure while I waited for my paints...



I gotta take the shine away from him a bit more. But that's all I'll show of that project.

Today I'm going to hopefully finish the smocks, since my plans tonight were cancelled, it's a realistic goal!

-Conor
retiredyank
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Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 08:58 AM UTC
I find that Testors light tan is great for eyes. It stands out just enough to give the illusion of them being white, without the whole "wide open" problem.
panzerconor
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Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 09:31 AM UTC
I'll have to try that, the hobby shop near me has a crap load of
Testors paint.

Thanks

-Conor
210cav
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Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 09:47 AM UTC
Conor-- beautiful start. Excuse me if I missed this in the discussion so far. But, what color and brand did you apply to get the flesh colors?
Thanks
DJ
panzerconor
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Posted: Saturday, January 12, 2013 - 12:44 PM UTC
Flesh colors were Model Master skin tones (shadow tint, warm, and pale). I really like the results, so I'll stick with those 3 colors for skin.

With the smocks painted, the results are mixed. The paints are great, but my dark brown was really watery and I couldn't seem to fix that. I followed Pete Becerra's how-to on painting SS camo, but my pale brown seems way too bright compared to how his looks, so I don't know what's up with that. But, moving on, here I am:













It's definitely lacking in something. I think the Platanenmuster scheme is way too bright, mostly due to the base color I used. The other scheme, Rauchtarnmuster, is best done on the helmet of the Kar 98 rifleman. Both figure's camo strikes me as too plain, so I'll definitely be going back and trying some different things with them.

Suggestions? Tips?

Thanks

-Conor
panzerconor
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Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 08:01 AM UTC
Well since I can't work on my other projects, I took a stab at these guys again. Only going for the fancier 2 this time around. I used primer on them too, so we'll see how those results are too.

I used milliput as my filler, because I'm sick of using Tamiya




It's not perfect, but it's going to do the job after some fixing up



The right arm isn't the kit arm, because the kit arm was stolen and used on a different guy... So I improvised, and stole an arm from a different kit haha


Messy at first...



Primed!



I think the new arm looks okay. A bit awkward, but in a little vignette he'll actually have something to be reaching for. So that's where I'm at, more coming later on today

-Conor
lespauljames
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Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 10:05 AM UTC
looking good Conor!
FAUST
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Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 10:51 AM UTC
Ola Conor

Starts to look good. If I might launch a little suggestion when it comes to assembling the figures and getting rid of seams. Invest in a tube of Tamiya putty. A bottle of nailpolish remover without acetone and a box of Q-tips.
Assemble figure. Put a blob of putty on a piece of aluminum foil, Apply putty in seams with a toothpick. Let dry. When dry run over it with a Q-tip moistened with nailpolish remover and you will wipe off everything except where the Q-tip can't reach resulting in a much neater filled gap.

Other then that... You are doing pretty well and I see a lot of improvement. Also good choice of heads. They aren't cheap but superbly detailed. And with better detail it is much easier to paint.
chrishobbs
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Posted: Thursday, April 11, 2013 - 11:34 AM UTC
Now Conor. Nice start on the figures. Couple of things for you. The SS were, by all accounts never issued the early war "stone grey" trousers. You might want to change them to field grey. The second figures would probably be the same as the style of smocks they are wearing would probably indicate it is early to mid campaign so Dot Pattern hadn't been introduced. Your doing great work so far but don't fall into the trap of trying too many different camo patterns, the box art is pretty accurate and you won't go far wrong if you stick to thier colour schemes.

Here are a couple of pics that might help







panzerconor
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Posted: Thursday, April 11, 2013 - 11:49 AM UTC
Thanks Chris those references are great. And thanks for the info on the trousers, I'll fix that as well. I'm still going to re-do the camo smocks, the colors I used didn't cut it.

-Conor
jrutman
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Posted: Friday, April 12, 2013 - 01:42 AM UTC
Conor,
It's really cool to see how much you improve with each new fig you build. And you actually listen to advice from the "old hares". Not a lot of people have the maturity to do that, so kudos.
I think the problem with the bright green that you are using is that you are using too much. If you look at the outstanding color pics just above this you can see that the bright green is not the predominant color. Plus,maybe tone down the green just a tad with some off white mixed in?
I find that colors right out of the bottle are never"just right". Don't be afraid of mixing a little. The first time I tried it I made a color copy of the pic I wanted to paint and mixed the colors and then put a dab of paint next to the color on the picture until I matched it exactly. I call it"mixing for dummies" as I tend to be fairly dumb with colors(most men are?)
J
panzerconor
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Posted: Friday, April 12, 2013 - 07:17 AM UTC
I find that the "old hares" are the ones worth listening to. It's kinda funny, first time I painted Field Grey I mixed testors grey and olive green. It worked perfectly haha. That's actually a great idea J. Never thought of that. Just gotta hope I have colored ink in the printer now

-Conor
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