Completed Dragon SS machine gunner.

[Mike S.]

Replaced head and helmet with resin substitute. 1/16th scale.

 

[Mike S.]

And another of my figures by the same maker and scale:

 

[rheath]

Superb Mike - again good painting, I see the battles you have with the photography of your pieces, I am gonna try the 2 lamp with paper filters fitted method above and at 60 degrees respectively and see how that pans out, best to use a tripod as well. So will see how that comes out.

 

[Mike S.]

Correct you are Rob regarding the photography. Part of it might well be my camera, which is an ancient, 2.0 megapixel Olympus (one of the very first Digital ones to come out), and the rest my ineptitude. A pity really, as I'm really struggling to bring out the subtly of my painting techniques with my horrible photography.

I can readily see that I need to get a new neutral grey/tan background screen, some filters, and a tripod as you suggest.

 

[Babelfish]

Nice work, Mike. The camo job looks great.

These figures are actually quite okay if you accept them for what they are (ie. not Alpine or S&T standard). And are perfect for practicing new techniques on.

I posted up my own 1/16 DML Handschar machine-gunner a few weeks ago. Rummage through my posts if you're interested in my take on him.

Thanks for sharing!

- Steve

 

[Michael Tse]

Oustanding painting techniques that I can never compliment enough.

Wish to see more faces painted like this. It's photo-real.

The especially notable part is to apply such good art on what is admittedly rather average products. Proof that a stunner can come from anywhere.

 

[Mike S.]

Wow, thank you Michael!

 

[marius'mules]

Excellent painting of the camo.

 

[Mike S.]

Thank you my friend. One trick to giving larger scale painted camo patterns a weathered fabric texture is to hand paint the pattern, and then airbrush very light, transparent overcoats of "dust" to blend and remove any harshness of contrast. I did that on this figure.

 

[marius'mules]

Thank you my friend. One trick to giving larger scale painted camo patterns a weathered fabric texture is to hand paint the pattern, and then airbrush very light, transparent overcoats of "dust" to blend and remove any harshness of contrast. I did that on this figure.

I will have to try that.

Would this also work down to 70-90mm also?

 

[Mike S.]

I will have to try that.

Would this also work down to 70-90mm also?

It will as long as you use a very thinned down filter color, xtra fine tip and needle, and shoot it at around 5psi. I usually mist from about a foot or so away from the figure.

Put some rubbing alcohol in with the water to thin. This will cause it to evaporate sooner, and prevent runs. Use a light touch, and work slowly.

Do all of the camo first before any other part of the figure to insure an even application without over spray on otherwise completed areas.

 

[Mike S.]

Color corrected photos.

 

[kathrynloch]

The photos look so much better Mike! Thank you for fixing them. Now I can really see details and color. I really like the realism!

 

[Ferris]

These Dragon figures can look the part when well painted. Nice job!

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Mike S.]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[rohwl]

Hi mike great work espeaslly on the camo. Where the figures painted in vallejo. If so what colour did you use on the ss machine gunner parka. And also on the ss machine gunner camo.

 

[Mike S.]

Hi Rohwl,

I use Winsor & Newton, Rembrandt and Grumbacher premium artist's oils for most surfaces except the camo, which is acrylic, and the metallics (printer's inks and my dwindling supply of the old and long out of production Russell Gammage ROSE metallic powders- yes I'm that old!). I will also use enamels and acrylics for detail work and tartans.

I don't bother with the expensive model specific pre mixed acrylics. Rather, I buy the cheap craft acrylics that you find in squeeze bottles at craft stores, and mix my own colors. This is true for figures as well as armor and aircraft, both brush painted and airbrushed.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm a commercial illustrator, so mixing colors is second nature to me.

Cheers for asking.