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Completed Cooler King 'Hilts'

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by smudger1960, Oct 30, 2013.

  1. smudger1960 PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    After a hectic September and a Great Euro Militaire I've finally managed to complete this fabulous bust sculpted by Carl Reid and purchased from Mitches Military Models at Folkestone.
    The sculpt is titled USAAF - POW but the bust is based on the Steve McQueen Character Virgil Hilts from the movie The Great Escape 1963,i would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Carl on a superb likeness to McQueen, the facial features are very good and the sculpting of the leather jacket is really great, also the baseball glove needs a special mention as well,carl has managed to capture the rugged look and has also sculpted the seems and threads into the glove, this piece really cries out to be painted and I wanted to try and do this piece some justice with my limited painting skills.
    The kit is cast in resin with minimal clean up and filler required, I then primed the piece with Grey Auto Primer from Halfords and allowed 24hr to dry, all the flesh areas were undercoated with GW Cadian Fleshtone in 3 thin coats, once this was dry I completed all flesh painting with WN oil paints.
    For the leather jacket I looked up quite a lot of photos from the movie and watched it as well, I couldn't really tell even now what the exact colour was as some of the photos differed, what I decided on was brownish to ochre colour with bits of black added to the deeper areas of the jacket, it was just a matter of experimenting somewhat to get the effect I was looking for,i was originally going to opt for a real worn out look but I wasn't getting the effect I wanted,.
    The blue shirt which McQueen wears in the movie was done with Cerulean Blue and small amounts of white to lighten it and small amounts of burnt umber for the shading, I dirtied the shirt a little with umber and ochre mixes.
    The glove was undercoated using Humbrol Acrylic sand No63,on top of this was laid umbers,siennas,ochre's and white mixed with the ochre, again it was just a matter of playing around with it.
    I managed to find a photo very similar to the sculpt which I've added and it shows McQueen outside one of the prisoner huts, these huts were numbered as well so I thought I'd add a backdrop of the hut with the number 105 added, I chose this number as Richard Attenbourgh's character 'Bartlett' refers to it in the film as one of the tunnels runs from this hut, the backdrop was just made out of balsa and balsa
    strip and painted in acrylics and oils.
    Its a lovely bust and I would highly recommend it.
    I hope you like the piece and all comments and criticism welcome

    Brian

    pow 002.JPG pow 003.JPG pow 003.JPG pow 006.JPG pow 009.JPG pow 010.JPG pow 011.JPG pow 012.JPG pow 013.JPG pow 015.JPG pow 016.JPG mgV-HRHkS5VpDBwfspBapiw.jpg steve-mcqueen-the-great-escape.jpg images 4.jpg The-Great-Escape-1963-2.jpg Us_army_air_corps_shield.png

    Attached Files:

  2. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Brilliant.
    Carl.(y)
    captnenglish likes this.
  3. Kisifer Well-Known Member

    Country:
    Greece
    WoW....terrific work. No need to say more.

    Xenofon
  4. Helm A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Quality work mate (y)
    Steve
  5. brian A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Fantastic paint job Brian and really well presented.Love the leather jacket,very smooth oil work.You'll have to give me your recipe for that jacket!!!!
    Brian
  6. captnenglish Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-States
  7. bagelman1952 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    England
    Superb painting has captured the true likeness
  8. davidmitchell A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Excellent work on the painting and presentation Brian.

    Cheers Davie
  9. DEL A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Outstanding Brian.....unmistakably yours (y)
    Cheers
    Derek
  10. Aveleira A Fixture

    Country:
    Portugal
    Another "Brianish" beautiful work!!
    Very nice!

    Regards
    Pedro
  11. Ron Tamburrini A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Great stuff Brian (y) is there no end to these Smudger-amas :D

    Ron
    Tarracus and Wings5797 like this.
  12. Dennis Active Member

    Country:
    England
    Brian, smashing presentation with a wonderful paint job, all elements of this come together really well. Look forward to seeing in the flesh.
    Dennis
  13. Pops Active Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Top marks. Great likeness, and the backdrop compliments the piece very well. I might have to go back to including oils in my future pieces methinks!
  14. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    Great work.

    marc
  15. Gerry Active Member

    Great painting Brian, i must get hold of this bust!
    Cheers Gerry.
  16. Gary D PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    Canada
    Love it Brian! Nice work! Thanks for the oil mixes. It really helps us oil painters. Can I ask how you painted his hair? ;)

    Gary
  17. Dan Morton A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    OH YEAH! Great stuff!

    All the best,
    Dan
  18. Grod A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    HILTS….Cooler!
    Super paint job on this Brian and the backdrop really sets it off.
    Great stuff
    Gordon
  19. Wings5797 A Fixture

    Country:
    France
    Amazing work Brian.....you are getting better and better and more inspired with every piece.
    Can you slip a duff one in to prove that you are human and make us all less daunted, please.
    Great finish Mate, very well done and more power to your elbow.
    Cheers,
    Keith
    Don likes this.
  20. ACCOUNT_DELETED A Fixture

    Country:
    Canada
    Superb painting smudger. I couldn't begin to critique the bust or the backdrop. My only reservation is the window. I think you were going for a sky reflection but may I humbly say that I think it would look better dark glossy green or brown....or perhaps dusty. It's a wee bit bright to my eye but it's a personal taste issue. Everything else is perfect IMO.

    COLIN

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