Hey guys,

This is on my workbench now, Life's Miniatures Rommel Bust.



This work will get some product reviews for the Michigan Toy Soldier Blog later on, but I wanted to show some WIP also. The kit itself is amazing as you would expect from Life Min.

I've just primed the bust with Mission Models Black Primer :



Now went for Leather, using Vallejo and Abteilung's 502 oils. After the first step is dry, will work on light and shadows for the coat.





Any comments are welcome

Best
Julian

Very nice work on the leather Julian. Might have to try oils one of these days

Thanks James. Oil is my favourite medium for leather (belts, boots, coats) because the scale accurate shine it gives, naturally. No varnish needed at any step. I also use oils for skin tone on acrylic base for the same reason, gives the face a slightly silk finish, that will stand out from the flat finish on the clothes. This model will be a step by step on my oils method later on, will post it here if you would like to have a go

Ahh Julian that would be useful thankyou! One of the things that does make leather pop on a figure is the lustre and my friend from the local club is always pushing oils and I'm always pushing acrylics ( only two of us really do figures ) my two problems are patience, and that I love to spray a coat of dead matt over the figure as it seems to unify my colours better ( I am new to more advanced painting styles so that could be a time and practice thing) ill look forward to it and the progress on the rest of your bust . J

Excellent work so far Julian!
Thank you for the SBS, it will be a valuable lesson for me!
Waiting for your next post!

Thats looking good, waiting for the next update ................................................

Thanks guys, it's actually a very easy method. I will post the SBS when done and let you know

In the meantime, here's a update, base flesh tone (Tamiya Flesh), later on, Oils...





The Phone camera can't handle too much light on my working bench, it gets saturated, But after I will get pro photos.

Best
Julian

One of the busts I have on my ‘Want’ list. Really looking forward to seeing it come together especially with the possible SBS using oils. The leather coat looks really good, fantastic work.

Graham, Life Miniatures is one of the best resin sculptures I've ever seen. I come from a era of great resin and figure brands like Kirin, Jaguar, Poste Militaire, S&T Products and such, and to this day there's nothing like Life Miniatures. All this without mentioning the similarity with the real character.
That being said, I am glad to share my work here, it's a great place to learn stuff. I will have a 3 part review here, about the Abteilung's Oils, First about the paint itself, color range, quality and general impressions. Then I will place a 2nd article about Leather with Oils, and a 3rd one with skin tones with oils.
Of course all of this is my own humble method, learned through the years, so hopefully someone might learn something else about oils.

I really love the Acrylic work we see, high contrast, they are beautiful to look. But I don't like to go that road myself, so I stick with oils for skin, leather and some other details, all of which comes in low contrast, more "realistic" way (Realistic being not using Zenithal Light Techniques, Modulation, High contrast, etc).

Best, and thank you for the support so far,
Julian

Now, Oils were applied for a base flesh tone. After 12 -16 hours will begin adding light & shadow and fresh shaved beard.



Best
Julian

I see Abteilung's Oils do a flesh set. Is this the way to go or just standard colours. I am not great at mixing.

Graham, yes, there’s some mixing here, 3 to 4 colors. But its a good thing, because you don’t have a rule of ratio, so everytime you get a slightly different flesh tone, this is great when making a couple or more figures togheter, each one will have its own flesh tone.

I am loving Abteilung’s Oils so far. The pigment is very high quality.

Best
Julian

Now, having fun with oils...light & shadow, also recent shaved beard :

Now, light & shadow done.

Also did a very subtle recent shaved beard and hair. Next is lips and eyebrows.

As mentioned, my workbench has a powerful warm light and my phone saturates the photo a little bit, also making it warmer than it is actually, but we can have an idea.

Lips are done now.

Now working on the Officer’s Cap, just acrylics here :

And some contrast was added to the leather coat.
I am not a heavy contrast painter. Just wanted to get that subtle worn effect that leather has after some use. Also painted the binnoculars leather strap in another leather color to stand out (Model Master Leather Acryl) :

Now, the shoulder patches (Insignia), and some very thin black wash lines, to give some depth...

Working on the cap...leaving the thin top border gold line for last, the most difficult part not to mess up previous work...

Cap is done. The gold piping is extremely difficult, life draining. I know the googles are a trademark for Rommel, but they cover a good part of the insignia, too bad, it's amazingly sculpted as we can see on the previous pics. Now let's make the scarf...