Completed Alpine Unteroffizier (Vallejo set)

[Kimmo]

Been a while since I've gotten anything done, been a weird three months to end the year. So let's kick this new one off with something that Vallejo graciously sent me back at the end of September. It's one of their exclusive Alpine sets that come with paints for the uniform, and of course, a lovely figure. A good review coincidentally just popped up on PF which can be found here.

I was trying to decide what to do for a base, this is a great figure and really deserves something a little special. I remembered I had the remains of a T-60 by Miniart kicking around and decided on a little wedge as I didn't have enough to do a run of tracks and wheels. Plus I didn't feel like scratch building more parts, a new tow hook and final drive cover were needed along with a floor pan in any event. It looked kinda dumb on it's own and came up with the idea that the tank had shed a track, and continued into and through a fence. A lot of hemming, hawing, thinking and cutting later, I have a good foundation to build off.









This should be a good bit of fun, and a challenge to get everything properly in place.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo
Happy New Year

Following right with you on this , particularly interested in the idea you have and your thoughts on the paint set

Happy benchtime

Have fun

Nap

 

[Warren SMITH]

Looking forward to seeing more... excellent start

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap and Warren, and Happy New Year to everybody as well.

I'm just as curious to see what I can do with the paint set as well Nap. There's a good video showing the painting process and mixes, but being me, I have to see what else can be done with what you get


Here's where we were before I got primer down late last night. The base was another super quickie with coarse pumice paste and crushed bits of plaster. I brought the road surface down a little so the whole thing wasn't totally level, just a bit to make it more natural. I'll add more paste into the post holes after a final check for fit.






All the base parts broken down for priming. The fence is made of coffee stir sticks and balsa and was textured with a scalpel tip and wire brush. It's a good idea to seal wood with varnish or acrylic floor shine to bring out the fuzz, then give it a light sanding to eliminate the fuzz. Even with something as tight grained and hard as the stirrers, there was a fair bit of it. Balsa can be an absolute nightmare if not sealed.






The figure is also ready, the only thing I added was a sling which was a bugger to glue on with the hands glued to the figure. It would have been just as challenging to add if I hadn't glued the hands in place because you can't really grip the weapon properly and I would have likely knocked it off at some point trying to get the hands in place on the figure. If the weapon has mounts molded on, as is the case here, you don't need to open them up to slide the sling through. Make up the sling normally but don't flatten the loop completely, then cut the loop end that goes through the mount ( you should end up with a Y ) and glue each end on whichever side it is supposed to go on. You will probably need to trim the inner end a bit shorter to get the sit you want. The trick to adding slings is to get a good bond first on one end (after making sure the damn thing is the proper length of course) and working the drape in as you go along. I glued the rear end first and made sure it was good and stuck. This way the sling doesn't move about as much and if you use lead foil or pewter like I did here, the bends and twists should keep things in place enough to help get the butt ended cuts glued on without major hassle. Relatively speaking.



















The whole figure is very impressive and these photos don't quite show off the level of detail properly. The webbing straps in particular are fantastic. Clean up was trouble free, the only tiny bit of flash was a bit on the folding stock, fortunately the resin is flexible enough so that it shouldn't break too easily. There is a small tab of resin that you should remove at the back of the head under the helmet rim, it might be hidden in any case but can't hurt to remove it. The only seam I had to deal with was a very minor one at the rear of the helmet which didn't show up until I got primer on, more on priming later. This is the first Alpine figure I've had my hands on and I have to say I am really impressed with the overall quality, fit and detail.


Next up is to get cracking on the base, it needs to be done before I add the figure to see if it all works out as hoped. Plus it will be a good chance to get the hands in painting shape.

Kimmo

 

[Steve Ski]

This'll be good, Ruck On!

 

[Kimmo]

Thanks Ski!


Got a fair bit done today on the base and vehicle. I was curious to see if I could get a "Russian" green out of the set by mixing, and after some trial and error got pretty close. This is good news because I intend to do a greener tunic and Field Grey trousers for our chap. As always, click on the photos for full size.

Here's my experimenting and all the colours on the palette.




And the result after the base coats. I applied each mix on top until I was happy and got some interesting modulation and depth.








I continued by dirtying up the tank with darker washes and then some highlighting and chipping, I forgot to take photos because I was in a bit of a groove and kept going. Then I switched to the base and fence and here's where we are after a lot of slapping paint around, quite literally. There is precious little fine work done yet.










The paint set is turning out to be quite versatile. My only minor gripe is that the Emerald Green is a touch too blue to be even more versatile, but it is a good paint to have in your collection. As is the Panzer Crew Highlights, a nice browny-green grey. If there was a red in this set, you could do skin tones as well. I suppose you could do that with what you have here, you'd just have a rather desaturated look and feel. Since I will need red for the ribbon and probably the scarf, it won't be cheating to add that to the palette when the time comes. I'm hoping to get the base done tomorrow so i can have the weekend to work on the figure.

Kimmo

 

[T-34/85]

This is looking great so far. I can relate to being in, "the groove" on a project. Keep the momentum up. Looking forward to the finish,

tom

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Thanks for the updates, good to see the colours your achieving on the WP and variations on the tank , will you weather it further ?

Good explanations ref the weapon strap

Nice use of coffee sticks....where would we be without them ...lol

Base is looking good

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

I like the composition of things there. Very reduced as to not draw the attention away from the guy too much, but there's still things going on. For some reason I really like the way the ground looks. Looking forward to more on this one!

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Tom, Nap and Sigur!


I didn't get as much time in Friday as I had hoped, but did get the main thing that I needed to get done, which was to glue the larger fence piece in place and get the grass down.










A bit more work on the tank, and to answer Nap's question, no point in really doing much more weathering other than adding some dust. I need to do some more work on the tow cables and the steel on the return roller.








So far so good, and I like the way the greyness of the dirt and fence sort of blend together. And that wraps up Friday's production, I'll do today's in a new post.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Today I got started on the figure and spent a good 6 hours spread out over three sessions. I mixed up a fresh batch of Field Greys, one greener and one greyer. I wish I had a precise formula, but it was all eyeballed to taste. The greener one is mainly due to adding Green Brown, with a touch of Orange Brown to cut the blue back.






A quick base coat


















Here's the tunic with a good session in after an overall dark green brown wash. The trousers have darkened considerably compared to the previous set. I like this approach to add depth and outline details.



















And where I ended up. I got the details mostly done as well, the brush felt good and the paint was flowing so just kept at it until my eyes tired out. Some clean up to do around the webbing, a bit of blending on the uniform, but coming along nicely.

















Considering I haven't picked up a brush in months, I can't complain. There is a ton of detail on this guy, and it will reward a patient painter. With a bit of luck, I can wrap things up tomorrow, although I think it will slide into Monday.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Nice bit of gardening on the the base , that fence sits well into the ground, thanks for comment ref the tanky thing ..lol

Figures looking good and interesting the way you've approached it , this paint set seems to work well but as you say it's all by eye

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap!

More slow progress today, the extra magnification on my optivisor was really needed. I got the head mostly done and cleaned up the details on the figure, still some work to be done but almost there. Working with a very limited palette for the skin tones is proving to be a challenge, the addition of red helps. I took the easy way out and used decals on the helmet.



















Did some NMM work on the tank, the steel bits are starting to look like steel. The tow rope is tricky because it isn't supposed to be bare steel, the real deal was coated in some sort of oil to prevent corrosion so it should look kinda metal, but not. I could have just used metallics here but I needed to see how difficult this is to pull off, and keep to the whatever is in the set only principle. I have a slightly crazy idea of doing a larger piece with at least some track and probably headlights that need to be shiny, or at least not dull and doing it NMM. Nothing like practice to see if something is possible.











If I can get in a good day's work at the bench tomorrow, everything should get done.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Just about done now. I need a few more touch ups on the figure, and a bit more work on the base.


















I'm still not 100% sure on the placement of the strewn boards, but I think it will work as is. The fresh wood needs to be painted a more appropriate colour and the excess grass from around the fence posts needs to be brushed off. I just bunged some clumps in with tweezers to fill the gaps.


















And a test sit





Knock on wood, tomorrow should be it for this one, and then good photos the next day.

Kimmo

 

[Steve Ski]

Jammin right along, excellent!

 

[Warren SMITH]

Excellent work, the figure is amazing, this has come together very nicely..

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Ski and Warren!

Pending a final check tomorrow, I'm calling this done. The final touches took forever, and of course noticed something else each time I finished one thing.






















View attachment 459983


Better photos still to come. These are almost good enough, the light is just a wee bit harsh, otherwise a pretty good representation.

Kimmo

 

[NigelR]

A beautifully executed vignette, excellent work with a single small figure.

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Goodness I can't keep up with your modelling ! ....very fast work my friend ....looks really good ...I like the base work and the figure certainly looks good and a good placement as well

Thanks for the update and the WIP

Looking forward to seeing more from your bench

Have fun

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nigel and Nap!

I broke out the light tent and got things set up, took a test shot and was wondering why the face looked a bit off. The shadows running down from the nose to the mouth had darkened considerably when the paint dried so a few touch ups were needed. Then I noticed a few more touch ups were needed...long story short, still waiting for stuff to dry for a final inspection. That's the advantage of waiting for a day or two to inspect and take photos, you start to notice stuff as you're looking at the piece with fresh eyes and from different perspectives, especially if the figure is attached to the base. So a slight delay in getting the good photos taken.

Kimmo