smudger1960
PlanetFigure Supporter
I would like to start by wishing all my friends and fellow miniaturists a very happy a prosperus new year,i hope santa brought you all the figures you wanted :lol:.
I have just completed a 1/9th scale resin bust of a Ist cavalry trooper from the vietnam war dated 1970,the bust has been sculpted by the very talented Carl Reid and what a great oiece it is too.
The vietnam war never held any interest for me as a figure painter but when i recently saw this figure on the Planet site i was immeadiatly taken in by it,the post of the painted piece was completed by Ernesto Reyes which was used for the box art,and having read through ernesto's post and studied the pictures of the completed piece i just knew i wanted to paint this.
I set about ordering the bust from Steve Kirtley at SK miniatures before xmas and then set about looking up the history of the division on the web,i also managed to find some related books in my local library which i found very useful.
Even before the bust arrived i'd decided i wanted to change the pose as i wanted to portray the trooper moving through a stream or river,i also wanted to add some foilage as well to really set him in a jungle like setting,the foilage was also purchased from Steve at SK from the federicus rex jungle range,the original pose has the M16 below the waist level,this would'nt look right if the M16 was below the water so i decided to change the anatomy of the left forearm and have the trooper carrying the M16 on his left shoulder.
The M16 is cast in white metal and has the right hand sculpted to it,i had to remove the M16 from the hand and rebuild the missing part of the M16 trigger area where the hand was,the rest of the hand was attached to its original position and a new thumb sculpted from milliput,i also had to rework the shirt with milliput where the M16 would have been,folds and creases + 2 buttons wer'e added and allowed to dry.
The M16 strap was made with Verlinden lead foil cut to size and the strap attachments wer'e made with 15mm fuse wire.
I also wanted to add the helmet chin straps hanging loose which are not included in the kit and just have them hanging loose,these were also made from the lead foil.
I added various bits of text to the hemet cover in black which was very evident with most of the troops in vietnam,i based this figure on the character 8-Ball from the movie Full Metal Jacket and added the 8-ball to the helmet front.
The supplies in the helmet band i decided to paint as a pack of marlbourgh cigerettes and a first aid pack,the bottle on the other side i copied from ernesto's box art,i'm not 100% sure but i think its a lotion of some sort used by the troops.
The helmet was painted in GW acrylic paints with washes of sepia ink.
I watched a few vietnam movies during the construction of this figure and as you know i like my weathering so i decided to give him the camo face paint used by charlie sheen in appocolypse now,i noticed in a lot of pictures the face paint was used alot by the troops in vietnam so i decided to add shades of thin green and black to the face and arm areas,i think i have added just the right ammount but i will let the viewers judge me on that.
The ruck sack was also completed with GW acrylics and oils to shade followed by washes.
The greens for the uniform i used different shades of oil mixes,oils wer;e also used for the ammo pouch sling.
The plants were airbrushed in different shades of green and finished with oils,this was my first attempt at using federicus rex paper plants and was entirely allien to me bit i achieved a result i was happy with.
The water was created first by using soild water coloured with GW desert yellow and when this was dry (24hrs) i added the product 'making waves' which was also coloured with GW desert yellow and lightened with lights for the top of the ripples,all these water products are available from Deluxe materials.
I am totaly converted now thanks to Carls great sculpt and Ernesto's superb paint job,i will be looking to perhaps do further vietnam projects in the future.
Many thanks to Steve Kirtley for the prompt delivery 48hrs - great service Steve
Thanks to Carl Reid for creating this excellent piece
Thanks to Ernesto for a great post and inspiring me to complete this piece.
All coments and critisism most welcome
Happy Painting.
Brian
I have just completed a 1/9th scale resin bust of a Ist cavalry trooper from the vietnam war dated 1970,the bust has been sculpted by the very talented Carl Reid and what a great oiece it is too.
The vietnam war never held any interest for me as a figure painter but when i recently saw this figure on the Planet site i was immeadiatly taken in by it,the post of the painted piece was completed by Ernesto Reyes which was used for the box art,and having read through ernesto's post and studied the pictures of the completed piece i just knew i wanted to paint this.
I set about ordering the bust from Steve Kirtley at SK miniatures before xmas and then set about looking up the history of the division on the web,i also managed to find some related books in my local library which i found very useful.
Even before the bust arrived i'd decided i wanted to change the pose as i wanted to portray the trooper moving through a stream or river,i also wanted to add some foilage as well to really set him in a jungle like setting,the foilage was also purchased from Steve at SK from the federicus rex jungle range,the original pose has the M16 below the waist level,this would'nt look right if the M16 was below the water so i decided to change the anatomy of the left forearm and have the trooper carrying the M16 on his left shoulder.
The M16 is cast in white metal and has the right hand sculpted to it,i had to remove the M16 from the hand and rebuild the missing part of the M16 trigger area where the hand was,the rest of the hand was attached to its original position and a new thumb sculpted from milliput,i also had to rework the shirt with milliput where the M16 would have been,folds and creases + 2 buttons wer'e added and allowed to dry.
The M16 strap was made with Verlinden lead foil cut to size and the strap attachments wer'e made with 15mm fuse wire.
I also wanted to add the helmet chin straps hanging loose which are not included in the kit and just have them hanging loose,these were also made from the lead foil.
I added various bits of text to the hemet cover in black which was very evident with most of the troops in vietnam,i based this figure on the character 8-Ball from the movie Full Metal Jacket and added the 8-ball to the helmet front.
The supplies in the helmet band i decided to paint as a pack of marlbourgh cigerettes and a first aid pack,the bottle on the other side i copied from ernesto's box art,i'm not 100% sure but i think its a lotion of some sort used by the troops.
The helmet was painted in GW acrylic paints with washes of sepia ink.
I watched a few vietnam movies during the construction of this figure and as you know i like my weathering so i decided to give him the camo face paint used by charlie sheen in appocolypse now,i noticed in a lot of pictures the face paint was used alot by the troops in vietnam so i decided to add shades of thin green and black to the face and arm areas,i think i have added just the right ammount but i will let the viewers judge me on that.
The ruck sack was also completed with GW acrylics and oils to shade followed by washes.
The greens for the uniform i used different shades of oil mixes,oils wer;e also used for the ammo pouch sling.
The plants were airbrushed in different shades of green and finished with oils,this was my first attempt at using federicus rex paper plants and was entirely allien to me bit i achieved a result i was happy with.
The water was created first by using soild water coloured with GW desert yellow and when this was dry (24hrs) i added the product 'making waves' which was also coloured with GW desert yellow and lightened with lights for the top of the ripples,all these water products are available from Deluxe materials.
I am totaly converted now thanks to Carls great sculpt and Ernesto's superb paint job,i will be looking to perhaps do further vietnam projects in the future.
Many thanks to Steve Kirtley for the prompt delivery 48hrs - great service Steve
Thanks to Carl Reid for creating this excellent piece
Thanks to Ernesto for a great post and inspiring me to complete this piece.
All coments and critisism most welcome
Happy Painting.
Brian
