Hello,

Some pics of one of the US Gi's pair from Alpine. A real jem, I advise to every figure painter. The upper part is done, On the pics the pant is half way done. I've finished it since then. I'll post another batch of pictures as soon as there will be enough good light to take decent pictures. The scarf color is not realistic, I'll have to redo it. In between I have covered also is right eyebrow which was a bit too big.
As usual, I use enamel and oils. This time I used a lot of kind of oil filters to vary the color tones.
Hope you like this little fellow. Critics, comments and tips and of course welcomed.
Julien

Very good so far!

The face-perfect!! The shading on the jacket-excellent! The gloves are awesome as well. I am not an expert for sure but are you sure about the colors on the jacket and the ammo bandoleer?
They are expertly painted but aren't they supposed to be olive green?
I could be wrong(and frequently am!)
J

Jerry and Biggles, many thanks for your nice comments.
Jerry, I'm not an expert too, far from it. I really enjoy painting, not that much doing thoroughfull researches on a subject matter.
For the vest, I tried to render the same tones of wore and torn than Man Jin Kim did, but in a lighter shade. His work is truly inspiring !

I guess that it goes with the M41 vest as it goes for the german vest: it has existed in a great variety of tones, without even mentioning the effect of sun, dust, sweat etc. I found that pic on the net that illustrates the above I think:



For the ammo bandolier, I've seen all types of colors on the figures I saw on the net. My wife also pointed at me that the color does not look real. The same applies than for the M41 vest I presume. If I'm brave enough I might give it a go..


All the best,
Julien

Great painting my friend. Congrats.

Ah yes,I see what you mean. I was not familiar with that jacket at all. Thanks for posting the ammo pouch pic. I see a lot of detail there to include in my next project like the stenciling,etc.
J

US equipment and clothing was not strictly regulated as to color. Colors could range from beigy/cement through tans to greenish tints.

A fine piece of figure painting, sir. And great reference pics as well. Following this one, for sure.

Thanks a lot guys for your comments. I'll might give it a try also to the pencilled stuff on the bandolier. I was not happy with the bandolier pouched on the front end. I don't know why the brush refused to make a straight line and the colors didn't blen very well. Hence I'll try that on the bandolier pouches on the back.

I've finished the pant yesterday and I'm pretty happy with the brown tones and the colors blending. I'll post pictures soon.

Stay tuned !


Best,
Julien

Hi Julien,
Congratulations on a cracking paint job. Something I aspire to!
I'm looking to improve my painting skills and one of the things I'm considering is a switch to oils. Is it very difficult to make the switch from acrylics? I'm assuming the techniques are totally different.
Can't wait to see this one finished.
All the best my friend,
Gary

Wow, you did an absolutely great job on this one. I like the subtle color transitions without too going into high contrast.

Well done, you should be proud of your painting skills.

Mario

Hello,

Gary, thanks a lot m8. In return I'm aiming at converting figure as good as you do (the Nordland MG part you recently published seems lace work for me). Re oils, in fact I'm not using them in the classical way. Regular way (as far as i can read from french Figurine magasine for example) is to undercoat with enamel (or even acrylic) and then use only oils by streching several layers one after the other (with several days in between for the drying), using several brushes, one by color, and without using thinner at all. In the Julian's way, I basecoat with enamels, make all the shadowing and lightning with enamels, using approaching color to the base one instead or only black or white. once the enamel job is done, I then apply different washes of oils, more or less diluted depending on the effect I want to achieve. On his right arm, I applied yellow and brown very very very diluted washes which you can guess on the pictures.For the gloves I mixed enamels and oils to give a richer/brighter texture to the green highlights.

As far as complexity in regards to acrylic, I don't know as I used acrylic only a few time, quite some time ago. I tend to think oil colors are richer and can allow more subtle work (eventhough I've seen tremendous job with acrylics, specially in fantasy figures).

Mario, thanks a lot for your comment. Highly apppreciated. The downside of doing subtle work is that sometime under the lamp it looks terrific but next morning under day light your work is barely visible..I spend a great amount of time on the garand stock to replicate wood grain. In my opinion the rendering is great, but you can only see it in daylight, and impossible to catch it with my camera... I do also take great care to blend each new layer with the previous in the highlight and shadowing process. I wait for the paint to dry a little, a few minutes, and then apply some thinner very gently to turn hard hedge into soft hedges.

Last Julian's secret : I use flesh tone to make the final highlight. It works very well for brown and black for example.

Thanks a lot for your support and kind comments again.

Julien

Hi Julien,
Thanks very much for the painting info. Now, as I understand it, I can shade & highlight as normal with acrylics,then use a thinned selective oil wash to bring out the detail? I certainly can't argue with the results you are getting I'll be trying this out very shortly
Just one question, do you give the finished figure a matt varnish afterwards?
Thanks again for the tips!
All the best Mate,
Gary

No problem, it's what this site is here for !
Yep, I think it works with acrylic too (although I never tested it ..). For Matt varnish I try to avoid anytime I can. The final rendering is more convincing when dead matt, but applying matt varnish in my opinion tend to kill the color work you took so much time to build (except maybe if you apply the varnish with an airspray in a very thin coat). Most of the time if the underlining enamel or acrylic coat is matt enough, it will "drink" the wash and avoid the shining result. But sometime you are forced to apply matt coat with oils, specially if you use non diluted oils..

Julien

Amazingly realistic friend! Maybe I'll have to get into the oil based technique myself.

Excellent work, Julien!

Can't wait to see the completed figure with some groundwork. I like your oil technique as you make it work quite well for you.

Cheers,
James

Thank you Timothy and James !
James, long time no see ! Where are your Nam figures ? I miss them Groundwork ?? My bench has been reduced to the Ho scale since the birth of my babygril. Groundwork is "luxury" for me as the four Yorkshiremen would have said

Best,
julien

Camera usually takes away some of the contrast... that's why people use high contrast techniques which look good under the camera lens, but somehow clownish when you see the figure in person. I prefer your style, as you are painting for the eyes, not for the camera.

Once again, great work. I would be very interested if you would consider writing a short SBS article for Armorama on your painting style and technique, it seems very interesting.

Cheers,
Mario

Mario,
Many thanks for the proposal. I guess you already asked me that once, and I said I should think about it. What a lazy f.cker I am !
I did for a previous alpine figure a thread where I tried to describe my techniques, but there were complaints I wasn't educational enough. I guess if I find the time and courage, I would have to be very detailed in which colours I'm using and how much percentage of thinner I use, together with taking snap shots of every steps, which I'm not that enthousiastic about.

I'll think about it

Julien

I don't think you would have to be extra specific on the paint thiner ratio and things like that. But a short explanation of the technique and photos of each step would be nice.

If you ever decide on something like that give me a buzz... I would be glad to publish it.

Mario

Yo,

Some progress pictures. I'm nearly there.
Quality of the pictures are not top notch since taken at night with lamps. I'm upset because all the wood grain work I'm very proud of (which I reworked 4 times) is not visible on the pic due to the satin coat of varnish I applied.
Only the boots left and this one will be over







Julien

Hello Julien,

Even though we can't see the fine detail of the wood grain finish of the M1, it still looks very nice and like it is made of wood. I wish I could make my wooden rifle stocks look like that.

You had asked where my Nam figures are. Well I am currently in the final stages of a diorama I am working on for the Lone Star Figure show. Once I get it completed I will be posting it on Armorama.

Can't wait to see your figure with his boots finished. Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
James

Hello James,

Any chance to have some pics of the soon to come dio ?

Best,
Julien

Probably in a few days. I have taken so many in-progress photos it would be hard to decide which ones to post, so I am just going to wait until I have the diorama completed to post photos. It will be soon, though.

Cheers,
James

Hi Julian.
That figure is looking good.
I believe you paint in Oils?

Any chance of sharing your mixes,as I'm struggling to get my mixes right for US troops.

Germans no problems, Brits/commonweath a little easier but US .

Thanks


Chris