WWII American Sniper

[Alexander Bruce]

G'day everyone,

This is my first post on PlanetFigure and hope it's a good one. The figure is a 1/35 scale American WWII soldier from Tamiya's 'Military Miniatures' series. The kit was nicely sculpted with a bit of flash.

Tips, tricks, criticism and feedback is welcome.


Cheers,


Alexander

 

[Ferris]

Hi Alexander,

Welcome to PlanetFigure!
With this figure it will be hard to get excellent results I think, but I hope it made you catch the 'figure bug'.
Lots of things to learn on the forum. Don't hesitate to ask questions.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Mat Lambert]

Hi Alexander
Glad to see you post on the forum. Tamiya MM kits are a great start into figures and it seems you enjoyed this one. You should have plenty more in the kit to build too. I notice on this one the join between the arm supporting the rifle and the shoulder is a bit off and could have done with some filler. Maybe that's something to look out for on the others you create from this set. I have found that even with basic filling on the joins your models will begin to look more like a person in miniature rather than the kit parts put together.
Happy modelling and looking forward to your next post.
Cheers
Mat

 

[Bootneck]

Hi Alexander
Welcome to the Planet. You will find some really great figure painters inhabit this place,so if you are a pure figure painter or painting figures to populate a piece of armour,this is the place to learn.

Another area you may look to improve on is the removal of "mould part lines" these appear to be running down the left arm and around the pack on your figure.

These can be removed using a craft knife scraped along the seem. PLEASE always remember to be careful when using knife,s and keep your fingers and hands out of the way of the knife. Small needle files or wet or dry emery paper can also be good for this task. Try not to remove moulded detail.

Good luck with your next project & thanks for posting.

Peter.

 

[Alexander Bruce]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Adrian and Peter thanks for the heads up and thanks Mat for the tip. I hope to be posting a Bren Carrier soon.

Here is another figure from the same pack that should be a little better.

 

[Joe55]

Howdy Alexander. Try placing a lamp directly over the figure and notice where the shadows are at. Then apply darker tones of colors being used to those areas. This ought to take you a big step forward. Keep posting pics of your work.

Joe

 

[Alexander Bruce]

Hello everyone,

This is a radio operator from the Tamiya 1/35 scale British Universal Carrier mk.II. The figure was beautifully moulded and was quite easy to paint. For painting I originally used a sediment filled homemade paint (in other words it was crap) with Tamiya and Humbrol colours blended in together, the result was yuck. I made up my mind to use Humbrol 155 for the body, a mixture of Humbrol 29, 26, 118 and Tamiya XF-59 for the webbing straps and boots, Model Color Brown Violet, Humbrol 61 and a tiny amount of Humbrol 24, and Humbrol 21 (gloss black) for the radio and headphones.

Hope you guys enjoy the figure

 

[Bootneck]

Hi Alexander.
Coming along just fine. Not easy to work in such a small scale.

One area that could improve your figures is adding small detail painting.
People & objects are rarely one colour and have shadows & highlights on them. Take a look at the clothes you are wearing and see how the material changes colour with folds and creases. This is the process joe was explaining with the lamp technique.
Try to replicate these changes in colour with your paints using darker and lighter shades of the base colour.

Also equipment worn in the field would become marked very quickly. For example try touching a few small spots of silver around the rim of the helmet to simulate ware of the paint. Don't overdo it. Some people will run graphite over the helmet to simulate the metallic sheen. Rub a pencil on abrasive paper to gather some graphite and rub this graphite onto the painted helmet.

Take a look at photos on the web of soldiers in the field to see what I mean.

Another area that can make a big difference in painting in simulating different materials.
Use a different shade of green for the helmet (metal) to clothing.

Your doing good & as long as you enjoy what you do that is all that matters. Keep posting.

Peter.