Hi Henk,
The haversack was definitely for the Mark II Light Respirator, & it appears in numerous photos of Airborne troops at Arnhem particularly glider infantry, being carried horizontally on the rear of the web belt.

That's an impressive site, cudos to whomever put it together. https://www.paradata.org.uk/

Arnhem Jim has a lot of info, and photos, aswel.

http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-universal-carriers-of-british.html?m=1

Sorry Chris, I should have been more precise. I know that the haversack was worn by a lot of the troops during the Arnhem drop. I always understood it to be an extra bag to carry more ammo/rations, rather than a gasmask, and have always known it as an 'engineer's ' bag. Did the paras actually carry gasmasks?

My remark about very little photos of the gasmask bag being carried by troops was more about the European Theatre as a whole, I didn't think gasmasks were routinely carried very often.

Every day is a school day.

Your work continues to impress.

Mike

I’m looking forward to seeing this come together eventually. Your perseverance is well worth it. Excellent work.
Andy

Thank you Mike, very kind of you.

Thanks Andy, you're great moral support.

Lovely flesh tones on these figures. Enjoying going through each page and seeing your work progress!

Feathering in the Shadows

Been a few days of plowing snow, but we are back at it!

Feathering in the shadows with this color tone is just like working whites and grays, that’s how it works for me. Playing with the tones to ensure a variation may only take just a slight mix in either direction, tonal wise. It’s not so difficult to make the uniforms “not so uniform” if you just play with it for a bit. Grant it, we ain’t there yet, but we will be, mue pronto. This is just the preliminaries.

During my feathering process there is just a slight amount of dark oils (just a small stripe) that is distributed into the tops of the creases, then a wet brush with thinner allows me to spread that thin line through out that crease. Darker portions remain under the fold while the lighter, feathered portions, are dispersed downward towards the lighter affected areas. Clear as mud, I know, but it works. Play with it, it works.





Next up, highlights and how I feather those into the mix. It’s gotta be wet to make it happen, otherwise it’s more difficult. The beauty of oils for me, they dry slowly

A good dose of “Frampton Comes Alive, Do you feel like I do?” will bring it all round just right, lol. Guitar work is incredible, IMHO. Sometimes a ya just gotta relax with some good ‘ol tunes and have fun with the oils.!



More to follow soon. Cheers, Ski.

Good to see your process Steve. I agree with the tunes, I'm about to rebuild part of my painting desk (mainly the paint storage racking), and this time the tablet will be included, both for reference pictures on hand, and for sound..

Ruck On, Henk, I say!

Quick question Steve, will you be adding any of the branches/pipework to the front of the shell hole? The photo shows a very prominent pipe across the front of the shell hole, which I think is an exposed water pipe, and some branches sticking about. I've got some more plans, but more about that later.

Ya Buddy, ground work will be coming after the figures, but it will be a surprise, lol.

Rolling along

Second trouser set is complete, for the most part.With minor alterations in the tones, we’re off and running.There’s still a few areas that need attention, but the glare from the lights on the oils can be deceptive, so we’ll let er rest a bit.

As before, the hands, rifle, (or Bren Gun), boots and anklets were worked and will be finalized after this initial coat dries. In an attempt to keep this train rolling I’ve been getting at least five hours a day working these figures, so it’s not a fast process. Why rush the fun, IMHO, right?




And of course, we have the pre-shading of the trousers for the next figure. Gotta keep this party on the move. Same process as before, nothing has changed. Tomorrow I will work this set of trousers, but I did pre-work the hands and added a darker tone for the shovel handle, as suggested by the knowledgeable historians in council.




This Bren Gun is in the preliminary stages, but I do need to go back and study the proper way to make this look real. It looks like it belongs to a 1/6th scale play figure right now, YIKES!




More to follow and thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.

Marvelous work all around Steve!

Cheers,
Ken

Superb progress so.far. your versions of the smocks are some of the best I've seen. You're setting the bar very high.

Fantastic progress Ski, a well spent 5 hours, are the trousers pre shaded with acrylics or oils?
Cheers
Steve

Thanks Ken!

Thank you Henk. Not so sure I nailed it, but it's going to have to work, lol.

Hey Stevo, thanks Bro. Oils for pre-shading and from here on out, acrylics for base tones only.

Thanks Kevin. Now remember, yall paint all year long, summer time the bunker is powered down. So, if there's no snow to plow it's all bunker time, yehaaaaaaaaaa!

What I mean is that you managed to catch the essence of the camouflage very well. I think Denison camo is the hardest to make look convincing, because there is no standard recognisable pattern, or colour or shade, unlike just about every other camouflage scheme. Whilst yours look like they have just come from the manufacturer (that's meant as a compliment lol), they look and feel right.