1/35 Nemrod Officier De Blindés Allemand 1944

[Kimmo]

Been out of sorts lately and was trying to decide what I could get done that would require the least amount of fiddly work and could be ready to paint right away. I've had this chap in the stash for some time and thought he'd do nicely. And then I realized his uniform was an M44 tunic which meant pea dot camo. I set him aside for a few days until I got my self back on track and decided to plunge in. Rather than do the whole uniform in pea dot, I figured I could get away with Italian camo for the pants as they are suspiciously non-regulation looking. I did some searching and found decent references for the pea dot pattern and broke it down in GIMP so that the basic shapes and pattern were left. I also found a good photo of a genuine zeltbahn in Italian camo which was a massive help. During my snooping around, I got some good insight into what the colours and patterns should be for WW2 era Telo Mimetico. Spoiler: most of the repros available aren't quite accurate. I primed the figure black, shot some photos and did some editing to give me a fairly good idea of how to get started. Basically I erased the uniform a bit at a time and then added the relevant pattern behind it. I also did a preliminary sketch with the sweater, field glasses and belt to see what the overall effect would be.






Here's our chap all primed and ready.




















He's quite typical for Nemrod, the sculpting is fine (could be better, could be worse), but the casting left a bit to be desired. Rather than scribe seams, I'll try my hand at painting them in. So what I saved in prep time is going to be lost in the painting. Should be interesting, and possibly fun.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Nice to see you posting the figure .....not one but 2 camo patterns !!

Looking good so far

Following with interest

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! The fun has begun...


I went ahead and base coated the tunic with German Camo Pale Brown, and the pants with a mix of Bronze Green and USMC Tank Crew. A darker wash was applied to get some definition and then started picking out the patterns. The darker brown is German Camo Black Brown with a touch of Black, the tan is Flat Flesh and the green is French Tank Crew. The brown on the pants is a mix of Charred Brown and Dark Fleshtone, and the tan is Middlestone. I painted in seams with black. The tunic was the easier of the two, I found I had to do a lot of back and forth with the colours on the pants, it was easier to add tan splotches and paint around them, or to add more brown to an area and then touch up with green.




















Despite having a good visual guide, painting was a bit trickier than anticipated. Once you get a 3D surface with folds and creases, applying a 2D pattern gets hinky. I'll go over the patterns with fresh eyes and fix any obvious blunders. Then a round of highlighting before I start applying the larger of the small splotches on the tunic.

Kimmo

 

[Chris Oldfield]

Superb paintwork Kimmo, especially the Italian camo pants. Nice colour choices, & thanks for explaining how you mixed them.

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Chris! For these sorts of projects it helps me to remember what colours I used as well, I'm pretty bad at keeping notes otherwise.


A bit more progress today. Some highlighting and shading after I corrected a few areas. The pants got more work than the tunic, the Middlestone was greened up a bit, and a unifying filter of the base colour was applied. For the tunic, I just went down the palette to lighten colurs, bringing in Sunny Skin Tone and Pale Sand for extra brightness, same deal with the pants adding Italian Tank Crew Highlights to speed up mixing for the green. A bit of work was done on the other details to give me a better sense of the overall effect before I get into the dots. Of course my light was at ever so slightly different an angle so the shots aren't as nice as the previous ones. It's the never ending bane of not being able to just leave stuff as it is overnight.



















I also manged to whip up a base using a segment of resin stone wall and some blue foam on a 50mm base. The camera really hates this shade of blue and all the thinned down putty doesn't help.






More tomorrow.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Nice painting , hard to believe the scale , camo is looking good , nice bsework as well

Look forward to more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! This is a wee little bugger at this scale...

Didn't get anything done the other day, but made up for it today by going cross-eyed. I took the plunge and added the dots, or more accurately, blobs. They are all slightly different sizes and shapes on the real thing, not a perfect circle or oval, so it is real tricky to try and replicate the look at this scale. I realized almost at once that 100% accuracy was not going to be possible so did the best I could. The brighter green is Uniform Green. The other green is almost indistinguishable from the base brown, on the example I'm going by, this is the case at full size as well. Most of the highlights and shadows are now done as well, I'll have another go at it when my eyes recover.

















Still some work to do on the details and of course the head, as well as the base which got primed so it is ready to go too.


Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Just going to ask ....how do you paint such detail on this scale ........looks the business ....love your dedication that is clear from your posts and the results

Thanks for update

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! I guess I just have a bit of experience from working on 1/35 vehicles, you get used to working on small stuff. The usual applies as well, brush selection and control along with paint consistency. I'll show the brushes I'm using next update, the battery was just about dead.


More details, touch ups and the got the head almost done. I 'm trying to get a colder feel to the skin so I added a touch of the USMC green to Flat Flesh to desaturate it somewhat. A quick highlighting then a wash of blue, red and purpley brown tones to bring back colour and add depth. Then just monkeying around with Flat Flesh, Sunny Skin Tone and the browns and black on my palette. I need to do some more refining and maybe add a touch of red to the cheeks and nose.























I had to reset my camera to my preferences because they got messed up to take a shot of an intruder yesterday...




The odd thing is that there is no water to speak of for hundreds of metres, and this is the second one in a week that's hopped through the door, although it was a more normal frog size. They seem to enjoy the shrubs in the yard as there are usually 4-5 any given year and sometimes they're lounging on the doorstep, surprised I haven't squished one yet.


Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Well.....if this is you monkeying around .....long may it continue ! ....flesh works for me

Careful of those frogs though !

Nice update.as well

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! Too bad I'm not keen on frog's legs...


I think I got the figure done, will have to have another look tomorrow.

















Managed to get the base mostly done as well, still some edging and outlining needed. I'm trying to decide whether to add snow or not.





And a quick fit





Another couple of sessions should do it.


Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Lovely result on the figure ...you should be really happy

Interesting to follow the progress

Bring on the next !

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! Mostly happy, considering the complexity of the patterns. I still feel like something is missing but can't quite put my finger on what.


I did a wee bit of touch up with the skin tones, after everything had dried and flattened out, it looked a bit darker than I wanted. The base is mostly done, have to wait until it dries too to get the full picture. I want something cold looking without adding snow, a rough drybrush of white looks to have done the trick. If it faeds out too much, the back up plan is a frosty white wash by Precision Ice & Snow. Essentially it's talc and a fixative.












And here's the brushes I mostly used for the project. The Series 66 is a fantastic brush, it's technically a filbert, but at this size, it's not terribly noticeable. I'll be grabbing the next size up when I make another order and some more Kolinsky spotters to replace the red sables I have, just as good as the W&N at a lower cost. If anyone is shopping around for new brushes, give Rosemary & Co a good look. Excellent price/quality ratio and a good assortment of brush types.





We'll see what the morrow brings after everything has dried out fully and I can have a look at it in natural light.

Kimmo

 

[Chris Oldfield]

Excellent work Kimmo - the pea dot jacket is outstanding.

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Thanks for the updates ...looks nice to me a good result

As for brushes I use Rosemary & Co , series 22,33 mostly 0,1 and 2 ....might have a look at the 66

Thanks for details

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Chris and Nap!

Defo try the 66, great for ultra-fine lines, and the added bonus of a bit more width from the same brush.


Good photos finally taken, had to do a wee bit more fiddling in GIMP to get the levels right. The snow effect was getting blown out, or the whole thing was too dark. As mentioned I used Precision Ice & Snow wash, dead simple to use. Here's a few teasers, and the gallery can be found here.








Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented.

Kimmo