WIP Critique Australian Sniper Afghanistan, 1/6th scale Naked Army bust

[tonydawe]

Hi guys,

I'm back at work now and have been looking forward to showing you some pics of my latest project.

This is the 1/6th scale bust of an Australian sniper in Afghanistan (circa 2012) produced by Naked Army.

The bust depicts an Australian Special Forces operative wearing a "yowie" suit made up of thousands of individual strands of fabrics of various colours woven into a mesh outer garment which breaks up the shape and silhouette of the sniper. Under the yowie suit the sniper wears the Australian DPDU (Disruptive Patter Desert Uniform) camouflage shirt, and his webbing includes a combination of military issues straps and pouches (in DPCU -(Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform) or Auscam) and some privately purchased gear that has been camouflaged by the operative himself.

Although from the attached pics it may look as if the painting is well advanced, in reality I've only just completed the base colours for the yowie suit and the webbing gear, rifle, gloves and uniform. I'll be doing a lot more shading and highlighting over the coming weeks and start to weather, camouflage and dirty the uniform to make it look more "lived in".

I'm not crazy, talented or patient enough to replicate Mike Butler's level of ultra-realism with this bust, but I will do my best to bring out the best in this magnificent sculpt.

 

[Chris Mortimer]

Great start mate. A very unique figure. Thanks for the background on what he's wearing.

 

[Mike - The Kiwi]

Hi guys,

I'm back at work now and have been looking forward to showing you some pics of my latest project.

This is the 1/6th scale bust of an Australian sniper in Afghanistan (circa 2012) produced by Naked Army.

The bust depicts an Australian Special Forces operative wearing a "yowie" suit made up of thousands of individual strands of fabrics of various colours woven into a mesh outer garment which breaks up the shape and silhouette of the sniper. Under the yowie suit the sniper wears the Australian DPDU (Disruptive Patter Desert Uniform) camouflage shirt, and his webbing includes a combination of military issues straps and pouches (in DPCU -(Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform) or Auscam) and some privately purchased gear that has been camouflaged by the operative himself.

Although from the attached pics it may look as if the painting is well advanced, in reality I've only just completed the base colours for the yowie suit and the webbing gear, rifle, gloves and uniform. I'll be doing a lot more shading and highlighting over the coming weeks and start to weather, camouflage and dirty the uniform to make it look more "lived in".

I'm not crazy, talented or patient enough to replicate Mike Butler's level of ultra-realism with this bust, but I will do my best to bring out the best in this magnificent sculpt.

One of my favourite busts from the range - fell for it as soon as I saw Big Al's version.
So cannot wait to see you work your magic on this one too!

Keep it coming

Also have some of Al's Naked Army conversions to share soon.
All this will give folk a better feel for potential of these BIG little guys ;-)

 

[Bootneck]

What an interesting piece thanks for the background adds interest to the figure when you understand what you are looking at.

Off to a great start and following with interest Tony.

Peter.

 

[tonydawe]

Thanks Chris, John and Peter,

I'll provide some more details on the weapon system and the comms equipment when I get home and have access to the instructions.

 

[FigureLover]

Hi Tony,
Thought you had been a bit quiet lately.
Nice start, the auscam is coming along fine and I like the yowie suit basing, not an easy task I am sure. Not sure about the eyes though, they look nicely detailed but tooooo bright, almost like he's got contact's on!!!!! Personal opinion only
Ben

 

[smudger1960]

You like these camp pieces don't you tony,this looks like another difficult pattern to pull off,great start mate,will follow

 

[Ferris]

Looks like a very challenging project Tony, but you're starting off great!

I also think the eyes are too 'primary blue' however. It would look more natural if the blue were less saturated I think. Should be easy to correct at this stage so hope this is not upsetting...

Following...

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Wings5797]

Good work Tony,
Looking forward to those final dozen brush strokes that add that final realism to your pieces. One day I just might understand how you achieve and still not be able to do it.
Great start
Keith

 

[Zastrow.cuirassier]

Geat start !

 

[arj]

Excellent start. Love the face.
Andrew

 

[Wayneb]

Lookin good Tony.............Keep er going........Wayne

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Ben, thanks for your comments mate and I agree with you about the eyes. I still haven't finished work on them, but as you can see from these latest WIP pics I've taken some steps to tone down the blue colour as you suggested and I've also added some French Blue to change the colour to a Grey/ Blue.

Hi Brian, yes camp as a row of tents mate. Thanks for your comments.

Hi Adrian, Not upsetting at all mate - that's exactly the sort of feedback I need. You're right and I hope I've fixed the eye colour problem. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Hi Keith, the final dozen strokes of the brush are a long way off yet mate. Still hundreds more to come before I get to that point. I appreciate your confidence in my ability to get there...eventually.

Merci Luc, I hope you like the latest pics.

Thanks Andrew. The face still has a long way to go. Much of the shading with oil washes is yet to happen, so the face still looks quite pale and clean. By the time I'm finished he'll look weather beaten and dirty.

Cheers Wayne, I'm still going mate. Here are the most recent pics taken last night.

 

[FigureLover]

Yep, the eyes are tonnes better!!!!!!!
Nice one
Ben

 

[Macca G]

Great start Tony, I like the mix and match of the AUSCAM with the equipment

 

[tonydawe]

Cheers Ben, glad you like the changes to the eyes. I did a bit more on them last night.

Hi Macca, thanks for your comments mate. yes, I thought of mixing up the camo schemes to show a bits and pieces approach to webbing and personal gear.

I'm still working on the skin tone. I added a purple oil wash last night which helped to reduce some of the paleness and add some depth to the skin tones.

 

[Bootneck]

Hi Tony.
Love the way this is looking now,everything is starting to settle down and look naturally blended in.
Keep up the good work.
Peter.

 

[NickM]

Looking beaut so far, Tony. I love the Yowie suit and Auscam. Those eyes are looking heaps better now too.
Great work as always mate

 

[tonydawe]

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your comments mate. That was the effect I was aiming for. There are still some parts of the uniform which are still too bright and need to be dulled down, but that will come later.

Cheers Nick, glad you like him mate. Hopefully you'll get a chance to see this bust in the flesh soon.

I spoke to a mate of mine who is a former sniper in the Australian SAS about personal camouflage and especially the extent to which the weapon systems would be camouflaged. His advice was that the modern sniper would camouflage absolutely every item of his personal kit, particularly his weapon, and would go to considerable lengths to ensure his camouflage patterns were specific to the territory he was working in.

He said that in addition to some of the more commonly used digital/ multi-cam patterns used for uniforms and webbing gear, some old-school patterns like German Pea Dot, Tiger Stripe cam cam have been used by Australian, US and British special forces snipers in Afghanistan recently, and reflects the personal tastes of each operative and the specific vegetation and environments these forces are operating in. Given the variety of terrain, topography and vegetation across Afghanistan it makes sense that a sniper would camouflage his gear for the specific conditions he would be operating in for each and every mission, and would change camo patterns whenever moving into a new environment.

So, I've made a bold decision to create my own unique camo pattern for the SR25 sniper rifle, using a combination of earth tones and alternating patterns of large stripes and small dots. I've tried to make it look like something the sniper would have done himself with a paintbrush and some readily available paint colours. I've also applied a rough oil wash using Van Dyke Brown and Prussian Blue over the acrylics. The next steps will be to very carefully add some subtle metallic effects to the metal work on the rifle, especially around the ejection port, trigger guard and the cocking handle, and the dials on the scope.

After that some highlighting and shading and then a liberal dusting of pastels and some strategic application of dirt and grime, to cover up all the subtle details I've just added.

 

[Mike - The Kiwi]

Mate!
You're a painting machine Tony the way you are ripping through this guy, unlike my own ponderous journey with Charlie

Like the variety of cam effects on different equipment.
You gonna put battle makeup on his mug too?

Expect you'll have him finished this week, no pressure!

Stay safe

Mike