Hey guys,

This is on my workbench now, Life's Miniatures Rommel Bust.



This work will get some articles for the Michigan Toy Soldier Blog later on, but I wanted to show some WIP also. The kit itself is amazing as you would expect from Life Min.

Primed the bust with Mission Models Black Primer :



Now went for Leather, using Vallejo and Abteilung's 502 oils. After the first step is dry, will work on light and shadows for the coat.





Base flesh tone (Tamiya Flesh) :



Now, Oils were applied for a base flesh tone. my workbench has a powerful warm light and my phone saturates the photo a little bit, also making it warmer than it is actually, but we can have an idea.



Now, light & shadow done.

Also did a very subtle recent shaved beard and hair. Next is lips and eyebrows.



Lips are done now :



Comments are welcome :-)

Best
Julian

Wow. Great work so far!

cool

Thanks ! Having a good sculpture makes it easy....

Started working on the Officer's Cap, just acrylics here :








Now will add some contrast on the leather overcoat...

Enhanced contrast on the leather coat.

I am not a heavy contrast painter. Just wanted to get that subtle worn effect that leather has after some use. Also painted the binnoculars leather strap in another leather color to stand out (Model Master Leather Acryl) :

Did some progress on the bust, painted the shoulder insignia and added a thin black wash to the coat to give some depth. Also worked on the Cap's insignia, leaving the thin top gold line for last, the most difficult part not to mess previous work.

Once you accept you can never replicate the skill on the box art, you have fun :-)

Then he proceeds to replicate the box art and does a beautiful job.

LOL thanks ! I'm having fun, such a great sculpt.

But Mr. Lee's paint work is above us...

Cap is done. The gold piping is extremely difficult, life draining. I know the googles are a trademark for Rommel, but they cover a good part of the insignia, too bad, it's amazingly sculpted as we can see on the previous pics. Now let's make the scarf...

Finally, done. Sorry about the dark photo of the finished bust, my workbench warms up the flesh tone too much, but I will get pro photos next week.

As I mentioned earlier, this build will give a couple of articles for the Michigan Toy Soldier Blog, which I write, I will give a full review of the bust itself, also Abteilung 502 Oil paints, and 02 turorials on how to Paint Leather with oils and another on flesh tone with oils (my humble method).

So stay tuned for those who would like to get a closer look on oil painting...

That is a great job there Julian.
Like the look of that leather.
Be waiting on that Tutorial on Painting leather.

Cheers

Thanks Jeff !

Will update soon,

Best
Julian

Finally some good photos in a controlled light room :























Thanks
Julian

My article on how to paint Leather using oils just came out :

https://michtoy-from-the-front.blogspot.com.br/2018/04/so-after-ive-reviewed-life-miniatures.html

My article on how to paint flesh tones using oils just came out :

https://michtoy-from-the-front.blogspot.com.br/2018/04/mtsc-trench-runner-dispatch-julian_23.html

Best,
Julian