Completed Forward Observers

[Kimmo]

Been a while since I've had anything ready for primer, just the way things have gone the last month or so. Here's what will hopefully kick off a more productive year. Rummaging around the stash I decided to use a couple of figures from Dragon's old Advance to the Rhine set and the remains of a Tamiya Sherman plus whatever was in the spares box. I decided on a make things look better rather than go for complete accuracy. For the purists, there are some things which aren't quite right or missing. After a bit of scratch building, reposing and a few improvements later, we have this little vignette just about ready to go.


















I'm going to try NMM for the tracks and idler, small enough that it shouldn't take too much time and if it goes south, then it should be easy enough to redo with metallics.


Kimmo

 

[clubcat]

Excellent composition and attention to detail.
Watching with interest.
Melanie

 

[NRG]

Great concept and great work altogether. Tells a real story and I really like the use of part a the tank to give context.
Are you going to block in the “backside” of the tank or leave it because it won’t be seen?. I appreciate its a bit more work …

 

[Robert Jan de Wit]

Great start!
Composition and interaction looks good and nice details all around.
One question: how did you do the helmet netting?

greets,
RJ

 

[Briggsy]

Great looking vignette, looking g forward to seeing you paint this.

Cheers Simon

 

[NigelR]

Very nice start and a great little "wedgie" base, very clever.

 

[Steve Ski]

Excellent vignette, great start!

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Happy New Year

Great to see what's on your bench , good ideas well and a tight composition , nice work on the tanks thing , with the figures working well together

Looking forward to seeing more

Following with interest

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Wow, good crowd forming already....cheers one and all!

NRG, I have blanked off the upper bit to the top of the deflector. I was contemplating on whether to do it or not as you noted, I think it helps keep the eye from wandering around too much when you do take a look from the side.

RJ, the netting is pretty easy to add. I use sections of nylon stocking and just stretch it over the helmet to the desired size of weave, crimp the excess underneath with my fingers and add light touches of Tamiya extra thin around the rim and let it set for about a minute then gently go around the rim and press it in with my fingers. Repeat for the top and once it is all set in place, then you can tuck the extra under the helmet and add a good amount of glue around the inner rim and press in. The extra thin really works well, better than super glue. Once the glue has set properly simply scrape or cut the excess off with a sharp blade. A small curved blade works nicely here. Or just score and scrape with a regular blade and carefully remove netting as needed working into the centre rather than to the edge. Another method is to glue some rod or a toothpick to the underside and basically do the same thing. It is easier to handle, and you can tie off the excess, but then you have to remove the support. The key is to go easy on the glue and pressure to avoid destroying the weave. Any place that sells stockings should have sample cards laying about so you should be able to find something suitable fairly easily. Just remember there are quite a few different weaves available so don't just grab the first pack you see. One pack should last you a lifetime or three.


I got everything primed and now just need to sort out my lighting.



















I started off with a dark burgundy mix, which came out rather glossy even though I added matt medium. I added some olive drab to the mix to give me a bit of variation and it also dulled things down nicely for the ground work and air recognition panel, the tank got another coat of darkened OD. I mentioned lighting, I'm leaning towards something coming in from the top left or front so that the guy on the radio has some nice dark shadow and would make my NMM task a bit easier.


Kimmo

 

[Briggsy]

Nice start, always confuses me priming in black but it works so why not. Looking forward to some colour.

Cheers Simon

 

[Robert Jan de Wit]

Thanks for the explanation Kimmo!
Gonna give it try.

greets,
RJ

 

[1969]

Fantastic looking project, will be following along.
Steve

 

[Rocco82]

Great little scene. Nice groundwork.

Great idea with the tank cut-off.
Hmm. Food for thought.

Will be great to see it finished.

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Good updates, clean priming , liking the thinking about the light

Good explanation on the helmet netting .....though perhaps be careful loitering around the ladies departments in shops ....lol

.........or sneak into the wife’s /girlfriend/ partners chest of drawer ....and borrow .....lol

Looking forward to more

Have fun @ the bench

Nap

 

[NigelR]

Good progress, really looking forward to seeing how you handle the next stages and the lighting.

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers again everyone!


Simon, the primer coat colour isn't really that important, but choosing one over the other can allow you to skip a step or two in the painting phase and help set the undertones. I'm going with burgundy as it is nice and dark, and lets you go warm or cold. It's also a case of me being low on black primer and having plenty of others on hand...

Nap, loitering in the stocking section doesn't set off too many weird looks anymore, it's when you spend a few minutes carefully stretching and studying the samples that raise eyebrows.

A bit of progress yesterday with the initial shading. I was fortunate enough to receive a nice Christmas gift from Vallejo in the form of some new Game Color range paints/inks and a selection of their new brushes. Even after a very brief session and swatch test, I am very pleased with the paints and the Pro Modeler brushes which are kolinsky, I believe. They aren't explicitly named other than premium natural hair, but they look and feel the part. I'll get more into each after I have a chance to really give them a workout.


On to the progress











The light direction has been more or less set, this is little more than a sketch right now. It was a bit of a challenge to get things looking this nice after a long break and having to paint things in situ using a new brush and paints. You can see how matte the new Game Color paints are, and how smoothly they just blend into each other, I didn't really do anything other than slap on a couple of washes to blend things. Our observer got a bit of outlining done before I called it a day, now I'll need to do some refining and smoothing out.


Kimmo

 

[NigelR]

Nap, loitering in the stocking section doesn't set off too many weird looks anymore, it's when you spend a few minutes carefully stretching and studying the samples that raise eyebrows.

That made me spit my coffee out We have to suffer for our art!



Good start on the figure painting, it's helpful to see how you approach the whole process.

 

[Briggsy]

Kimmo, got to say the undercoat works really nicely and if it works keep doing it seems like the right maxim. I just never adjusted from learning to use white in the 70's and 80's. Did make me laugh that you are running low on black, oh and adventures in the shop underwear section.!

Will have to investigate the game colours, the old ones of which I have many aren't the best these days. Watching with keen interest.

Cheers Simon

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nigel and Simon!

Simon, the more I use the new Game Color, the more I like them. They're almost an entirely new paint and take a bit of getting used to.


Slowly but surely things are starting to take shape. The figures are close enough to start getting colour down.


















The base and tank has gotten some preliminary work done as well.















And an overall look




















Still plenty of work ahead.


Kimmo

 

[Briggsy]

Just started restocking with scale 75 paints, will have to investigate the new Game Colour and get another set of drawers for storing paint! I need a bigger desk.

Cheers Simon