Mary's little Mohawk

[Mariner]

Geez guys, painting these little 54mm figures is hard, even with magnification!!...he's from Andrea's Golden West Series and I did my best on the flesh tones. Added a bit of 'war paint' around the eyes and on his shoulder; the box art isn't the greatest but I did my best.
I had fun with the groundwork, still some touching up to do, and I decided to leave part of the base showing so the groundwork wouldn't overpower a small figure.
I always welcome your feedback, and I learn something with every model.
Mary

 

[Kisifer]

That's nicely done. I also like the groundwork a lot.

Xenofon

 

[Jazz]

Hi Mary. I like the figure. You have done a good job with the flesh painting, always a hard job when theres a lot of skin on show. I'm not too keen on the groundwork though. I used to use that seaweed type stuff myself years ago but it just looks too artificial. I personally dont use this stuff now as there are far better groundwork accessories on the market. Just a small thing as the figure is painted very well. Nice to see you do something outside your usual choices too.

 

[Mariner]

Jazz, I wasn't sure what to choose as I'm totally new to groundwork...I think you're right, I should have torn it up a bit more. If you have suggestions for my next 'shopping list' for accessories, my local shop can order whatever they don't have. I got some long grass and it looks like doll hair

 

[John Bowery]

Mary,

Nicely done and nice setting to put him in.

As for your suggestion:
Look for Woodland Scenics in the model railroad section of the hobby shop or just a Model Railroad shop. This is a good source to start at. Then add specialty items after you have started your supplies. Generic Cat litter is a great start for rubble and small rocks and you can put some in a folded newspaper and if you hit it with a hammer you will get smaller pieces and dust which you can use a fine dirt. Always put a wash of 50/50 water and glue on the kitty litter after it is glued to the base to seal the plaster so that it will not absorb the paint up and still leave it white. Dont forget that actual dirt will work fine on your base. You still have to paint it but will look very good and natural.

There are some good articles here for ground work, but I do not have the links. May be someone will post the links.
Cheers
John

 

[Tecumsea]

Hi Mary, Steve Kirtley at SK Miniatures does a great range of Grasses, Flowers etc worth a look there are different lengths of Grass and colours to reflect the seasons.
When out and about it pays to keep your eyes open for bits of Twig, Moss, Plant Roots, Grass seeds and different rock, Gravel, Slate etc etc it is amazing what you can find for free even in your own garden.
Keith

 

[housecarl]

Common kitchen herbs work well for leaf scatter too Mary, my favourite is oregano.
The skin tone looks spot on,
Carl.

 

[tiberius57]

Hi Mary,
Love the skin tone and the blue.
I worked with Hudson & Allen products and I liked them. Have a look. Maybe you will find something that you like.
http://www.hudsonandallen.com/
Cheers,
Zeno

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Mary,

Well done on painting this figure. You're coming along in leaps and bounds.

I would also recommend the used of common kitchen herbs such as oregano. I can also recommend tea from tea bags which makes an excellent source of leaf litter. The advantage of herbs and tea is that they are natural organic products, so they look natural, whereas some fo the artificial scenic products look artificial.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Well done Mary,
The skin tone is just fine and the buckskins turned out good too.
As for the groundwork I also use a mix of coarse ground green and black tea as ground cover. I found the roots from small plants make decent shrubs and small trees. Just soak them in water for a bit, when they are dry, cut them to suit and spray them lightly with aerosol craft glue and sprinkle the course green tea leaves over it as thin or densely as you need. You've seen the result of the long grass on the Waterloo base... trial and error and PATIENCE!!!

Keep it up

Colin

 

[Jazz]

These guys all beat me to it and they are all speaking sense. I use a lot of crushed up cat litter (clean, not used!!) and Games Workshop Citidel grass. If you ever find a piece of rough old rope, the sort you see tying up boats is good, the fibres from that once seperated can be turned into good long grass. Save on buying photo etched leaves by waiting until Summer and removing catkins (seedpods) from Silver Birch trees. Once back home just rub these between your fingers and you will see tiny little "leaves" pop out. You can save these for years in a little pot. I just hope you get Silver Birch trees in Canada. All the guys tips are great and just things that we pick up over the years. Some work for us, some dont, but you will find yours in time. Dont worry Mary, you are doing fantastically well. At some point we have all used that sea-weady stuff, but IMO it only looks good in an underwater scene.

 

[megroot]

nice work on the figure.
As the basework goes: it's a pitty that you don't use the whole base. Most at the time i don't use the base that is with the figure. Drilling a whole into the feet and glue some paperclip piece into it. That let me do my basework what i want.
Here you can find some articles: http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/post-your-own-articles-sbs.31/

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Mary, I'll add my Senf, as the Germans say.

I don't like buying anything that I can get just as easily myself. So for vegetation, I use dried roots from the backyard for branches and shrubs. A couple of years ago, I had to dig out an old evergreen shrub that died, and got enough fine roots to last a lifetime. I rinsed them in a bucket, then dried them on an old baking sheet in the oven, set to warm. Small pieces of twig can stand in nicely for pieces of a tree, in 54mm.

For grasses, I use unraveled twine and rope, and old tea leaves for ground scatter. I have a jar of Jersey shore beach sand, too, which has had its applications. And I noticed once when cleaning my gutters, that the coarse bits of grit were gradually washing off the asphalt shingles on my roof, and that it looks very much like ballast from the model railroad supply, so I filled a little jar with some. Look in the street or road outside, too, and you'll find small bits of rock and coarser stone dust, which can be used, too.

Hope that all helps, prosit!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

I thought I should post an example to illustrate. Now, I paint in gloss toy soldier style, but the principle is the same:

This is Ulrich Puchala's Prussian Jäger, based on a Menzel sketch. The figure's pose required a base, so I used a piece of tinplate (in keeping with my toy soldier style), with some Miliput to make some ground contours. The shrub is a piece of fine root network, which I brushed lightly with white glue, then sprinkled with old tea leaves. Here's another angle:

Maybe not competition standard, but again, it illustrates my point.

Prosit!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

One more, then I'll shut up

A friend of mine on another forum said he noticed that the small seeds in pods on white birch trees look like maple leaves. He used them in a diorama, and they did look rather convincing. Maybe not like maple, more like sycamore. I haven't been able to find them yet, though, because the pods apparently occur only on the female trees, and landscapers around here plant males.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Mariner]

Thanks to all of you; I live in the country and there are all kinds of leaves, trees, woods, etc. I never would have thought of the tea leaves and oregano...so I'll raid the cupboard and the back woods
Thanks also to Zeno for the link!
Mary