WIP WW1 german fighter pilot, Josef Mai, Stormtroopers BoxArt

[Arsies]

Hi all.

I'm starting to paint this excelent bust from StormTroopers. 1/9 scale I think, so a little bigger than young for example.

Casting is great, cleaning was not difficult ad took not so much time.

I'll paint it with acrilics, vallejo model color, citadel (old and new paints), and some andrea colours. My intention is to paint it 85% with airbrush. I usually use this tool in 2 very different ways. One of them I use ofr big pieces like this is using transparent layers to add colour to a pre-enlighted piece. Is something like working with oils, where you aply a transparent layer on an acrilics base, then you add lights and shadows and when oils is dry repeat the entire process.

For this WIP I will take pictures with a light box and a compact camera (Lumix FX10). For final pictures I will take them with natural light and a reflex camera Olympus E420, so please be gente with WIP pics because they are only fast pics.

I have not so much time to explain what i'm doing, and as I'm working with transparent layers I think colour receipts are not usefull for nobody. If I use too much green on one layer I will correct it in the next one adding more red, so in fact I could use only primary colours to paint in this way, but it's faster if I try to achieve the final colour directly.

Hope pictures explain for themselves.

Please remeber english is not my fisrt languaje so maybe i could write something wrong.

Fisrt of all a grey primming

Then a black and white primming. I can do B/W directly but using grey at first i can add black and white with only fast spray touches so it seems to be smoother

First flesh transparent layer, as you can see i do not cover primming because i want to keep the lights and shadows it have.

Fisrt transparent Shadow layer

Second transparent shadow layer and first light layer

Marked light points with normal brush. Not worried about cleaning

Repeated the entire process.

As colour achieved was too red I repeat again with medium tones adding blue and green.

A little more definition with normal brush, light points, inlines, moustache and eyes. Some tones added.

 

[Pops]

Your command of English is just fine! And your pictures speak for themselves. I am inspired to get on and use my new airbrush now. One question; what ratio of acrylic to thinners do you recommend? Thanks
David

 

[bagelman1952]

I have just invested in an airbrush but I think it will be a while before I can achieve what you have just done on the face

 

[stu]

Coming along very nicely javier

Following

Stuart

 

[Nap]

Hi Javier ,

Thanks for taking the time to post this SBS , no matter about the english..a picture speaks a thousand words in any language .............don't forget to get the colour mixes on the SBS ....

Be really interesting to see how you treat the coat

Keep it coming

Nap

 

[Meehan34]

An SBS from Arsies is a real treat. Thank you for taking the time to do this. It is not very often that forums get to see a real master at work.

 

[FigureLover]

Hi Javier
Very nice so far and I can see where you are heading with it. Its great to see how the masters do it, with their techniques. Cant wait to see how you prgress
Ben

 

[megroot]

very nice work. Never paint a bust with a airbrush. But it seems very afective.
Perfect work so far.

marc

 

[phc35]

I have this bust coming in the mail.Your pictures make me even more wanting this kit in mu hands now!

Jay

 

[housecarl]

Superb face Javier.
Carl.

 

[Arsies]

Well, I have to paint the jacked in a very dark grey. I will add several transparent layers of grey a little darker than the previous one each time. I'll try to keep the colours in the lights, but it's too difficult because the material that I have to match does not reflect light so much and it's so flat. That means that If I add so much light or satin colours it would look as leather, but if I do not add enought light it would look as unpainted so I have to reach a balance. That's not an easy colour with that material. It would be so easy with leather.

First grey layer (I uded field grey because I want some green on the base)

Second layer

First shadow work

I need some bases around the jacket to get a little contrast. Remember colours looks different according colours that they have around.

Some shadows and light points with normal brush. Again I don't care about cleaning.

Not I tried to integrate those points and add some red and dark to the shadows to gain constrast

Some medium tones to give richer effect. Remember those are fast pics, in fact colour is much darker that here

Some inlines and outlines to the jacket, a concept for the glases and a new base to trousers. I thought they need a more vivid colour to give the jacket a darker ratio. I have some freedom to choose colour because seems that those trousers were not part of the uniform and there was a lot of private purchasing.

Airbrush light work

shadows

Inlines and outlines. Added some light points. I think that I would need some more intense light points on the jacket. Maybe at the end I will have to back to this.

 

[Arsies]

Thank you all for comment. Hope you are liking the SBS. I'm sorry again for fast pics, but i really don't have enought time to mount the photo-studio each time i paint a new element.

Your command of English is just fine! And your pictures speak for themselves. I am inspired to get on and use my new airbrush now. One question; what ratio of acrylic to thinners do you recommend? Thanks
David

Well this usually depends on the work you are going to do. I usually work with around 55-60% thinner. But for transparent layers like this I have to use 75% thinner. If i want to add texture I use around 40% thinner.

 

[Pops]

Thank you all for comment. Hope you are liking the SBS. I'm sorry again for fast pics, but i really don't have enought time to mount the photo-studio each time i paint a new element.



Well this usually depends on the work you are going to do. I usually work with around 55-60% thinner. But for transparent layers like this I have to use 75% thinner. If i want to add texture I use around 40% thinner.

Many thanks for replying.

 

[bagelman1952]

WOW incredible use of the airbrush. I really need to experiment with mine. Thank you for all this information.

 

[housecarl]

Excellent progress Javier, and thanks for taking the time to photograph each stage.
Carl.

 

[Arsies]

Ok, Only a little update today.

First of all I'll paint the base of the fur lining, clear brown, close to white, maybe ivory or something else.

Then I enlighted it one by one. It'0s harder and slower than a dry brush, but at the end it should look better. Doing in this way we can gain a lot of volume.

Another light and a little dark brown wash

Here I painted the Tunic, Field grey, Enlighted with suny skin tone and spcewolf grey, Shadows with scorched brown and black, airbrushed too.
by the way I was not so happy with the jacket so I worked on the cenital effect adding black to the downest part and some light with flesh in the upper one.

For the Hat I first of all add lights and shadows with a dirty texture, pointing with an old brush

Then i clean only a little adding a smoth airbrush texture. To do this I used not so much thinner and soft presure.

Inlines and outlines

And I had time to take some better pcitures with the reflex camera. Those are fast too, so the colour is a little red. Real colour is in the middle with the other ones (wich are a little green), but light and constrat are like those.

You can see that I painted a base to the hat's fur lining. I'll do it in a dark brown to enclose the face

 

[billyturnip]

Really nice work and I'm enjoying following your progress.

Roger

 

[bagelman1952]

I cannot see how you paint using the airbrush without overspraying other colours. The tunic especially.

 

[Arsies]

I cannot see how you paint using the airbrush without overspraying other colours. The tunic especially.

well, I'm using airbrush everyday several hours since 2009. I started with 30mm miniatures, now i can paint around 70% of a 30mm with airbrush without masking, so, a 1/9 bust is in fact SO BIG for me, it's easy if you work a lot.

Remember nothing is impossible if you don't know it.

 

[housecarl]

Nothing wrong with that.
Carl.