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Completed 'Wacht am Rhein' / Ardenne Dec 1944

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by smudger1960, Jun 15, 2011.

  1. smudger1960 PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Just finished a project i'd been working on for the last few weeks based on the german offensive in the Ardenne in 1944,the project involves 4x Busts from Young miniatures which depict german soilders from the Ardenne.

    The busts are:
    YM1804
    YM1810
    YM1822
    YM1828

    I wanted to depict the 4x soilders interacting with each other during a break in the fighting enjoying the fruits of the captured US supplies which would include the 'Lucky Strike' US cigerettes.

    The 4x busts all have different items of uniforms which include the Winter type pattern SS smock / the pea-dot pattern Blouse / the italian type camoflauge on the SS parka and the splinter type pattern blouse used by units of the luftwaffe / falshirmjagers.

    The busts wer'e all undercoated in GW choas black followed by airbrushed base coats using tamiya acrylic paints.
    Camoflauge was painted with acrylis and shaded with acrylic and oils.

    All flesh areas wer'e completed with oils.
    In dec 44 at the start of the offensive the weather was quite poor with snow present over the Ardenne region,as some of my fellow planeteers will know i like to depict some weathering on my figures and i wanted to replicate a very light frosting which would have been evident on the uniforms to create the feel of the time.

    The busts are of the usual very high standard that Young is famous for,as with all the other young busts i've painted these wer'e an absolute joy to paint,camoflauge has never been one of my strong points but i've been working really hard recently trying to work with acrylic's and bettering my technique,as i'm an oil painter camo is very difficult to pull off working with this medium.

    The MG42 is a real beauty in itself,it comes in 15x resin parts with some of the parts very small so carefull handling and painting is required here,the bust itself also comes with optional right hands.

    The 4x busts depict soilders from the 1st SS Pz Div and 3rd parachute Div which were all attached to the 6th Pz army commanded by sepp dietrich which led the northern assault on the Elsenborg Ridge.

    The field grey tunic colour on the MG42 machine gunner was achieved with oils,the mix for this is 3parts black,1part wellow,1part blue,6parts white.

    I am very pleased with the outcome of the project and i hope my fellow planeteers will also enjoy the post,coments and critisim are always welcome.

    Thank brian :)

    Attached Files:

  2. sam b Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Great work Brian ! Your hard work has payed off big time .
    Ive really enjoy looking at these 4 ! Well done mate
    Sam
  3. marius'mules New Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Nice painting over all. What did you use for the light snow covered affect?
  4. Tecumsea PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    England
    HI Brian,

    Cracking job on these mate, I'm not at all knowledgeable about 20c uniform but these look like a labour of love (I thought Napoleonics were bad enough) Really look forward to seeing these sometime soon, perhaps Figureworld?
    The work on the faces is first class with each one having a very distinct colouring and character.
    Keith
  5. sarouman A Fixture

    Country:
    Greece
    Hello Brian
    All four busts are incredible and the way painters because I like trying to show a realistic result and managed to get extremely!!

    Cheers
    Alexandros
  6. Richie A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Hi Brian mate,
    I think you have done an absolutely sterling job on all 4 busts, love the cold frosted weathered look.
    I do have one minor observation that detracts from the overall look and that is the ends of the cigarettes on 3 of the busts just don't look right. I think you should revisit these.
    cheers
    Richie
  7. Barke02 Active Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Brrrr!

    Chilly willy woo!

    They look bloomin' cold to me.

    Great stuff Brian.

    Cheers,
    Jon.
  8. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Superb work on each one Brian, and they all work so well together.
    Carl.
  9. davidmitchell A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Fantastic idea Brian and very well painted,love the snow effect.


    Cheers David
  10. jimias A Fixture

    Country:
    Greece
    Lovely job with your unique style. Hard work always pays off.
  11. kiwi45 Active Member

    Country:
    New_Zealand
    Great work and idea Brian, now I need to get cracking and get some more done on my Stalingrad Duo, thanks for the inspiration. Les
  12. Edorta A Fixture

    Country:
    Spain
    I knew it! You were preparing something big. Fantastic job, I love it. But it would be perfect if you get a better simulate effect of live coal at the end of cigarettes. I know you can.
    Cheers.
    Eduardo.

    http://www.mininet.tv/egminiatures.html
  13. kagemusha A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Superb idea Brian. Great realisation of an original idea. Excellent all round.
  14. Dr Force A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Brian I love this, sheer class and a very clever idea to incorporate these busts in this scene.

    Brilliantly executed and a joy to look at.

    Bravo!

    Dave
  15. Richie A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Hi Brian,
    Just took these, hope this helps explain my observation. Very inspirational work, can't for for your project.
    cheers
    Richie

    Attached Files:

  16. mil-mart A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Brian a brilliant idea to bring all four busts together and it works so well, excellent painting and effects . Congrats. (y)

    Cheers Ken
  17. smudger1960 PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    I would like to thank you all for all your kind coments :

    Sam
    Keith
    Steve
    Alexanandros
    Richie
    Jonathan
    Carl
    Dave
    Dimitrios
    Les
    Eduardo
    Ron
    David
    Ken

    Richie - Thanks for posting the photos of the cigarettes i will adjust this on the busts.

    Eduardo - As above i've taken on board the coment on the cigarettes and i will adjust the finish.

    Steve - The light snow effect is achieved by using small pieces of sponge held in some tweezers and lightly dabbed into some titanium white oil paint then very sparingly applied to the figure where the snow would hold or show most.

    Les - as i said in your post,your winter duo look great and i cant wait to see the finished result.

    Many thanks again to you all for your continued support.

    Brian :)

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