WIP 1/16 German WWII Machinegunner in Greatcoat

[Michel Caudron]

Hi my name is Michel and i'm new here, i couldn't find a big 'introduce yourself' topic so i'll start here.

I'm 26 years old and live in a town called Zwolle in The Netherlands.
Did modelling when i was a kid, stopped for a while and got back in the saddle 2 years ago.

Well enough chit-chat, lets get it on!

Mostly I do AFV's but since a couple guys began doing figure on the forum that i'm on, i got interessted in figure painting. The thing that inspires me about figures or make me want to do certan figures is the emotion, expression and pose they have.

About the figure, i didn't want to start on an expensive resin figure and i'm interested in German figures, so i bought a couple Tamiya and Dragon figures.

This one is the German WWII machinegunner in greatcoat from Tamiya.

I started contstuction on the model of few weeks back and got to know this forum because someone mentioned it, so i came to take a look.

I don't know what the normal way of business is for a build&paint report is, so i'll do it this way and i'll read the comments.

First off a picture of the Box

and it's contents, nicely packed.

here without the bags

At first glance when you look at the sprues it's all nice, but when you take a closer look you'll see the mold-lines

After cleaning the shoe it looks like this (since then i've done some more work on them)

The thing that doesn't deserve a beauty price is the way of attaching the shoe's to the legs, needs a lot of sanding, putty and sanding.

This is what i had after a few hours of cleaning and fitting.

and after i put it on a painting block

Nice detail is that you can choose between two different belt buckles, the Heer belt buckle (no. 17)or the waffen SS belt buckle (no. 16)

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2nd Update

Earlier i showed the moldlines, well on the arm they ain't getting better

Finally a dryfit of the model holding it together with blue-tack

I scraped away the chin belt, because i want the chinbelt over the edge of the helmet, first try is tamiya modelling tape cut into a fine line, but eventually i think i'm gonna use milliput or a piece of evergreen styrene sheet or something to scratch a chinstrap over the edge of the helmet.

Here a side view of the figure, i hope the arm has a natural look.

and last but not least, a head 'on a stick'
(little out of focus but my macro function sometimes is a little buggy.)

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[Michel Caudron]

3rd update

I found a nice reference foto

Source: at the front militaria


Last week i airbrushed the figure in it's basecoat with Vallejo (mode color) German Uniform and didn't use a primer of any kind, just to give the figure as few layers a possible and prevent lossing details. I did clean the figure with a soft brush dipped in Revell airbrush cleaner.

Yesterday i put 4 layers of Vallejo (model color) Glossy black on the boots, but in my opinion they can use an extra layer.
I know it's shiny, but i want to create the buffed and polished shoe effect first and later on i can make it more dull to fit the story of the figure.

and then i worked on the stahlhelm, i've searched and looked at a lot of different helmets for reference. The helmet on my figure (as far as i know, please correct me if i'm wrong) was used at the end of the war. The normal M35 stahlhelm has installed vent holes/rings and as each version of the helmet was made simpler, the vent hole were simplified to stamped in and eventually disappeared with later simpler versions. (maybe they got tired of the whistling sound of the wind in their helmets, like the modern construction helmets...grrrr)

The other thing i noticed on the different helmets was a structure, the one had a very smooth surface and the some others had some texture on them, because i liked this so much, i wanted to replicate this texture.

What i did was, i used Mr Surfacer 500 and a Q-tip/Cottonswab and i dipped it in (undisolved) and began pressing on the helmet with the q-tip until i got the wanted texture. There are different ways of doing this, but i choose this one, the downside of this method can be that the little hairs from the q-tip end up in your texture, but that doesn't matter very much because you'll be sanding the texture off later on when it's dry.

So i waited till it dried up and i sanded it with a little piece of grain 1000 sandingpaper, to a softer texture.

And this evening i 'sanded' the helmet with a little piece of steelwool(the stuff that you can clean very dirty pots and pans with) to an even softer finish, to the texture effect i liked.

So that's it for now, till next time.

ps. sorry that i don't cap my i's, i'm just to lazy to do it

 

[mil-mart]

Michel welcome to Pf.

This is going to be a great work in progress, looking to following it through to its completion.
Many thanks for showing.

Cheers Ken

 

[Mike S.]

Welcome fellow Michael! I find these large scale Tamiya figures really paint up into nice show pieces, and are great value for money. I look forward to your progress with this project.

Cheers.

 

[Michel Caudron]

Thanks you Ken and Michael

Yes these figure aren't that expensive, needs some work, but you can make something really beautifull of it.

 

[lock-n-load]

I built one of these same figures with my nephew over Christmas. I am trying to get him interested in figure modelling. This kit is perfect for that. Easy to build (Superglue), minimal clean-up (no resin blocks!), nice details, very straight forward color sceme to paint and a bargain, too boot!!

Economical, simple enough for a beginner and yet detailed enough to really be turnedi nto something special, in the right painter's hands. Tamiya got this one right!

Mike

 

[Maglar]

Good stuff Michel, like the updates and such.. I like to know the story to the finished product instead of just pictures of the final result, thats why I like follow as I build threads when I do aircraft or figures.

Mag-

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Welcome Michael,
solid process of the basics.

Dont be afraid of using a primer undercoat; for some materials (such as resin or metal) paint has a hard time sticking to these materials, and can be rubbed off easily during handling....

there are many primers out there to choose from, feel free to ask what others on here use.

Again, a clean build helps with a good finish

cheers

 

[Michel Caudron]

Well i don't mind using primers, as long as they don't grain of peddle to much(i know that depends on your airbrush settings and distance), i dont like the sandy texture when i'm done, doesn't make it realistic.

Well Mag i've got the same thing, i like seeing the process and used techniques so that you can learn something from it.

 

[Michel Caudron]

Speaking of wich, is it possible to move this topic to the vbench section because i would like to make a report/blog about the project, although it's my first figure here.

 

[Brent Fordham]

Hi Michel,

Great post! I enjoy seeing the progress photos. Also, it's good to see another person here who has crossed over from another discipline (AFVs, in your case) (I'm an avid aircraft modeler). It's always interesting to see how people carry techniques from one field of interest to another, as you have done, I think, with the texturing on the helmet.

The Tamiya figures are a great starting point, with interesting subjects and relatively minimal cost. It's strange that they can have such problems with fit and seams in these figures, since Tamiya kits are normally the gold standard of perfect fit. We joke in the aircraft world that all you need to do is pour some glue in the box, shake it, and the kit builds itself

Welcome to the forum!

Brent

 

[Joseph Brubaker]

Hi Mike,
What a great Idea for the helmet cant wait to try your idea many thanks fo posting cant wait to see the finished product............................Joseph

 

[Michel Caudron]

No problem
That's the nice thing of a report

 

[Michel Caudron]

It has been quiet for a while but i'm back again with an update

I had my figure ready in the basecoat, but i wasn't fully satisfied with it because the paintjob was to fragile. When you nick it, the paint comes of. and that maybe has to do with the fact that i didn't apply any primer. So I decided to redo the figure.
I removed the paint with a flat brush and a cup of alcohol and took of the paint no problem. after that (what i could've done in the first place) I put the figure in a plastic bag and sprayed in Mr. Muscle stovecleaner, let it rest over night and cleaned it this morning.
Note: wear latex gloves because your fingers get very slippery and the stuff seems to be harmfull for your skin.

Meet the 1/16 version of the 'terrifing snowman'

I've got the MG42 finished thus far i can paint it.

I wasn't totally satisfied with the texture on the stock of the MG42, so i sanded it off and used fine epoxy putty to make a new texture on it.
I applied the texture by pressing the edge of a knife horizontaly into the putty. I think i'm also going to make the screwhole in stock as is in the original.

I've finished the top of the MG42 as best as i could, to remove the nasty seemlines you get after glueing the halves together.

I have also hollowed out the funnel of the MG42 by first drilling a hole in the end of the gun and after that i used a nr. 11 blade and slowly hollowing out the funnel by turning the MG between my fingers.
(sorry, this is as sharp i can get the funnel)

and 'last but not least', I've made a start in painting the face with oil paint. The paint i use it Winsor & Newton Oil Colour. It's the first time for me that i actually paint figures with oil paint. Before painting i applied a thin layer of white primer.

I've mixed three colours to try and make a base skin colour. titanium white, crimson red and cadmium yellow. At first it looked a little yellowish so i added a little more red and white to soften it out. I did not thin the oil paint it just paint little blobs of oil paint on a piece of paper and when the paper absorbed the oil in the paint i took the colour paste and mixed mu colour and applied it pure as thin as possible. I let it set for a few hours and after that i took a clean soft flat brush and spreaded out the paint with the brush to make it softer.
The eyes here are white, but i've already painted them the same colour as the base colour.

So this was it for now......till next the update.

If anyone has any tips or comments please let me know.

 

[Michel Caudron]

Tonight i've been working on the face again.

I've change the basecolour from it's yellow tint to a more normal colour.
I've mixed the following colours:
Flesh, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre en Burnt Sienna

Mix the colours and get a decent colour

Much better against the old one..

Then i added shadows and highlights, i only coloured in the eyes with brown

I was thought that the helmet casts a shadow over it's forehead, so i made that a little darker. I hope it's something.

and here with the helmet on (little off)

I did the face in two hours and since this is my first face painted in oil, i'm pretty pleased with myself and with some practise some real nice things will come from it.

 

[gothicgeek]

looking good!

are you using a warming box to fast dry the oils? and will you be adding reds? and a 5 o'clock shadow?

Mark

 

[Michel Caudron]

no, i'm just using regular w&n winton oil, bleeding on a piece of paper.

the face is a good start, but not finished yet. after that i'm going to try and add those since i've never did them i have to look into it. maybe a little red, because he's wearing clothes against the cold. red cheeks, red nose tip.