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Haha no worries Tallmantim! Actually its a very good point and it's always great to get feedback from people.

Sometimes it can really help you to notice a problem you didn't see before and correct it. It's also fantastic to share ideas and techniques with other painters and modelers!

I believe Valejo have a duplicate of the Citadel inks in their Game Colour range...

tallmantim wrote:I believe Valejo have a duplicate of the Citadel inks in their Game Colour range...

Really? Thats interesting, I've used Model Colour but never the Game Colour range before. I'm going to a model store tonight to pick up some more model colour shades so I will look into that and see what they have.

Thanks for the heads up.

A busy saturday and time for some more updates.

Yesterday I got myself a whole load of new pigments and some Mig Productions Acrylic Resin... what amazing stuff it is.

Heres the result, mud! Lots of mud!







Plus some more work on the interior, mostly the metallics on the shells etc.


On the base:





Infantry WIP:

Wow. You never see mud as realistic like that on tanks in 40k. Great job. Whoever's getting this should really like it! Its top class work!

This is absolutely stunning work, I've always admired those Military modellers that can obtain this much detail on a model.
Will be watching this Blog for certain.

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like it, and I hope my father in law likes it too!

I can't recommend acrylic resin enough, it really is a fantastic medium that let's you achieve so much.

In this case it was mixed 30% acrylic resin, 30% plaster/household filler, 40% mix of pigments (Europe Dust, Dark Mud, Black Smoke). This gives you a nice thick dry mud, its important not to add any water, the resin will give all the moisture and liquid you need.

Load a brush with the mix and hold it in front of an empty airbrush, and then use the airbrush to "blow" the mud mix onto the model. It's rather tricky and takes some practice, too much air and huge blobs will shoot off and ruin the model. It's a good idea to test on some card or paper first till you can get a smooth control of the flow.

The airbrush will give you realistic spraying of mud across the wheels and tracks in some really organic shapes. Much more so than applying directly with a brush.

To add some wet mud into things mix some acrylic gloss varnish into your mud mixture. This wet mud can either be sprayed on or applied directly by brush.

It takes around 12 hours to dry fully so it's a good idea to decide on something that you know you won't want to go back on and put it to one side over night. In my case it gave me some time to work on the infantry.

With a bit of practice you can get some fantastic results.

As said the mud look really great. Good to see you didn't go over the top with it, it seems now to have believable amount on it, especially as the ground is frozen.

Great job done again, waiting for the next installment.

Thanks Metsuri.

It was a bit nerve racking. It's the first time I tried the airbrush technique so I was a little anxious that it would go horribly wrong! I was really pleased with the result in the end though.

I hoping to get the infantry on foot finished completely tonight and wrap up the left over on the tank. I still have to paint the wooden boxes on the outer hull and pick out a few little details.

After those its the Infantry who are riding the tank (which I haven't started yet) and the tankers, driver and the commander leaning out of the cuppola.

Some Infantry updates:

Amazing work on that tank weathering. *applause*

Thanks Silver much appreciated!

I must admit I found the Tamiya figures quite a challange to paint. Especially the faces, the quality of the casts between the different individual troopers varies alot. Some have rather crisp clean details that are easy to paint, others have rather flat and undetailed faces.

It's very annoying because these faces that lack detail are a nightmare to work with. Give them a wash to pick out the detail and nothing happens because there is little detial to pick out. Often in such cases the wash ends up just bleeding all over the face as the recesses and lines are not defined enough to hold the pigment.

I was reading an article in a military modeling magazine last night Xtreme Modeling, and a painter there was talking about similar problems he had with a Verlinden resin mini, that had very little surface detail. In 1:48 scale there aren't so many great quality figures like in 1:35, I don't know why. It's almost like an after thought for some companies in military scale modelling.

As a wargamer I guess I took for granted the quality of plastic sculpts on faces in Citadel minis and other brands. I think this though is down in a large part to the over sized and bulbous heads we have in heroic scale. They allow for more room and more detail.

Painting these Tamiya kits was a little like painting plastic Lord of the Rings basic figures. They had similar issues with featureless and basic face casts.

I'm still not happy with some of these faces... I repainted the sergeant figure more times than I'd like to remember and still can't get a result I'm pleased with. I think I may end up totally stripping the paint on the head and starting from scratch.

For my next 1:48 project I'm going to try some resin figures, I hope that will give me a better sculpt and cast to work with.

Your making good progress with this diorama Gundam. I'm really impressed with the weathered look of the tank.

Nice!Can't wait for this to be finished,like how the infantry is looking and the mud on the tank.Keep it comin' hope all goes well.

Its a pain to work with blank faces, as the whole paint job is then compromised. As the focal point of the scene is the T-34 I think you are on the clear though, especially with many of the faces obscured by the poses.

The mud on the boots looks good. Can wait to see it coming together.

Hi guys and thanks for the comments.

I bought myself some new kits last night, and I found some amazing plastic 1:48 WW2 figures. 100% better than the Tamiya ones. I will be using them for my next project.

They are produced by a Ukrainian Company called ICM. they are slighty larger than the Tamiya but the detail is astonishing, just as crisp and sharp as 1:35 figures and on a level similar to resin. They really are some of the finest detail plastics I have ever seen. Will post some pics tonight.

Deff and Kagar - Thanks guys, not much further to go now with the T34. I am toying with the idea of modelling some snow on the tracks or hull at the moment. I've seen some great examples in Xtreme Modelling recently and was thinking that some little bits of snow might break up the colour a little and make the tank more interesting to the eye while still keeping it realistic. For sure I won't use any white wash or winter camo, but maybe some fresh snow on the fenders and mud guards by the treads.

Metsuri, thanks I totally agree. It's a real shame when alot of thought has clearly gone into the posing and the detail of the equipment that Tamiya left some faces so featureless. The ones with the helmets (which you see less of the faces) are ironically better detailed than the men without the helmets (who you see the most of)! Also the inconsistency is odd, some are well detailed some less so, I can only assume that they had a different group of sculptors working on these at the greens stage. I'm not totally unhappy with things at present and I think with some creative shading and highlighting I can probably add a lot more detail to the dull ones, perhaps I am just being too much of a perfectionist, or perhaps I am just too used to high quality wargame figure minis (I often forget that in Scale modelling the important element to many is the actual vehicle, while in my GW background it's usually the reverse!).

Boy is the level of detail on that thing amazing. It relly comes into a category of its own in the hands of such a skilled modeler as you.

Thanks Paul! That's very kind but I still have a long way to go yet!

Heres a small update not a great photo as the lights not so good, the shadows are rather stark:



Yesterday I got myself these magazines:





Fantastic for reference and they have some amazing examples of some really great work.

The articles also have lots of helpful tips and hints with great step by step photos of techniques.

Some examples of my next project:





Some pictures of the new ICM figures:









These really are great casts and sculpts and the detail is amazing. I'm really looking forward to painting these.

Wow, some of the details on those faces are fantastic. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with them. I like the stubble on your updated trooper. I was just about to suggest that to add some depth to those faces that didn't have the depth you were looking for.

Cheers
Dave

Thanks Dave, yeah the ICM figures have amazing faces. Much superior sculpts compared to the Tamiya ones.

The female NCO is also great



Not so clear on this photo its a bit out of focus, but its a very characterful set.

I think you were totally right about stubble, trying to find ways to add something to the faces to give extra depth and detail was tough. I was really limited to what I could do with them. Any other ideas or tips? Aside from stubble and picking out lips etc I'm a little out of ideas. I can't pick out eyes as there are none to speak of and I'm reluctant to just try and paint them in on a sculpt with little surface detail.

I've tried "flushing" the cheeks with a brighter pink to add depth and also represent the cold etc.

So another soviet tank coming. Can't wait for that, even though you still have some work ahead with the current project.

The figure is looking good, there is only so much you can do without sculpting additional details.

Don't worry I will be sure to finish this project first!

The KV-1 I'm going for alot of aftermarket extras to really bulk out the details. So I will have to wait for those to arrive before I can start also.

Yeah I think your right about the Tamiya figures. I'm happy enough now with them and to be honest given the large number of troopers that will be in the diorama and the poses I'm okay with it now.

The scene and the Tank will be the real focal points.

Tried some more things on the Sergeant.

I don't usually paint eyes as I'm not much of a fan of them, but perhaps it gives something more to the figure than the sculpt provided?

I'm still not sure on it myself and may end up re-painting them. What do people think?

I think that looks great, personally.

Hi G-M

To be honest I think the whites are too big and the pupil too small. At this scale too, the black outline looks a bit like eyeliner. Leaves them looking a bit cartoony. May sound a bit harsh, but it can all be solved relatively easily.

I'd recommend the following steps:
• enlarge the pupils by doubling the thickness of the line you've already done.
• reduce the size of the whites (and remove the black outline at the same time) by replacing the thin "eyeliner" with a slightly thicker line of the darkest flesh tone you've used on the face (giving the eyes a kind of sunken look, harrowed if you pull it off well).

I think it's really that same issue of the lack of detail in the models that isn't being your friend here, but I have faith you'll pull it off just fine!

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Dave

I'm not sure of the size comparison of the models here to heroic scale, but maybe as an easier alternative to painting the pupils you could try the Micron line of pens made by Sakura? I use the smallest (005) for the pupils on my guardsmen. I know it may sound like cheating, but if I can channel Wilde here, "bad painters borrow, good painters steal"?

I'd have to go with davetaylor on this one G-M. He kind of looks straight out of cheap horror flick with a it came from there expression. Try to paint the eyes smaller with dark flesh as the liner.

Practice makes perfect also in this area. But already with those eyes there is much more life to the fig, so if you bare to try until succeeding I would say that paint the eyes at least on the most visible troopers. It gives another focus point on the face.

Thanks guys for all the helpful feedback and the honest crit. It's been very helpful.

Going back to Migsula's recent thread about Dakka and Warseer, I think these last 3 posts are an excellent example of what I was refering to with regard to people here sharing ideas and tips. So far on my Warseer thread everytime I have asked a question to people or asked for crit or feedback I have had nothing. One person even said basically that the lack of detail in the casts wasn't the issue, but that I should essentially be a better painter!

I have to disagree with this though, his arguement was that detail in everyday faces in real life is inconsistent due to genetics ergo model companies have a right to produce inconsistent and poor quality casts. Whilst I agree that everyone is different and natural variation is of course common place I don't agree that there is ever an excuse for a model company to "skip" areas of a sculpt or take short cuts. Every ICM figure has a wonderfully casted and sculpted face with amazing detail, and the vast majority of Citadel miniatures also have very crisp and detailed faces.

From my own expeirence, the experience of painters here at Dakka, and the views of professional mini painters in magazine etc I still strongly believe that there are two distinct categories of figures:

1) those that aid painting
2) those that hinder it or make it more challenging

Dave - I think you hit it right on the head with your observations. I thought it was too cartoony and thats why I try to avoid it when I can. I too think that the whites of the eyes are too big and also perhaps a bit too bright? I was thinking of perhaps toning them down a bit either with a very light wash to darken the white slighty or by mixing an off white shade and repainting with a muddy or dark white. I'll definately try your suggestions and enlarge those pupils.

VermGho5t - size comparision wise the Tamiya 1:48 figures have much smaller heads than standard heroic scale. Heroic scale tend to have more bulbous heads that allow for more detail and more extreme expressions (shouting etc). I was pretty close to your suggestion myself last night! I actually only have one very fine detail brush and the tip is slightly curved, so I was finding it very difficult to get a nice point so I could do the pupils. Was a real nightmare! Wilde... what a genius he was!

Metsuri - Haha actually you know after you said that I totally saw it. He is even pointing! "Its behind you Comrade!" Thanks for the positive feedback though, and it's good to hear that people think its a worthwhile addition. I'll give things a crack again tonight and hopefully I can refine it some more.

Dreadnote - Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to make it even better though.

Gundam-Mecha wrote:I too think that the whites of the eyes are too big and also perhaps a bit too bright? I was thinking of perhaps toning them down a bit

I use bone as the color for the whites in the eyes. The clean white as you said tends to come out as too bright. Especially when you think these guys have been lacking sleep and food for sometime in the of the war. Try it out if it works for you.

And good that you understood my poor attempt at humor, sometimes people can get a bit touchy on these forums. Best luck in painting the mirrors of soul.

"Best luck in painting the mirrors of soul"

No pressure there Metsuri ; )