1/35 Dragon DAK

[Kimmo]

I decided one more quick project was in order before I get back to a never-ender. Another from the stash, this time one of Dragon's DAK offerings from a nice set of eating and drinking figures. Some great gear in the set along with a fox, gas stove and a lizard. I opted to go with the standing chap and made a few improvements along with some undercutting, particularly on the shorts and sleeves. The etch is a German insignia set from Aber, worth picking up. The boot laces took forever. The boots needed some scribing and the laces were awful so out came the smallest bit I had and a lot of drilling took place. The easiest way to to do this kind of lacing is the way it is in real life. Be forewarned, it is extremely tedious. To make life more interesting, the laces are in eyelets part way up, then wrapped around studs. Fortunately the upper part is hidden by somewhat large loops and you can't really see that the laces should form tight, neat Xs. I couldn't be bothered remaking them or the loops.

I chopped up a wine cork into "boards" and strips, then tore little bits and super glued them to a stiff backing and whipped up a wall in short order. After fixing everything with more super glue, I trimmed to size and roughed up the whole with a wire brush, sanded and prodded to taste. A light coat of very thin plaster was applied and most of it removed with a moist toothbrush a la tile grout. I removed any excess in grooves that offended my eye and applied my plaster/Celluclay mix for the base and sprinkled ground bark and bits for the dirt then ran heavily thinned PVA over the whole thing. The base proper is foam faced with styrene. Click on photos for full size.













I'm going to try and do this real quick, if I get it primed and base coated today, then the aim is to get it all painted tomorrow.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Nice figure and " boot laces " ....on 1/35th ....WOW!

Following with interest

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! Everybody has to show off once in a while...


Got my base coats and initial work done last night when the temps dropped down to about +22 C from the roughly 30 at it's warmest. About the only benefit to really warm weather for me is that stuff cures quickly, and the palette stays moister longer. In keeping with the theme of my last few projects of doing things with just one brush, this time a Series 441 #1 half rigger from Rosemary & Co. Noticeably softer than the Kooh-I-Noors I used on the last one. I'm trying a new recipe for tanned skin, hence the very dark skin base.


















The base got done with Surface Primers as well. The darker tone is a Dunkelgrau with NATO Green. I just needed something dark and the green doesn't get used much so I mixed some in to the Dunkelgrau I was using to prime the figure with. It added some nice undertones to the Green Brown and Grey. If you click on the photo you can see some of the rock texture coming through now.






If I can stay hydrated enough, I think I can do what needs doing today. All the fussy work will be done at night when it's a bit more bearable. As of writing, the inside temp is 27C+.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

A bit of progress in spite of the heat.


















I'll go into the colours when all is said and done. The skin tones seem to be working, if in a roundabout way.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Cracking on with this fellow and certainly not showing off , flesh works for me , wasn't sure in 1st set of pics but the 2nd set cancelled that thought

Uniforms coming along nicely

Interesting the WP stays moister

Appreciate the brush comments

Look forward to more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap!

Wis I had a neat description for how the skin tones worked, I started off with a recipe from one of Angel Giraldez's videos but it went slightly pear-shaped. The humidity is probably the main reason for the extra moistness.


The heat was doing a number on me so I didn't quite get finished, but here's where we're at now.


















The base is mostly done as well, another round of pigments is needed to fill in the bald spots a little. I used some Desert Dust Wash and Desert Dust pigment, which is quite close to Pale Sand, then fixed it all in place with matt varnish. The rocks were dry brushed, washed edged etc to bring out the details beforehand. If you look closely, you can see I added reds, browns and blues to break up the monotony of the base grey.





And a test fit





I should get things wrapped up with one or two more quick sessions, just waiting for things to cool down.

Kimmo

 

[Warren SMITH]

Very well executed, and in quick time...

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Pretty dashed close to finishing , the base has come out well and with the figure looks well ...if a bit lonely !

Look forward to seeing more

You could always open the freezer or fridge door .......cooler then ...lol

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Warren and Nap!

He does seem somewhat alone, but I needed space so the wall wouldn't seem crammed in. I am contemplating camping out in the frozen foods section for the next week...


I think we're finally done. There's something not quite right with the base, but my mind is too fried to try and work it out any further. The bench lighting also plays a part in the way things look, in natural light it does look much more sandy/dusty.













I added more pigment, cut it back, added washes and edged the rocks some. I applied some selective ink pin washes to get better definition in the cracks, and to add some tones.

Here's the pigment and washes. The pigment is indeed bang on for Pale Sand.





And as promised the colours used minus a few basics








The skin tones started off as a 50/50 mix of Dark Fleshtone and Beige Brown. Where I went wrong was to go way too light for my first highlight pass and ended up mixing Beige Brown and Red Leather for a nice reddish midtone to cover everything and continued from there. An accidental value sketch if you will. You can sort of make out the mixes on my palette, still waiting on a new Redgrass V2, loads more space to work with. There is just enough red in the Dark Fleshtone and Red Leather to keep the tones lively without resorting to Red or Red Violet as I normally would. The trick is to to work in thin layers and let stuff dry, especially at this scale. The heat really helped there.




I'll take some proper photos and post a gallery link soon.


Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Better photos finally taken and edited, and a gallery is up here.



A sneak peak





Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented.

Kimmo