WIP Critique Washington Artillery bust

[ChaosCossack]

Hey All
I took up this piece while I tried to decide what chunk of the Wilderness my Iron Brigade fig will stand on. The bust is part of the FeR Civil War mini-bust series. A really nice casting. I was drawn to the intense expression on his face and honestly, the spiffy red cap.

I started by basing the face with beige brown. The alternated highs and shadows by adding light flesh and burnt cadmium red to the base colour.

Then I added numerous glazes with scarlet.

Followed by spot glazes of violet at the temples, around eyes and next to the nose.

Hair was based in German camo black brown, highlighted with chocolate brown and flat earth, then washed with black... especially the sideburns.

The blue hat band is done as is the peak. The cap body is only base coated in Scale 75 Blood Red.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated as working at this scale is way out of my comfort zone.

Back at it later tonight

Colin

 

[ChaosCossack]

Correction: the base colour of the body of the cap is Blood Red with a touch of Walnut. It takes some of the brightness, the value, out of the red making it a little more "real".

Colin

 

[ask40000]

nice
dude,what is brand that you use?
AV vallejo or oil?

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanks ask40k
The flesh tones and hair are all Vallejo acrylics. The cloth is done in Scale 75 acrylics. The Vj colours have a nice satin finish while the Sc75 are dead flat!
All colours have a shot of Amsterdam retarder mixed in to preserve the mixes and allow for some wet blending.

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Looking nice Colin. I was going to ask if you were usung any of Fernando's techniques but you beat me to it.

I know you are not normally a bust guy and that usually go for a set of legs in preference. But this is totally on track.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanks Colin
You're right but these busts are fairly small, really nice sculpts and make a nice painting exercise between figs. Above all they are cheap like borscht
I may do a couple more

Colin

 

[Viking Bob]

Looking good Colin, I am tempted by these busts from FeR miniatures and will try them soon.
Your painting skill shows on these.
Bob

 

[Ybrossculpts]

Looking good Colin, coming along nicely mate.
Chris.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanx Chris and Bob, these mini busts are all really cool and well done. By all means give them a shot... You'll be pleased

Colin

 

[ellie]

Good start Colin it's going to be a very nice piece when finished watching with interest well done mate

Ian

www.elliesminiaturers.com

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanks Ian, much appreciated.
I'm waiting patiently for the next releases from you guys... If they're the ones I'm thinking of

Colin

 

[Huw63]

Hi Colin

Great start. Thanks for all the information concerning the colours used.

Cheers

Huw

 

[ChaosCossack]

Quick update on my Reb gunner...

The body of the cap and the coat collar are done (the shading isn't quite so harsh in the flesh). All that's left on the cap is the yellow braid, crossed cannon and "W A". I've left that for the moment as I'm not 100% as to whether the cannon and letters are embroidered or metal badges.

Anyone have any insight on that?

The front of the coat is base coated so far. The colour of the coat is specific to the Washington Artillery... between plates and existing examples it seems to be a dark greyish blue. To get to that shade I tried a few different combos and settled on Navy Blue with a dab of Graphite (about 75:25) and a dab of Walnut (to tie it in to the dark blue and red of the cap).


As always, comments and suggestions are welcome... particularly regarding the cap badges.

Colin

 

[Wings5797]

This is looking really good Colin.
You have brought out the the character in the face very well indeed.
Interesting to see what you do with the, to your normal scale, huge greatcoat.
Press on my fine fellow
Keith

 

[swralph]

Coming along well, Colin.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanx Ralph and Keith,
You're right Keith, large areas like the great coat terrify me It's not too, too bad as there's a lot of folds and such but still... The wet blending with retarder should go a long way to help with these large flat areas that I always found a nightmare with acrylics.

I base coated the coat tonight so we'll see how it goes tomorrow when I start the shading and highlighting

Wish me luck

Colin

 

[ChaosCossack]

Update...

The coat front is done. The over coat is base coated in Scale 75 Iroko, straight out of the bottle. That's 5 thin coats before the brush stokes were gone.


The braid and badges on the cap got their first coat of goldbrown.

Where I'm having an issue is what to do with the back/underside of the bust... the white area you can see in the forth and fifth picture. How do you "bust guys" deal with this area?

Colin

 

[MarquisMini]

Great choice of figure for painting my friend.
I have to thank you for the flesh color suggestions.
I confess that never tought of using scarlet in any flesh painting but yours certainly looks amazing , you achieved a great face expression which looks very realistic to me.
No doubt this will be another great finish figure by you.
All the best

 

[P GREEN]

Very nice work !! That is a really nice little bust.
Looks like you have been busy. Keep going on itv really looking forward to see finished product.
As for the unpleasant underside of the bust ,Im not sure how you are linking it to the base. but the way he has set this up I would just recomend a really nice consistant layer of semi gloss black. Its not a part of the unform so I would not treat as such .

Paul

 

[Viking Bob]

Colin,
Thats looking superb, lovely facial tones, I would go with what Paul says about painting that area black.
Keep up the good work

Bob