WIP Critique Nuts Planet, 101st Airborne bust, 1/9th scale

[tonydawe]

Hi guys,

I've had this Nuts Planet bust in my Grey Army for a while now, but re-watching Band of Brothers last week inspired me to recruit him into action.

The two head options in the kit offer a choice between a generic "Mohawk" trooper, and a very well sculpted likeness of Damian Lewis, who played Lt Dick Winters in Band Of Brothers.

I've gone for the Winters/ Lewis head.

Early days so far, and only a couple of nights work put into the face to date. Only acrylics used so far. Oil paints and oil washes will follow, and then I'll cover most of it with face camouflage and dirt and sweat streaks.

 

[ausf]

Very nice.

 

[Wings5797]

A super likeness with those flesh tones Tony. Great start.
Keith

 

[Viking Bob]

Wow Tony, superb flesh tones.

 

[Chrisr]

Looking good Tony. Agree with all of the above comments
Chris

 

[Ardennen]

Great flesh tones. A very good start.

Erik

 

[m@rp]

Very nice painting job. YOu have made a great likeness with your paints
Pascal
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[JCOX]

Good start. Looking forward to seeing this progress

 

[peedee]

Lovely mate...great stuff already, the face looks bang on.

I have been hoping some other Easy Company characters would emerge from the putty covered hands of the great ones.

I guess we shall have to make our own.

I got me one of these and I will finish it..I promise.

Paul.

 

[smudger1960]

Very nice start tony,

 

[Wayneb]

Great start on the flesh.I'm always experimenting with flesh tones and love the subtle realistic shading like this; and if you wouldn't mind sharing what you used to get to this point it would be much appreciated.Sorry to put you on the spot.

Wayne

 

[arj]

You're really bring him to life with that face Tony.
I'll be keeping a close watch on this one for pointers for when I get going with my version.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[mil-mart]

Great start Tony you nailed it.

Cheers Ken

 

[web-one1]

Can I say Tony that the likeness to Damian is uncanny the moment I saw the pictures it was like he was standing in front of me again, sadly my attempts to blend flesh tones are no where near as professional by half and possibly doesn't give me credit to comment on how fantastic I think they look.
As you saw above I mentioned it was Like Damian was in front of me again, I was the Webbing Master on the whole of BOB and gave Damien part of his Winters look, especially the D-Day look. Always happy to assist in any WW2 Airborne/Army uniform and equipment information.

Alan Hausmann

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Ausf, Keith, Bob, Chris, Erik, Pascal, JCox, Paul, Brian, Wayne, Andrew, Ken and Alan. Thanks for your comments fellas, they're greatly appreciated.

Hi Wayne, as I don't follow a strict formula when painting a bust or figure, there's no specific rules that I follow when painting flesh tones. I start with a two coats of the base coat colour and then gradually build up the mid tones of both shadows and highlights. For this bust I used Vallejo Red Beige and Iraqi Sand as the base coat colour, and added Josonja Warm White for the highlights, and Vallejo Grey Black for the shadows. I then started to stipple variations of the base coast, the shadow colour and the highlight colour over the entire face to help create some subtle variations in the skin tone and help to smooth out the transition zones between highlight and shadow. If you see the photo below, the final stage is to apply some oil paints in a diluted wash over the flesh areas to help blend it all together, blend some of the transition areas and unite all the colours together without removing some of the subtle variations.

Hi Alan, thanks for your offer to assist in regards to uniforms and equipment. I'd love to take you up on your offer. Perhaps rather than sending me any information, photos, reference material you could share it all here in my thread, or post it on a new thread in the Uniforms forum so everyone on Planet Figure can benefit from your experience. One thing that intrigues me is the true colour of the uniforms worn in BOB. I know that the editors de-saturated the colour on the show to give it grainy, monochromatic "news reel" look (similar to Saving Private Ryan) which gives everything a slightly grey, washed out look. It's that effect I want to capture. To be clear, I'm not trying to replicate Dick Winters as he was on D Day, I want to capture the look of Damian Lewis playing Dick Winters in the D Day episode on BOB. Any colour photos, references or tips that you could share about the uniforms and equipment worn by Damian on the show would be greatly appreciated by me, and I'm sure many other Planeteers. This is a very popular bust and a substantial number of Planeteers have already done it. I'm just the latest and wont be the last, so your offer is most generous and very gratefully accepted.

 

[Wayneb]

That looks terrific Tony...........Thanks much for the info on the base colours and technique......
Regards,
Wayne

 

[peedee]

Hi Tony ref Photos.
I am making a full length Damian lewis just before the assualt on the guns at Brecourt Manor, as in the photo attached.
So even though it's a still, it could help plus a proper moody b/w portrait.

 

[SLR]

very fine painting face.

 

[Gellso]

Upping your game here Tony...this is excellent.
I've wanted this bust for some time and your brushwork will force me into buying him I'm sure.
Following with interest.
Gells

 

[Wings5797]

This just gets better and better Tony.
Good progress Mate
Keith