Ultracast RAF Fighter Pilot Work in Progress

Busy painting away at the 6mm which look to be on track so last night I did a little more on the Fighter Pilot. Having already painted his uniform in the flat colour, Vallejo Field Blue I now needed to set about doing the shading.

The model has excellent detail and a wealth of small and large folds and ripples in the jacket and trousers making the work flow really well. The question though is how did it go? Does it look right? and have I got it close enough to the right colour? 

OK that's more than one question, but why does that surprise? ;-) When I started out I thought this would be a few months project as I can't give it long spells given the amount of work I am committed to already and safe in the knowledge I could take till Christmas. Now I am thinking it won't make it to the end of September allowing me to move back onto my Crimean trio.

Here we have the canvas back of the life jacket which is a bit heavy handed shaded but is a fair copy of the example I have saved so will let that run. Still have the gloves and boots to do which again brings up the dreaded black (boots) but I plan to use Black Grey and black (similar to the hair) followed by a little play with ink post matt varnishing the figure.

I still have the silver of the buckles, the buttons and the hardest of the lot, the braid on the cufts, these will be done in the not to distant future. But do I need to go back to the uniform and do some more work on it? have I enough paint changes on the uniform (I have seven in total between the darkest to most highlighted.

Cath thinks the trousers most of all has too much highlight which I did tone back a bit but is it fine as it stands or does it need more or less tone? I still have the front of the scarf to add but before I do I want to do more work on colour change on that as well. The scarf will be gloss painted in area's post varnish to hopefully give a silken sheen on the highlight points and set it off.

This is how he would have looked in 1940 during the battle of Britain. I like how this picture brings out the shading without letting on if it's been over or under painted, it is NOT greyscale like Curt would do LOL

RAF Fighter Pilot by Ultracast

On my drive home last night I got a taste for some flesh. Indeed as I got closer to home and the wife it went from a taste to a hunger, even a NEED.

So with tea finished and the kids put to bed I switched on my twin tubes and cracked open a few flesh pots. I did not stick to just the Pilot, but I will leave the other four for future posts ;-)

I wanted to start this figure just so it's off the marks, Ultracast are a Canadian supplier but have stockists all over the world and after starting work on this resin kit I can see why. It's a 54mm eight piece kit that had little in the way of flash and fitted together fairly well and cost £15.75 plus postage and captures the young spirit of the pilots of the day.

I had a few concerns about the flesh and still not 100% sure of the finish but will wait till I have a few more colours on him before making any changes. The hair will be black, this is the colour hair of the person it is to be given to, I WAS hoping he was a boring brown haired bloke but no such luck.

I still have the last piece to add which is his scarf but I need to finish his life-jacket first. Talking of which I was really not looking forward to that as I expected to have fits over it but Vallejo Flat Yellow went on a treat. I then added some German Orange to work as the deep shade and then added to more flat yellow a little Light Yellow and worked both shades darker and lighter over the various parts of the jacket. I still need to do the canvas straps and rear body of the life-jacket. Then I will add the scarf and move along to the uniform which will be another challenge.

So you good painters out there any advice on the face? I want him to look tired if possible to show the strain and this guy will never be a pin up with a nose like that which suits fine. Make or break could be the eyebrows, will have to look into that. Advice throughout this process is eagerly sought.