Sambaman
A Fixture
Well boys and girls. Here's my version of Young Miniature's Ardennes US GI bust. Sculpted by the more than capable hands of Mr. Huroyuki Ishii (I bow in humble respect!), and cast perfectly by Young, this bust is one to write home about! Flawless details, great subject, just can't say enough good things about it! I did a little research and found out the 1st infantray division was deployed to Bullingen, Belgium in the Ardennes, in Dec. of '44 at the onset of the Battle of the Bulge. My version is painted as an early deploy from that time period. This allowed a bit of fun with painting the "Big Red One" shield on the helmet. The only thing I added to this piece was the extra "ring" towards the top of the gun in wire. All painted in oils over acrylics, and the metalics are printers inks mixed with oils. Oh, and about the brass buttons on the jacket, I was told that the early jackets had these and the later ones (aproximately this time period) had the greenish plastic buttons. I decided he was wearing an NOS ("new old stock" for those that know custom and classic car tems) so that I could get a better contrast visually. I don't want to start a debate about "history vs artistic liscense" here, just thought it looked better, and created a better contrast visually that's all! I really pushed my usually darker flesh tones to be much more lighter this time. I really wanted the look of "cold". I added extra reds to my flesh palette to emphasize this (much more on the nose and under/around the eyes). I have a couple close-ups of the face, and one of the hand (that one just because I was proud of the way I was able to detail the fingernails with the cuticle and all!). Hope you like it, any and all comments are welcome. Thanks for looking!
Jay H.
Okc
Jay H.
Okc
