Royal Horse Artillery Officer SBS

[Jim Patrick]

Ok, grass time. Here's a picture of the supplies I use. The tall grass is made be El Viejo Dragon. It's called Natural Seaweed and the part number is ARQ-10.

First I take wood glue and dilute it with water. I brush this mixture on in a random pattern then heap static grass on. Why static grass? Isn't it too short? Yes, but grass comes in all shapes, colors and size. You can find short and tall grass all in the same spot.

We all know how to use static grass so I'll skip the long dialog about how to blow it off :lol:

Now I begin applying the tall grass. Simply take your tweezers and pull a small piece out.

With your grass hunk in your tweezers, cut the bottom off. This'll give you a better surface to secure it the groundwork.

Dip the flat edge in un-diluted wood glue.

Place it on the ground work where you want it and gently, spread out the top. grass doesn't grow straight up and down.

Then just keep placing grass humps all over your base remembering to keep it in a random pattern. Here's the finished grass front and back.

Now, your tall grass needs to dry. Next up: Trimming it down.

Jim Patrick

 

[Jim Patrick]

Ok, now that your grass has dried, you need to trim it up. I love the grass but in 54mm, it's really big. Plus, if you look at grass, while it may grow tall, it normally grows to a certian length. Rather than turn this into a science discussion, I'll just get my handy dandy scissors and trim it.

Go all over the grass trying to get it all to a certian length. Whatever length you decide on. Here's the finished grass after trimming.

Ok, now after all this grass talk, I need to go cut my own ! :lol: This'll give the glue time to set even further. Speaking of glue, why the wood glue and not white glue? Wood glue is stronger once dry than white glue. You can use white glue with no problems I'm sure. I just prefer to have it as strong as I can get it. My preference, choose your own
Next up: airbrush and paint time!

Enjoy,
Jim Patrick

 

[Marius]

Good and clear sbs on your ground. I'll copy it for my Mameluke ground.
I'm looking forward to see the next step.

 

[Markus]

hmmmm,

promising, very promising !!!

I like your sbs very much and I like your new cannon-balls.

I keep close.

Sunny regards,
Markus

 

[Jim Patrick]

Thankyou Jesus and Markus. I'm really enjoying myself with this project. I just wish the photos were as clear as the steps . Oh well, there's always the next figure to do with better pics!

Here's what I just got finished doing. For the most part, the groundwork is finished. I'll go back and add some small trees/bushes (just one or two) once the figure is finished and mounted to the base.

Ok, 99% of the painting was done with an airbrush. Don't ask me what the PSI is because I have no idea. I just plug it up and go. When I want less pressure, I unscrew the hose a little. I know, I know.....ancient at best but it's how I learned to airbrush and it's worked every since :lol:

In the first few shots, you can see me putting the paint in. **Colors will be posted at the end of this step**. The ratio I use with Vallejo paints is 3 drops of paint for one drop of distilled water. Airbrushing groundwork will not pose any major problems with the paint clogging the nozzle but if your'e painting something larger, plan to stop every once in a while to clean the airbrush. I clean mine EVERY time i switch clolors with this small of a base. Once the distilled water is added, I stir it with an old brush.

Then I paint the grass first. I personally found it easier to paint dirt last rather than first. Brown on green grass doesn't look near as bad as green on brown dirt. The next two pics show me beginning to paint the grass and finally it's basecoated completely.

Here you can see the grass is completely finished (all highs applied) with the basecoat for the dirt.

Rather than bore you with a SBS for every step of painting dirt (imagine how many pics that would be :lol: ), I'll show you the finished groundwork. I included the figure as it gives you a good idea of what it will eventually look like.

Now, as for the colors........
GRASS
892 (Yellow Olive) base
913 (Yellow Ochre) highs. Keep adding for more highlights. About 3 or 4.
DIRT
983x2 (Flt. Earth)+ 871x1(Leather Brn.)
983 1st high then start adding 874 (U.S. Tan Earth)

I painted some controlled washes with 822 (Camo Brn.) here and there. The cannon balls were painted with a dark grey with straight black for shadows. Graphit was then rubbed on them to get a shiny appearence (Thanks Joe).

That's it. Unless you guys see something different, I'm done. Next up: painting white (my favorite color!)

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

 

[Kisifer]

Great work there Jim. Your groundwork looks really cool. I finished the white pants of mine and i also finished the face. Next up is undercoating the jacket and boots.
Good luck with the whites

 

[Marius]

simply fantastic
just a question, how did you make the hightlights? airbrush as well or drybrush.
good work!

 

[Jim Patrick]

Good question Jesus. The only time a brush touched the base was for the "pin wash" here and there. Everything you see here was done with an airbrush. It's a lot simpler than it looks or sounds

Jim Patrick

 

[jjgurk]

Excellent sbs Jim. Thanks for sharing your techniques. They are going to be most helpful in my future projects

John

 

[KeithP]

Thanks for the info on the natural seaweed. That looks much better than anything I have used to date.

Keith

 

[Brad S]

Fantastic Jim!

This is a great sbs. I just discovered how much better a base looks airbrushed than hand painted. Keep it up. Looking forward to your progress.

Brad Spelts

 

[amherbert]

Hi Jim

I just logged in after a week, and here's this cool SBS...

Looks great so far, but I think your balls are still too big!

He's Royal Horse Arty, right? I believe they were using 3 and 6 pounders for the most part. The cannons tended to the smaller size especially if you are depicting an officer earlier in the Nappy wars. I've seen stacks of 2 and 4 pounder balls, and they are remarkably small.

Of course he could be standing next to some nine pounder used by the foot artillery...

Andy

 

[Jim Patrick]

Ok, here's the latest. I painted my old foe, white. One thing I'm trying to make a conscious effort on is how much further I need to take my highlights and shadows. Whereas before World Expo, I though I was going far enough (roughly) during and after WE, I clearly saw that I wasn't. Another thing I saw I was doing wrong was I applied the same highlights and shadows to the inside of a leg as I would to the outside. This was also painfully obvious when I looked at the work of so many great painters. This figure is going to be my watershed figure, of sorts. Along the way, something else became painfully obvious. My photography SUCKS! Unfortunately for me, there wasn't any figures being recognized for their photography skills so this became even more appartent with this SBS. What to do? I called on my friend Chris Mrosko to help me out. Take a good look at his photography skills and photoshop skills sometime. Chris really has his stuff wired for sound . So, after getting photoshop, I enlisted his help. As you can see, the difference is night and day. Thanks a million Chris

Ok, on to the "meat and patatoes". Here are the white pants.

Base - 883 (Silvergrey)+ 986 (Decktan)

Highs - Start with straight 883 then add increasingly 820 (Offwhite). Final highlights are straight 918 (Ivory)

Shadows - Start with 986 then I started adding 992 (Neutral Grey). I added 992 about 2 or 3 times then switched to 995 (German Grey). 995 was used to outline everything.

All of this comes ala Joe Hudson. He's MUCH better at this than I. I started blocking in some of the surronding colors to see what it "looks" like. I probably still have some more to do but will wiat to see what it looks like with the other colors added. Let me know what you guys think. What else do you see or would have done differently.

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

Woops, forgot something. The first image is the original image so you can see where I started at and where chris picked up .

 

[Guy]

Your whites turned out good Jim. We will be able to see them ever more so after you have done the colors around the pants. Look forward to seeing him progress.

 

[Jim Patrick]

OK, here's the latest. You can see the pants a lot better now that the surronding areas are getting some color. I used a black background because it showed the blue better. I tried a blue one but my two "test" subjects said black was better :lol: . Anyway, here's where I'm at so far. Critique away. Especially if you see something you don't like.

Jim Patrick

 

[Automata]

Looks great so far Jim. A great SBS - very entertaining. I especially like the dramatic shading on the white.

What colors did you use for the crimson sash and dark blue coat?

The only thing I'd mention is that the blue looks a bit light and bright for a dark blue. I hesitate to bring this up since it is a matter of personal taste. If that's the color you're after, the shading looks good. Mixing in a bit of orange with your highlight color will tone down the brightness a bit if you want to try going that way.

I haven't found anything definite about the color of lace for officers. Some painters paint it gold, but all the plates I have show it as yellow. I see you are going with yellow, which I think looks best anyway.

Barry

 

[Jim Patrick]

Thanks Barry. The blue doesn't look quite so bright as it does in the picture. One thing I learned from World Expo (which I wasn't doing ) was how far the great painters take their highlights and shadows. Under the lights of your model desk a figure looks pretty good but when placed in the light that's present at so many shows, you lose all your contrast. At least I did :lol: . So I'm taking my highs and shadows much further than previous. Joe Hudson taught me a neat trick. Take your optivisor (if you guys use them) off and hold the figure at arms length under normal lights. See what happens to your contrast. Not that you asked any of this Barry but this is kinda what has driven me to my whites and blues having so many stark highlights. Thanks for the orange tip. I have NEVER heard of that and will try it for sure .

Thanks for reminding me I didn't post my colors. I forgot this one.

SASH - Base 947 (Vermillion) + 960 (Violet) 1:1
Highs- add 803 (The label fell off) until almost straight
Shadows- add 985 (Hull Red) with just a LITTLE black at the end.

Jacket - Base 807 (Oxford Blue) + 816 (Luft. Blue) + a dab of 899 (Pruss. Blue)
Highs- keep adding 840 (Lt. Turquoise)
Shadows- add more 899 then 995 (Ger. grey, it kills any intensity of the blue) and finally, just a dab of Flt. Black. Use straight black for outlining (which I haven't yet).

Jim Patrick

 

[Brad S]

Jim

This is looking very good. Thanks for the tip on the optivisor trick. I have no criticisms since I consider myself a very mediocre painter and am trying to improve all the time. I really like the whites of his pants. Your sbs has been very informative and detailed. Thanks for sharing and keep it coming.

G. Bradley Spelts

 

[Automata]

Jim,

I know what you mean. In photos, a figure never really looks close to what it really looks like in person.

Thanks for the mixes. I'll have to give the blue a try next time. Crimson is a pain with Vallejos. I like the results you got on that sash.

Barry

 

[Kisifer]

So far so good Jim. I really like the way he turns out. One thing thought that i also have a doubt for my figure too is the cuff yellow lines. I think they should be goldish. I also paint them yellow but i don't know if that's the right color, i also painted the coat ones yellow too. Maybe someone can clear that out.