Dear Planeteers

It's time I pick up my brushes again!

As an object of desire, I chose the weeping veteran of the Red Army on "Den' pobjedij", the day of victory (May 9th), which is known to be sculpted after this photo ...:



1st day, November 8th, 2020

I decided to start with the helmet to awaken my sleeping (and rusty) motor skills.

Our friend wears a Soviet steel helmet M 1944.

The helmet can hardly be distinguished from its predecessor, the M 1940, from the outside - however, the "inner workings" of the crease-free one had been significantly improved - so the helmet was more comfortable to wear.

Externally, you can distinguish the two helmet versions from the fact that the 1940s had two rivets, while the 1944s had seven!



I started by washing the small resin helmet properly to remove any residues of release agents and grease so that I don't get a nasty surprise while painting ...:



After drying, the helmet is attached to a working cork with carpet tape ...



... and then primed black ...:



While the primer is drying, I build my usual wet palette out of handkerchiefs and parchment paper, in which the acrylic paints can be used for days and do not dry out ...:









And then we come to the first detail:In some photos, our friend wears a helmet with an inscription on the front that translates as something like: "1941 to 1945 - remember!"



This is a nice detail that my veteran should also have!

However, it also means:We are talking about letters and numbers - in Cyrillic too! - which have a height of three millimeters each.

Aaarrrghh! Just the thing to start painting again after a four month break! A job for convicts!

For the helmet, I use a 50:50 mixture of "German Uniform" and "Green Brown" as the colors, which is pretty much the same as the original.

The white background of the font, on the other hand, is created from "true to scale" white, what means: "Light Flesh" ...:


Today it was only enough for the first lettering - and it was hard enough for me ...:



And who now says, "The lettering is crooked!" is absolutely right!

It should so. Just like the original ...

Good your painting mojo is back..wondered if you would take on this piece

Good afternoon. It is very good that you shared the process. IMHO you shouldn't use a photo of this character as a sample for painting. The fact is that this is not a real veteran, but simply a disguised "city madman" and a deceiver born in 1928 . The chaotic set of medals on his chest and the inscriptions on his helmet are also not an example to follow.

By the way, this inscription is written in Russian as "ЗНАЙТЕ" - roughly translated as "be aware". You shouldn't portray her at all, because this is apparently a personal invention of this old charlatan.

PS in the Russian alphabet there is no letter "F", more precisely there is a letter of course, but it is spelled differently - "Ф"

As proof of my words:
Here he is senior sergeant

Next time he's a colonel

And a year later, already a border guard.
And here is another great photo - as they say "no comment".

Thanks for the photos, Stepan. I have them all - and e few more...



And I know he is a fake veteran.

But nevertheless a lovely object to paint - precisely because of the many medals ...


Cheers

Well, this is your choice and your right.

However, it is to the medals that most experts have many questions. This set is exactly that chaotic, from different fronts (you had to be a "Flash" in order to have time to earn them all in his 13-17 years) and with a wrong mutual arrangement. Everything in the army is subject to the charter.

This same grandfather is more of a Christmas tree.

I did a post on his medals a while ago:
https://www.planetfigure.com/thread...ents-russian-ww2-veteran.264985/#post-1091933

chair pulled up.

Christmas tree, charlatan..allows Martin the license to create his interpretation..of either the subject as evoking memory, or as charicature..either way..too many historical subjects give zero room for interpretation and even with most skilled finishing are no more than high end paint by numbers

2. Day, November 9, 2020
The second lettering is now also on it ...:



Tomorrow I have to get the "white" tape into shape ...


Cheers

1,5 hours for the second one...

Cheers

Nice..

Martin , "ЗНАЙТЕ " - this word has an "E " at the end, not an "F".

Rattan, have a look at the actual images and the helmet sure looks F..give him a break..

I don't know what you personally see there, but I see the bottom of the "E" in this photo.
The lower right corner of Martin's parallelogram, in principle, does not suggest that there may be this "tail" from the letter "E". There, the letter "F" is clearly visible.

And if there is a need to repeat the photograph with complete accuracy, but probably it is necessary to simulate the tape with which the inscription is glued.