British Paratrooper "Red Devils" Arnhem 1944

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently, I've been painting but just not the stuff that tends to interest my followers. However with games just around the corner maybe just maybe more of a mix of subjects. However I will soon be starting to post about my next diorama this being a 1/32 scale Tiger I that I have mentioned before. 

Still not wargame related really is this FeR miniatures 1/16th resin bust. It's just 4cm tall between top of the beret and bottom of the Denison jacket. Total height including the plinth is 7cm so quite a small chap.

The quality of the casting is superb, loads of detail and a joy to work with. The only drawback really is the cost, set against the price of full size busts it seems rather pricy but has the advantage of not taking up too much room.

I mostly used Andrea paint sets which are lovely paints. I feel I am finally getting the hang of the flesh set and feel this time I got what I was trying to achieve, lets see how that pans out over the next few larger projects shall we.

This fellow has landed on my Etsy page which so far has not attracted much in the way of hits though I now have 13 items listed so I hope to increase the traffic. Recently sold a bunch of stuff on ebay and they have decided to hold the funds for a month due to not having sold anything for awhile. Bought plenty though, another excuse to hold onto funds it seems to me.

 

The Joker And The Thief Bust SOLD

 At last something that is not even remotely linked to wargames or war. This bust is supplied by The Wonder Emporium UK I went for the 75mm tall one and would have loved to have gone for the larger one. 

Very little clean up work required as this is done before sending out. 3D printing has certainly made leaps forward. Plenty of detail and bags of character.

Even the back of the bust has nice detail. I have added a small plinth as it seems like it needed that bit more to set it off. 

I really like the monkey, the sculptor for me got the balance right and he shows life in himself. The jester for me seems rather sad so the lively monkey is his Yang.

I choose yellow as much because I wanted to use the Andrea yellow set on something much bigger than it had been used to this point with yellow being a tricky colour to work with. I was suitably impressed with it's coverage. Painted over a dark grey primer.

Cath thought I should go blue red but as I said I wanted to try the yellow and I think it worked with the green, this time a Scale75 paint set given to me by Dave D. what a gentleman.

88th Foot Connaught Rangers Bust SOLD

 

This is the second Stormtrooper bust I have painted up but this time it's a new release. Three piece kit, the bust, the pipe and the plume, not a great deal of work to clean up, most of it was on the cloth under the shako. I wanted to do sunburnt skin and faded clothes but in the end chickened out.

The usual wooden plinth and brass rod I tend to use on Napoleonic busts though this time I polished the rod. Oh the fun of owning a dremel. I seem to be getting the hang of the Andrea flesh set, even though I still dodged the sun burn. 

I was disappointed with the washed out image of the cloth covering the back of his head, it's quite a subtle blend of colours, still need to practice with the light tent, dimmer setting next time.

The shako came out fairly well especially the brass plate that I inked and then touched back up. The mottled semi gloss on the peak is supposed to show the wearing off of the shine, not sure it comes off. The pipe comes empty so I filled with crushed tealeaves (post dunking in hot water). 

One area I have struggled with is making the leather look worn but this is my best effort yet, still got a long way to go but I finally was reasonably happy with the results.

I still have a German MG gunner, a French cuirassier  a Red Devil mini bust (started) a Jester (started) and a farmer bust in hand so plenty to keep me going bust wise.

I also have a few miniatures I have bought that do not fit in with the normal fare I paint because I like them as well as the usual pile.

Fallschrimjager Bust

 

This Fallschrimjager bust is from Mitches Military Models and is a new release. He has not been added to the website as yet so if interested you may have to contact him via the contact me button. It's a one piece casting which makes it a lot easier to work with than many a bust.

I also added a decal to the helmet that is designed with Action Men in mind. This being a 1/10 bust it's the same scale so perfect. The distinctive Splinter camouflage smock was a challenge but helped along by using the Andrea Color set for this camourflarge.

 Still struggling to get leather right, still a long way to go before I am really happy with it. The texture to the helmet makes it look more metal and I used oils to grime it up a little.

Technically by the time this camo was available the crest had stopped being put on the helmets. I claim artists licence and run for the hills. I have a second one of these busts so may paint it up in the earlier uniform variant. 

French Cuirassier With Captured British Standard. SOLD

 I have not posted here for half a year now as I was unsure if I wanted to continue with the blog given my lack of wargaming and for some time it had been posting mostly just another painted unit similar to the one before and the one before that etc. However now I am actually painting up quite a few other items just for pleasure I think the blog still has some life in it. I will still do the occasional unit but for the most part it will be showcasing either my busts or diorama's. I will do some backward posts but mostly I will be posting new finishes. Not having loads of spare space I will be offering my work for sale. 

The bust is supplied by CGS Military Figures as a high quality and detailed bust. They also do the option as full figure mounted on his horse, a very impressive looking model. It comes in just under 20 pieces that mostly have to painted before assembly.

The standard was captured from the 2nd Battalion 69th Regiment (South Lincolnshire) of Foot at the battle of Quatre Bras. It was quite a challenge painting the Union that was just attached to the arm and was difficult to hold without rubbing the paint off. Good job I have a good supply of rubber gloves!

Keeping with the flag I exchanged the wire that comes with the kit for embroidery thread, painted it gold and soaked in glue adding the resin tassels once it was dry. I think it actually is a better finish.

I used mostly Andrea Color paints but also a fair few Vallejo. I have started to build up a fair collection of Andrea paints with nine sets of six complimenting sets and their higher pigment concentration and the system of using them has really improved my standard of finish. I also used oils on the carbine to get a good woodgrain finish.

Next bust will be Napoleonic French cavalry again, this time a Hussar officer making use of a very generous present from Dave D, Scale 75 Green Colour set. Before that though I hope to finish my first 1/35 scale dio based around a bren carrier. 

Young Miniatures WWII Commando SOLD

The first stage is a basic acrylic covering, the colours do not need to be super accurate and this is especially the case with the flesh. In this case I have used Iraqi Sand as per a painting tutorial. Over the grey undercoat and surrounded with so much green he looks a bit Kermit. 

Next up will be adding the oils and blending between the different shades. I have painted up a test on a spare head so have a good understanding of how it will progress.

I was quite happy with how the leather strap on the helmet worked out. Far less with the balaclava though this would look better once varnished.

In the end I switched back to acrylic after painting the skin, helmet and uniform as I was not happy with the colours I used for the webbing and backpack.

Bust is by Young Miniatures, these tend to be very well sculptured and great detail. This in fact is probably one of the lesser detailed models but still has bags of detail.

The plinth is from Model Display Products here in the UK. Quite a simple design so sits in the background. For my WWII larger busts I will keep with these if they look right.

It was the backpack that really broke me. Just could not get the colours I wanted from the oils but in the end happy with the mix of mediums.

Quite happy how the oils worked out on the tunic, it's given some nice texture making the fabric a bit more realistic. Took an age to dry though.

As usual the last bit was the worry. Adding a bit of camo grease to be more like the box art! Still got a long way to go before I get to an acceptable level but I am enjoying the ride.

FeR Miniatures Red Army Junior Lieutenant Barbarossa, 1941 SOLD

I had a couple of these beautiful mini busts from FeR Miniatures for my birthday. This one is much the easier one of the two to paint so I went for this one first. As you can see it's not complex with not a great many things to paint. Both my 1/16 mini busts are single piece castings and looking at the others available I suspect all of them are. All paints used are Vallejo Model Color .

Started with the eyes then flesh from there. The look on the face is despair, most Junior offices would be staring death in the face in the first months of the German invasion. Either from the wasteful attacks or for their failing to attain impossible missions. As such I went with a pale skin tone, this also seems to be backed up by accounts I have read. 

I was going to leave it at that as I had no confidence and little idea on how to do the hair effect. It would end up being almost the last stage I finished so was really worried I would mess it up.

The uniform and hat base colour was Vallejo 70879 Green Brown but I added different yellows to the base colour to give slightly different start colours and then added more of each yellow for each new layer. The tunic received about eight stages whilst the hat received about half as many.

The base normally gets added at the end but in this case it was added pre priming so no risk of damaging the finished piece! Yes I own that T-Shirt.

Lesson for the future will be to sand down the resin base as it's a bit bumpy. Too late for the British Para as he is already attached to his base. Piano wire instead of the usual thicker wood or brass rod that I use for the bigger Busts.

Really happy with how the buzz cut hair came off. I mixed 70.841 Andrea Blue and 70.815 Basic Skintone very very thin so more a glaze. Probably a lot thinner than someone with more confidence as I had to add several washes of this over before I was happy with the look. Then sealed with further washes of watered down Skintone. This was suggested to me by someone on the Facebook Bust@ group. Anyone wanting to get into bust painting should join here as it's a great group and in the six months or so I have been a member it's all been very positive. Some of the work is jaw dropping, so much better than I can hope to get.

Another view of the hair. One thing I think I am learning from this one is to actually work with a far thinner consistency paint and layer it up rather than go for more colour changes. This should give a smoother finish. That being said the images you see are blown up way above actual size.

The other big jump for me was working on leather. Having watched a few tutorials I had a bash. I was surprised in just how many other colours you use away from the final colour planned. I started with 70.871 Leather Brown but then dabs of various red browns along the edges and folds straight out of the bottle. Then a watered down 70.877 Goldbrown for around the belt holes and more on the edges and places it would rub. A thin wash of 70.836 London Grey followed by a few washes of other darker browns and finally a mix of very thin wash of Goldbrown and touched up thicker wash of the Goldbrown. The Lieutenant pips, backing of the star both 70.801 Brass and buttons and belt buckle the brass mixed with a bit of black to dull off the shine and make look different to the polished brass.

The only question is do I keep him or sell him on to pay for more hobby stuff. As you can see he is not at all large. In fact when I got him I was a fair bit disappointed as for the price of two of these you can get a larger bust. However they have grown on me but for now I will be working on a couple of the larger ones I have in hand.

Plinths Oh Plinths

I received these plinths a few days back from Model Display Products which are for the WWII Busts I have on hand (and a couple of spares). As always service was fast and price is very reasonable. The small ones are for the FeR mini busts that I will be starting sometime in the near future. Before that I still have the British Commando to finish.

I have also been working on regular models and have some 6mm phalanx's to post and am at the final stages of two units of 15mm Companion cavalry that should be finished in the next two days. 

After that is six battalions of French Napoleonic infantry that will be up for sale when finished as will the Companions. Not sure what I will be doing after that, possibly 28mm Vikings or Cowboys. It could be anything, I am actually enjoying painting as much as I ever did and at least this way I still have plenty of family time. 

Talking of which I played another Command & Colors game with Joseph. The photo's came out too poor to post, just as well as he thrashed me 2-6 banners LOL

Next Up

The next bust I plan to paint is British Commando WWII by Young Miniatures based in Korea. This is a far less complex figure than the Polish Lancer or even the German soldier I finished recently. I am trying a few different things, first I have high and low lighted the bust by spraying a light primer from above and darker primer from below though I think I really need to use stronger contrasting shades.

The other change is quite major, I will base cote it watered down acrylic and then over paint in oils attempting to a more subtle shading through blending. Being new to oils this is going to be interesting. I have already started work on a spare face and been reasonably happy with the result. This will be far more time consuming but I hope for far better results. 

CGS Miniatures Polish Lancer WIP

I started this bust about two weeks ago, still got a fair bit left to do but happy with the progress so far. The bust is by CGS Military Figures and depicts a Polish Lancer at Waterloo. The detail is very crisp, casting very good and dimension's feel right. This is one of many Napoleonic busts they do and you will be seeing more of them as time goes on as I plan to do quite a few. Cost wise it's actually very cheap in comparison with many out there not that I am in any way qualified to judge one from another having painted just a couple of busts so far.

I still have the actual lance to build and paint as well as attach the right arm. Also plenty of touching up to get it looking right. It's possibly a bit light blue but it will contrast well with the cuirassier I plan to do at some point this year.

Just for fun, I have added a 6mm Prussian command base for scale. This and others will probably be my next post as I have finished these just before starting the bust. Once this bust is finished it's on with a couple of Macedonian Companion units from Magister Militum that I believe I bought either at the last trip to York or old Worlds Championships I attended. Not made a show in a few years now.

Frozen German Soldier at Stalingrad SOLD

Frozen was released by Stormtrooper Miniatures some time ago and unfortunately is no longer available though they still have plenty to choose from. They seem to cater for other periods more than WWII though I really like the French Revolutionary 1/6th scale bust. However I will have to raise my game before trying him.

The base is from Model Display Products and is resin and I used my airbrush to spray Vallevo Model Colour Dark Seagreen which is the same base colour as the material wrapped around his head. The snow effect I have used before but on much smaller models is Deluxe Materials Scenic Snow and I found using normal PVA better than using the glue provided that I found tended to colour the snow. 

The MP40 was a challenge (and yes I need to trim the barrel as pointed out by a friend) the wire stock came in three pieces! The rest of the figure came in the same number! The only other use of the airbrush was undercoating. The rest is all Vallejo Model Colour but applied with normal brushes.

Overall very happy with the finish. Being less involved than Rollo he was a quicker paint and having no deadline helped with the stress levels. I am now moving to Napoleonic's with three battalions of Adler 6mm and a bust of a Polish Lancer at Waterloo.

Rollo The Viking

In my last post I touched on having recently finished a bust. This was for my Nephew for his Christmas present. I really enjoyed working on him. He is supplied by FeR Miniatures and a relatively recent release from what I can gather.

The quality of the casting and details is excellent, that face is the size of my thumb nail. Super proud of the eyes as I really thought I would make a mess of them. First time I have used a iris colour!

The figure comes in 4 parts plus either a helmet (three options between full and open faced) and helmetless but I did not like how the hair ran and besides the helmet is kickass. Tried a bit of free hand and know I need to raise that game but pleased overall with it.

Not over happy with the wolf but by this point I was rather up against time and let it ride. If I had time over again I would have tried harder. 

Yes I know the helmet was wonky, fortunately this was a test fitting the final fit was straight. Great detail on the helmet, hope you can see why I could not leave it off. The other options is nose bar and upper cheek and eye cover. Not quite full face but enough to obscure the eyes.

Again I kind of shortcut the shield going for a basic finish. Considering it's going to be facing away from you when displayed I don't feel bad about it. Still did a fair bit of picking out chips in the wood for that used in battle look.

Again the helmet was not yet positioned and I never got the chance to take a final pic as it was whisked away to be wrapped up.