Well it's been a while but finally the second actual miniature of the year is finished, with several stalled attempts/projects in the meantime - and while it may look like I'm still doing better than Carl he just hasn't managed to blog his progress yet and is actually miles ahead of me!
This time the first of my Australian Jungle Division for Papua New Guinea from Warlord Games and the chance to try a few new ideas.
This is another one that has been part painted for over 18 months, being just base coated with ultra quick pva/brown ballast basing for a new release display/demo at The Other Partizan back in August 2017 - thankfully the rather poor lighting in the darkest depths of the hall saved many blushes on the day!
The good news this time is that a load of his buddies are also in the same part painted state, so I could in theory have 500pts up and running in no time.
I followed what are commonly suggested colours for the uniform, especially the recommendations from Bryan Cook in the FREE Australian Bolt Action pdf (with him being a bit of a guru for all things Australian and WW2 related, and an Antipodean himself) which is also at the core of the even more excellent Campaign: New Guinea supplement for which this range of figures was released.
Although I did substitute Vallejo Game Colour 64 Yellow Olive for the uniform as I didn't have any Model Colour 888 Olive Grey to hand at the time and they are near identical, and for some reason that escapes me the helmet started as Brown Violet rather than Russian Uniform but it 'all came good in the wash' as they say and we all know campaign uniforms aren't an exact science anyway.
This particular mini has been a bit of a personal battle for me as for some reason it just wouldn't go right, a mix of old and new techniques and impatience to get it finished being the culprits I think - in the end I had to keep walking away and coming back for another go until it took me a week of 20mins here and there to get a result I was happy with.
Although I did substitute Vallejo Game Colour 64 Yellow Olive for the uniform as I didn't have any Model Colour 888 Olive Grey to hand at the time and they are near identical, and for some reason that escapes me the helmet started as Brown Violet rather than Russian Uniform but it 'all came good in the wash' as they say and we all know campaign uniforms aren't an exact science anyway.
This particular mini has been a bit of a personal battle for me as for some reason it just wouldn't go right, a mix of old and new techniques and impatience to get it finished being the culprits I think - in the end I had to keep walking away and coming back for another go until it took me a week of 20mins here and there to get a result I was happy with.
One of the biggest issues seems to be the areas of exposed skin, I think maybe the detail is a lot softer than the previous US Airborne figure and I had to do more work with the brush in this instance rather than the sculpt doing the work for me.
The basing was a chance to try out the Fine Base Render from Warlord Games/War World Scenics as it was something I obtained at a similar time as the figures were released and wanted a chance to compare against my usual Basetex from Colour Party - at the time I was also trying to keep everything Warlord for the demo force.
The basing was a chance to try out the Fine Base Render from Warlord Games/War World Scenics as it was something I obtained at a similar time as the figures were released and wanted a chance to compare against my usual Basetex from Colour Party - at the time I was also trying to keep everything Warlord for the demo force.
It worked pretty much as expected although seemed grittier and less compliant than my usual, however this could be down to storage and is easily overcome with a small amount of water.
Another product I've been waiting to try is Puddles by AK Interactive (which I picked up from the excellent PK-Pro at Tactica Hamburg, a superb show in Germany which I was fortunate to visit 2 years ago) and the often 'very' wet conditions of the New Guinea Jungle floor seemed an ideal opportunity although I didn't want to go too mad.
Before I dived in and applied it to my finished model I checked out a few clips on YouTube, especially the one from AK themselves: link definitely something I would recommend especially as it showed that although pre-coloured the finish is essentially clear unless you add extra colourisation of your own.
Another product I've been waiting to try is Puddles by AK Interactive (which I picked up from the excellent PK-Pro at Tactica Hamburg, a superb show in Germany which I was fortunate to visit 2 years ago) and the often 'very' wet conditions of the New Guinea Jungle floor seemed an ideal opportunity although I didn't want to go too mad.
Before I dived in and applied it to my finished model I checked out a few clips on YouTube, especially the one from AK themselves: link definitely something I would recommend especially as it showed that although pre-coloured the finish is essentially clear unless you add extra colourisation of your own.
So all in all progress this year is somewhat pedestrian for me (nothing new there), and the bad news is that the last 2-3 weeks have seen me changing project more than half a dozen times before anything stuck just long enough to see its way onto and off the painting table as finished - even now with the next of these Aussies in progress other things are calling to me!
It seems I'm doomed to a life as the worst of hobby butterflies, there is no hope anymore... we'll just have to wait and see if any more beautiful butterflies emerge from this extended period of gestation and cogitation, but don't hold your breath.
It seems I'm doomed to a life as the worst of hobby butterflies, there is no hope anymore... we'll just have to wait and see if any more beautiful butterflies emerge from this extended period of gestation and cogitation, but don't hold your breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment