This will be an epic project.

Called "Mateship" this two figure statuette is a 1/6th scale cold cast bronze sculpt by Naked Army, based on an iconic image of two Australian soldiers wading through a jungle stream during the advance on Salamaua, July 1943, in New Guinea.

The image depicts Sergeant Gordon Raymond Charles Ayre MM, a 58/59th Battalion bandsman from Shepparton, Victoria, in pouring rain assists a wounded mate, Private William Oswald Wallace Johnson, of the same unit, across Alan's Creek to an advanced regimental aid post. Johnson had been wounded by a Japanese grenade . Sergeant Ayre was awarded the military medal for his performance during this action.

More so than any other image of WW2, this photo came to encapsulate the concept of Mateship that remains at the heart of the Australian Army. Looking after your mates and never letting them down, no matter how hard things are.

The cold cast bronze patina covers a polyresin core, which means you can cut and resculpt these pieces if you want to. Only Alan Mackie is mad enough to do something like that. I had originally thought to cut the legs off, resculpt the lower legs and place the figures in clear resin to simulate the water, but I've decided to paint it Out Of Box.

I've started by applying a Josonja Texturing paste to the cloth uniform to create some texture and roughness to the khaki drill uniform. I've also brushed on some Vallejo primer to the flesh areas, which I intend to paint first. Once the flesh areas are painted, I'll mask them and paint the uniform with my airbrush.

I hope you like it, and please feel free to leave comments.

Scottie did a brilliant job on this Tony & so looking forward to your version.
You're a braver man than I Gunga Din!

Bring it on mate

Great subject and sculpt.
Gordon

Two words - bloody awesome! Cannot wait to see this one progress mate

Wow, can't wait, this is going to be excellent.

Simply wonderful.

Like a war memorial in and of itself.

Paul.

Brilliant Tony,look forward to the painting stage

What a superb sculpt. It's a perfect transfer from 2D to 3D.
Looking forward to your moving it to the next level with your paintbrushes.

Cheers,
Andrew

"Scottie" is the guy behind the original sculpt design Nap

Duplicate

Wonderful project Tony!

The texture you're putting on the khaki uniform interests me. Do lots of painters do that? Is painting on texture workable in all scales? If not, why not? If yes, how do you reduce it and keep it in scale in the smaller scales? I assume it could be applied before applying primer, right?

All the best,
Dan

Wow - now this is going to be quite a project. Can't wait to see what you do with this!

Paul, I totally agree with you here!

Regards,
Phil

I think that you will made them stunning .
Casting is superb

Wow Tony, will watch this with interest...
Les

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Dan, the texture medium is something I'm still experimenting with, but in essence I'm paint it on like a primer onto the un-primed surface of the model to give the paint something to grip to. The extra surface texture will be a very subtle effect in 1/6th scale, which I hope means that it won't be visible or obvious. The intended effect is to recreate the slightly rough texture of cloth uniform.

Last night I started to block in some of the basic colours. I used Josonja Provincial Beige for the khaki colour on the uniforms, and added a touch of warm white to make the shorts a slightly lighter shade. There's no shading or highlighting done yet.

The long cape that hangs over the shoulder of the wounded man is a rubberised rain cloak (which also doubles as a ground sheet), which has a slight sheen to it.

The next step will involve painting the faces of both figures and then masking the faces so I can get the airbrush out and spray the ground sheet and the clothing again.

Thanks for the explanation Tony!

All the best,
Dan

I'm still base coating by brush and blocking in the major areas of the figure with base tone colours. The real work will come later when shading and highlighting are done. I'll be using the airbrush for that.