SCW Bust 02

More work done on the face and eyes.

Oh, there you are...

The idea of a daily blog worked fairly well, except it's been nearly three months since I updated it...
I have in the meantime finished the Celtic bust:

And I have started the Spanish Civil War bust, doing a bit on the face today:

Cloak started...

Did some work on the cloak today, bit more blending needed and then some weathering.

More done yesterday...

Did some more yesterday but it was too dark to photograph. In fact I still managed to take a crap photo today.

Did more work on the leather, giving it a dark wash, and the highlights and lowlights on the shirt are finished.

Finally...

After 24 days I finally update my daily painting blog... Oops.
Right, have been working on the Celtic Chieftain, started work on his shirt and the leather.

Bronze...

Today I have painted the bronze parts of the Celtic bust.

1. Undercoat with Russian Uniform Green.

 
2. Black wash (which I also put over the hair and beard).

3. Mix of Bronze and German Grey put thinly over the top.

4. Final highlight with a slightly brighter mix of Bronze and German Grey.

Celtic Bust 0109

Not done much this week, but did a bit more details on the hair and beard this morning.

Celt Bust Progress 20/08

Done more work on the face and undercoated the hair.

Celtic Bust

Did some work on the face today, after a few days off from painting.

One Figure Finished!

I have now finished the Crusader figure, on with the busts!

Monday Stuff

Figure is now finished, just need to do weathering and the base, then varnish.

More done 1208

I've now done all of the metallic, the sword, rings, decoration on belt, buckles etc.
The hood is also done, and I have the leatherwork straps and the metal a black wash.
I'm getting bored of the figure, which is lucky because all there is left to do is the under-tunic and the scabard, and then the weathering and the base. Maybe two more days at most and I can start on one of the busts.

Progress 1208

This morning I have undercoated the hood (although it probably won't show up in the photo), and also undercoated the metallic parts in grey. The boots have been given a very dark brown wash to define the laces better before weathering. Should hopefully do a bit more on him this afternoon and will post again later.

Progress 0808

Today I have been working on the leather belts and boots rather than just messing around with gravel and white powder.

A picture of the snow test in daylight...

This is what the 3cm x 3cm base test looks like in daylight after a night of drying/setting. Very pleased with the patchy appearence, that is very much the effect I was going for.

Base Test

Not much done this evening, usually I'd be at wargames club but it's not on tonight, so I thought I would have a night off painting. I did have the sudden urge about 9pm to do a test of the snow base using Noch snow (which comes in a large cocaine type package).
I used a 3cm x 3cm piece of Plasticard, covered it with putty and the gravel like the base on the Crusader figure. I then used wet paint to adhere patches of static grass to the base (will try and find a duller colour for the actual base. I then put more wet paint down in other patches, some overlapping the grass. The snow was then sprinkled over the top.
It still looked like the snow would just fall off, so I sprayed the whole thing with Testors Dullcote (the best matt varnish on the market and VERY hard to get hold of in this country).

That is the result. Very pleased with it actually. Will take a picture of it in the sunlight tomorrow.

Progress 05/08

More work on the face, and highlighted the tabard.

I'm not neglecting the two busts, I'm just trying to focus on this!

Progress 04/08

Not much progress today as I've been doing other things. Finished off the hair and facial hair, and did a base coat on his tabard.

Starting to look like progress is being made though!

Press the flesh...

Last night I gave the skin areas of the figures a base coat which I left to dry overnight, with this the result in the morning.

Also note the undercoat on the Crusaders base to hold the gravel on when the base is handled during painting.

This morning I started on the Crusader's face, building up from the base colour. There is still detail to be done but it is getting there:

I think I will definately add some scenic snow to the base when the figure is completed, as you can see from the reference below the figure will be quite 'brown' overall, so the patches of white on the base will be a good contrast!

First steps.

Last night I mounted three models... sounds more interesting than it was.

The two busts were mounted onto resin tapered display plinths available from http://www.modeldisplayproducts.co.uk/. The resin is nice and soft and easy to drill into with a pin vice. A corrosponding hole was drilled into the bottom of the bust and then a short length of steel rod was used to fix the two together.
The Crusader was simply glued to a wooden display base (handmade from Bognor Models).

The bases were then masked off with tape and they were all given a hand brushed undercoat of 33 Matt Black (of which you can obviously see bits I've missed on that photo...) You can see I have kept the helmet separate n the SCW bust so that it is easier to paint the face. But what's that you say? What is that all over the Crusader's base? Well I'll tell you.

In order to hide the large bump of resin the figure is standing on I am going to do some landscaping on the base. Before the figure was undercoated the sides of the base were masked off, and the top covered with a layer of Vallejo Plastic Putty, a smooth, quick drying acrylic resin. While it was still wet, model railway ballast (from Gaugemaster) was sprinkled over the top, and two small cork 'rocks' added to the rear of the base as a feature. I have used this technique on wargames figures before (see the 1:300 scale Israeli tanks below) and with a good basecoat, drybrushing and flocking it gives a really good effect. I might give it a quick undercoat before I start on the rest of the model which will seal in the sand and stop it rubbing off.

 The figure is based on Liam Neeson's character in Kingdom of Heaven, so I can see some snow effects being used as well, anything to hide that bump!

First things first...

I have long struggled, like most modellers I think, to finish projects. Many of us have forgotten items buried deep somewhere that are destined to never be completed. I thought I would change this, and get painting on two busts and a figure that I have had hanging around for months, and hopefully updating the blog will be an impetus for painting them.
They are - A 1:12 scale Celtic Chieftain bust by Elan13 Miniatures, a 54mm 'Crusader' figure from Nocturna, and a 1:15 scale Spanish Civil War Republican Soldier bust by El Viejo Dragon.

The Celt I picked up from Salute in April, the Crusader was a birthday present last October, and the SCW bust I bought mail order from El Greco Miniatures last September, so they have been hanging around for some time! I did make a first attempt on the SCW bust in late 2011, but overworked the skin on the face to the extent that it looked like he had some odd skin disease so it got the Modelstrip treatment.

So that's the plan, now I've just got to stick to it!