Great job. Ran to more than one chopper in Nam. My team and I got shot down once. Love the camo. Took me back the moment I saw it. We carried quite a load when we went out. About 15 to 20 clips, 200 loose rounds, frags, smoke and prosperous grenades, knife, 45 and as many clips as we could snatch, bricks of C-4, Claymores, Belts for the -60 gunner, food for as many weeks as we'd be out, and two canteens. And socks, lots and lots of socks.
Great job man. Thanks for honoring all who served.
Jerry

Looks great! Can't wait to see him finished.

Andy,
I have to agree with everyone else that your painting is fantastic! I've never had any success painting figures, but perhaps it's not too late to get my firstborn back from college to put up for sale...

For my part I would vote for the camo on his face--it just seems to belong there to me, but that is strictly my subjective opinion. Also--and I may be getting ahead of your process here--but his skin seems to have a freshly scrubbed glow to it that I would think he would have lost after a couple of days on patrol. Judging by his sideburns he's got fairly dark hair, which seems like it should show up subtely on the back of his hand and arms along with some facial stubble.

None of which is meant to say there is anything wrong with your figure--he's phenomenal! Simply tossing out my own $0.02, which is, admittedly, not worth a whole lot.

Looking excellent Andy.

Al

Jerry, Jerry, Chazman, Alan - Thanks very much guys, appreciate the comments !

Mark - Thanks for the input - I think it's too late when they hit college though, all sorts of devilment there already :-)

Whilst I do agree with you on the camo face I'm not going to do it on this guy (have a plan for a Marine Recon figure in ERDL cam, so will do this to him). Pretty much all of the pictures I have looked at show guys Vietnam with face camo with their sleeves rolled down, this would mean I have to do the camo on the forearms too and I think it will overpower the figure in this case. My take on it won't be exactly accurate but hopefully will look OK.

Art versus realism is always a constant battle in my head ! I'll take a view when all of the parts are in place, it won't be too difficult to add if I change my mind.

I do usually add a little stubble to the face, completely missed that one ! (I usually add a little Luftwaffe blue to the flesh mix and glaze it on in very thin layers just to tint the area I want). I will add some in as it progresses and work starts on the arms. What you see in the pictures is just the base coat of flesh on the forearms, no shading or highlighting as yet so will try and factor in some hair if I can too.

Thanks again everyone for your constructive comments, I do appreciate them and it all helps to improve my stuff.

Cheers !

Namabiiru raised some good points regarding the "freshness" of the face. Also, I vote for the facial camo, although I'm not sure what to do with bare forearms then... Anyway, amazing job and one of the best 1/35 figures I have seen in a while.

Mario

EDIT: It seems we typed at the same time. Cheers Andy!

Thanks Mario

Hi chaps,

Not to be confused with a similar post of the same name (as well as me having a modelling nemesis in the magazine business !!), we are back with a little progress;







Finally feels like I am on the homes straight now. Still a lot more tweaking to do and adding some subtle details, stubble etc, but I can finally see an end to this one in my near future.

No more camouflage for a long time after this one !!!

(in fact, I am currently gathering bits and pieces to actually build the Huey too !)

Thanks for looking

That is some consistently awesome work there brother,
J

Thanks Jerry, !

Great work all round. Really well done.

Wow- those canteens- the plastic finish on them is just incredible. How did you get them to look like that? The detail on the smoke grenades is also fantastic- did you paint the codes on them? I like his watch too and the metal and wood on the M79 is ace.

Cheers Paul, thanks very much.

Hi Karl, thanks mate.

The canteens just had a thin coat of stain varnish over them to give them a bit of a sheen, looks a little too shiny in real life so I may just tone that down a little.

I painted the lettering on the smoke grenades (yeah, right - not that dedicated !) These are decals and are included with the Bravo 6 grenades set, although you can also buy smoke grenade decals from Arms Corps Models in Australia, LINK part number ACM35877. (Bravo 6 ones are a lot clearer though).

The watch was painted in Black Grey 862 and then the highlights were painted using 990 Light Grey, with white added for the final highlight. I also do my buckles this way.

I tried the metal a different way on the M79, I usually use Gunze Sangyo Dark Iron (which is a bit like Humbrol metalcote in that you can buff it to a shine). This time I just painted all the metal 862 Black Grey and then ground up some 4B graphite and applied it with a make up applicator (don't ask !), then I outlined everything with very thin Vallejo black. Quite like how it came out.

Now then, shall I do the other two figures and the wounded guy ?.....Hmmm.

Nice work Andy! Every detail is amazing!

Can't wait to see the Huey ... and more figures, of course!

—mike

Thanks for that info Andy- I'm always interested in how to achieve differing finishes for various materials like this. And yes, not to add any pressure but please do more figures !

Another vote to do more figures!

Excellent work, Andy!

The smoke grenades, M79, and everything else is looking great. I don't think you can quite be done with camo for a while. You need to do the other figures to provide the context as to why this guy is carrying a rucksack over his shoulder and is also wearing the lightweight rucksack frame with the buttpack. And if you include the helicopter...

Cheers,
James

*bump*

Andy,have you managed to progress with this excellent figure?Real life has an annoying habit of getting in the way but I hope you've managed to get some bench time in?

Remain calm everyone!! He is till working on this gem and I have seen some updates elsewhere. Nice!!
J

hey Jerry!
I have the immortal words of Corporal Jones constantly on loop in my head ("Don't Panic!") and have Andys Grey Army blog bookmarked,but if you know if I'm missing out any other forum,please,share the love!

And stunning work on the Dragon Tow team,the work you're doing on injection moulded figures is stunning.....

Jerry, Steve - thanks for the interest guys (and for embarrassing me into replying to this !).

Real life has indeed put a bit of a speed bump on my modelling output but I start work at a new practice beginning of April so will hopefully get a lot more bench time in when things settle down. I haven't updated the blog for a while but I am currently working on a commission build of a UH-1C Huey Gunship for a client and that is taking up what little modelling time I have. I'll update when I can.

Appreciate the interest guys but don't panic

good news indeed Andy,and good to see you're still moggelling!
fantastic work so far and looking forward to your next update (if it aint here by July more embarrassment heading your way )

Great. No pressure then !

erm,yeah,July,I meant by the end of the year,isn't it January now?
You know how they say time speeds up as you get older? I think that's happening to me! Just keep on with this stellar piece of work,the finished article promises to be epic! (there,that can't be interpreted as pressure can it? )

Hey!! It's July! Just not July 2015.......Andy,any news?

Steve