interlude: Figures

I got a bunch of figures made by ICM and I can only sort of recommend them. They are basically rip-off recasts of Tamiya figures and the detail is soft in some places. However, it is really hard to find USN/USAAF WW2 aviation figures in 1/48 scale. Oh, if you want great Brit or Soviet, Eduard is your company and if you build 1/72, you can't help but find really nice stuff by Airfix.

But 1/48 is tough. I wonder why. So here are my two recent paints. I've got some film shots coming, but until then, you've got to deal with bad digital. I will say that they do look really extra nice when slightly out of focus.




I'm trying some new things. First, I gave the figures no whites to the eyes as you really wouldn't see the whites if it were a real person 12 feet away. The entire figure was painted white, then a light coat of flesh was applied to the skin areas. I put in irises and then shaded and highlighted around it. It helps to reduce that popeyed look.

The white base coat also helps with another technique. When it comes to clothing, I don't do highlights. I paint a quick, smooth light and slightly thin coat of the base color. I then begin to build up the shadow areas. First with the base color then a slightly darker version that I try to blend from dark to light. The thin first coat coats the entire area, but tends to pool a bit leaving the raised areas (areas that would be highlighted anyway) a bit lighter. The places where different things meet such as sleeves and arms, hats and heads, straps and body, I outlined in black to make them pop.

listening to while posting: Groundhog's Day (live in Lewiston, Maine) by Primus