Hi all,

It's been awhile since I posted up any of my work. I've just finished this guy, an Arsenal 35, 1/35 scale Bren Gunner.

I had posted up some photos once I was done painting him, but since then, I've made the small base and completed the entire presentation.

The "Poteau Michelin" sign post is a Tiger Werke resin casting with custom decals. The resin sign required quite a bit of work to get presentable. There were two nasty mold lines up the center faces of two adjacent sides. Because the sides are recessed, they were very difficult to reach and work on. I got these as smooth as I could, and then "skinned" over them with .005 styrene rectangles.

The custom decals were made with Woodland Scenics Dry Transfer letters on clear water-slide decal film (Testor's). These were cut out and applied as normal water-slide decals, six decals per side for a total of 24 decals on the sign.

The sign was painted in a medium gray and "sponged" with several different grays and mauves to replicate the look of weathered concrete, perhaps with a coat of old white paint that's flaked off. The sign faces were painted white with the blue "Michelin" stripes along the top edges. After a clear gloss coat of Future, the decals were placed, followed by another clear gloss coat after they had dried.

I used Testor's Dull Coat and followed with artist oil washes and an airbrushed "dust" glaze. One more coat of Testor's Dull Coat was then airbrushed on.

Note that the "Poteau Michelin" signs have baked enamel faces (enamel on metal) for durability, and if they're damaged, the underlying metal will rust and streak.

The plinth is made of Styrofoam coated with ordinary plaster of Paris. The roadway stones were scribed into the plaster. I applied a very thin layer of Celluclay for the earth textures in the grassed verge area.

The grass and moss are various static grasses and ground foam materials.

The figure is from Arsenal 35. I found it to be very nicely sculpted and the uniform and webbing details are quite accurate. He's built "out of the box" (i.e. a "stock" figure). The only major change I made was to replace the resin Bren gun with an injection molded plastic gun from Riich. (The resin gun was slightly warped and I didn't want to deal with straightening it out or assembling the individual resin bipod legs.) I also added the NNSH hat badge to his Balmoral Bonnet, made from a circle punched from .005 plastic with a small device added to its center, also from .005 plastic.

The figure was painted in my usual technique of artist oils over acrylic undercoats. I've shown many in-progress photos of this on other build blogs here on Armorama, so no need to be redundant here.

All of the insignia are hand painted with oils.

The figure is "badged-out" as a member of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, Canadian 3rd Infantry Division.























The intersection of Gc220 and Gc126 is a real location between the towns named on the sign. The Canadians fought over this bit of Normandy in two very bitter battles with the 12th SS Pz Division, first on D-Day +1 (7 June) and then again on the 8th of July.

Happy modeling!

Nice !
Malvin

Turned out very cool. Your usual attention to detail really pays off. That sign really stands out. I am used to the high standards of your figure painting but the sign is something different. Highly realistic overall specially the concrete finish.
J

Very nice work!

very cool build Mike.. great detailing of all the webbing and everything else. That sign really sets the scene for a great little figure vignette!

Well done

Dave

@ Malvin: Thanks for the kind words!

@ Jerry: The sign was actually so easy to paint it's embarrassing to take much credit for it. Like I said, I started with a medium gray (Floquil's primer actually) and then used a small piece of sponge to daub the other colors on. I went through about 6 or 8 different colors starting with a darker gray (Vallejo Rubber) and then some browns and tans before moving to white with browns and tans added.

All of these were acrylic colors I already had thinned and ready from other projects, so it was just a matter of opening the cups, stirring and then daubing with the sponge.

The washes and streaks were artist oils thinned with ordinary mineral spirits (my usual modis operandi ).

Anyways, quite easy and quick. I'm glad you like it!

@ David: Thank you, too, for the props!

@ Dave: I find the historical context for my model subjects is every bit as interesting as their technical and aesthetic characteristics.

I will confess, though, that I have no idea what the actual road intersection looked like. From the available maps, it appears that it was probably just a crossing of two dirt roads in the middle of grain fields, likely as not, not even marked by any signage.

However, since I couldn't find any period photos of the intersection, I felt that I could take some "artistic license" with the road surface (paved with bricks and stone) and give the intersection a sign to put the figure into the context of time and place.

It's doubtful that this little road intersection was worthy of such a massive advertising effort by Michelin (le poteau grand Michelin), but I think it sets the place effectively.

Hi Mike,

Beautifully painted and a great simple base to show off the figure.

Inspiring stuff.

Cheers

Al

This is such a great scene- compact yet brilliantly detailed. The sign really is a nice touch- particularly the rust runs and chips on the metal areas and the weathering on the concrete is spot-on as it kind of runs down off the top as it would naturally. The groundwork really adds a nice touch around the base of it- overgrown but not overly so- the bits of grass between the cobbles is my particular favourite bit. What can I say about the figure though? Pretty much a perfect rendition from the hue of the uniform and the preciseness of the detail on his equipment- particularly the wood on the Bren and the dirt and metal on the spade. I think the bonnet adds a nice bit of character too.

@ Alan: Thanks for checking it out and the comments, Al. I was quite impressed with the Arsenal 35 figure's sculpting - detail and anatomy - and hope they continue to expand their range and offerings.

@ Karl: Thank you for the kind words, Karl. When I saw the Balmoral Bonnet, I knew I had to paint this guy. The hat with the toorie and tartan is such an icon of the Scottish regiments - a very unique emblem.

The Canadian North Novas are subject that I like to model because of a historical family connection, so the opportunity offered by the Arsenal 35 figgy couldn't be passed.

Verynice igure and setting Mike. Love the flawless cross over between highlight and shadow.

Thanks, Frank!

The ease in achieving subtle color transitions and shading are the number one advantage to using artist oils. I'm often surprised at how few modelers use oils for their figures anymore.

Oh well, I guess oils are "old school" and all that...

Thanks again and happy modeling!