Saturday, December 28, 2013

(Completed) German Fallschirmjäger, Monte Cassino, 1944, Young Miniatures


This is my last bust for 2013. With this bust completed, my final production output for 2013 stands at a final tally of 9 busts/figures :)

After experiencing Scale Model World 2013, I felt it was imperative that the "lessons" gleaned from attending the competition should be put to use. This bust started to take form exactly a month ago on 28 Nov after I returned from UK.

For this project, I experimented with a slightly different approach. As with all experimentation, one must be prepared for setbacks. But fortunately, not everything was a disaster

Things that worked
  • Bold strokes to mark out highlights This helped to clearly define the facial features of the face early on. With the highlights defined, painting of the shadow areas quickly falls into place. 
  • Bold strokes need not be neat Corrections can be made subsequently by blending.
  • Graphite gives a nice gun metal sheen Finding the appropriate shade of the graphite pencil is important. Note to self: Get a range of the graphite pencils and make a swatch for reference.
Things that can be improved
  • Hairspray technique Excessive chipping on the helmet may be overwhelming and be a source of "irritation" or eye sore. There's a fine line between enough chipping and going overboard. If you noticed from the previous pictures, I repainted the helmet and did the chipping without using hairspray the second time round. A sponge was used instead. While a sponge is easier to control, it still takes practice. 
Closing

On the whole I am satisfied with the progress made with this bust and will continue to build on the lessons learnt from chipping using the hairspray technique.


  

  

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