Well, only two remaining (actually I'm only making one of them and probably sell the other one as it is from a time period I'm not particularly interested in and have nothing else on figures from the same period (Vietnam War) from my old stash of Verlinden figures, and I'll be done with all the remaining 120mm ones I kept from the old days. Now that I restarted it seems I took the rhythm and they will all be done soon.

Next one (and I believe the last one) is another WWII German General.

This one is almost totally finished, I just don't have a base, nor a vignette for him, so in the meantime it's waiting. Hopefully in a week or two it will get its base, and I'll post pics from the finished work on the Complete Figures sub-forum.

It was a very easy and fast figure to build and paint.

As usual some Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 was applied all over (some parts sometimes need a 2nd, or even but much rarer 3rd coat, and that seems to happen with all figures), then after it dried I applied some old Humbrol enamel base coats, Leather for the jacket, Field Blue for the pants, and a mix of Matt Black and Leather for the boots.
And then on top of that oils.
Have used mainly Payne's Grey + Blue Cobalt for the pants (for the 1st time I used an acrylic varnish matt, from Talens, for the pants only), a mix of Vandyke Brown + Lamp Black + Burnt Sienna for the jacket and about the same for the boots, only using different percentages of each one of the colors.
Various coats were applied, shadings and highlights brushed, same as usual.











Thanks for looking.

Comments and constructive critics welcome

Cheers!

Dolf

Hi Dolf
Keeping busy I see - good man ! Couple of things you might want to keep in mind for the next one. Firstly, the paint on
the trousers looks to be a bit on the thick side. It might be the paint itself or the matting agent your using. Try thinning
the paint a little and leave off the matt varnish - we spoke before about leaching out the oil by mixing the paint on some
absorbent card to produce a matt finish - remember? The other thing is try increasing your colour contrasts a bit more
- shades a bit darker and highlights a bit lighter and then use a dry brush to blend and soften them a bit.

Rock on.........

Mike

Hi Mike,


Thanks for looking, and for the advice


"Keeping busy I see - good man !"

These last couple of weeks, with no computer and no Internet... I guess I was quite active focused on the hobby, yes



"Firstly, the paint on the trousers looks to be a bit on the thick side. It might be the paint itself or the matting agent your using."

It might be a reflection on the pics, from the Sun light (these pics were taken outdoors), and maybe that is caused indeed by the varnish coat (which is a Matt varnish btw) .

Since I started using the method of removing most of each coat of oil paints, it's pretty hard for the paint to be too thick (almost none remains from the previous coat to the next one) .

When thinning the oils (and I say "when" because quite often, depending on a few factors I don't always use a thinner at all, pretty often I only paint with the oils and no thinner whatsoever) I've been using mainly two from Abteilung 502: Matt Effect Thinner and Fast Dry Thinner (most of the time mixed together, and in such cases a bit more drops of the Matt one than of the Fast Dry one; after all since I started using the "heating box" for helping the paints dry faster I don't need that Fast Dry Thinner that much; also, by not using thick coats of paint, and spreading it as much as possible, allows the paint to dry much faster than initially) .
But as I say, most of the painting these days is done from the tube, after spreading it with a spatula over a piece of paper, working it until I get a nice "pasta", mixing it with other colors, testing percentages and new mixes... It's like a love relation that is growing I'd say... lol... Discovering & enjoying I guess



"Try thinning the paint a little and leave off the matt varnish - we spoke before about leaching out the oil by mixing the paint on some absorbent card to produce a matt finish - remember?"

I only used the matt varnish here on his trousers because the color I got (a Blue Cobalt mixed with some Payne's Grey), despite looking nice and having a nice effect, to the naked eye seemed a bit too shinny (for my taste anyway), so the varnish was intended to nullify part of that shine.
I think it did, but at the same time it seems that it added a shine of itself that seems to reflect light (from the Sun or artificial) .

Another reason may have to do with the fact that despite having slowly been upgrading my number and quality of the oil paints on my palette (been buying some Norma, from Schmincke, for instance), most of them are still student grade quality oils, Rive Gauche from Sennelier. And I know some of these tend to be shinier than some better quality artit's oils.



Since you mentioned that I always use a piece of A4 white paper (the one used for printing on a printer) that I use as a palette, for placing the various bits of different colors that I'm using on a mix
Have a nice collection of them now, maybe one day that may be considered art




Just kidding... The truth is I have no idea how and/or where to dispose of paints! We do have here special containers on the streets for the normal (organic) home garbage, as well as another one for paper, card, and yet another one for plastic & metal, another one for glass, and a smaller ones for small batteries, guess that's it. I don't know where to throw away paints in a safe manner, will have to inquire and find out. How do you guys do in the UK?



"The other thing is try increasing your colour contrasts a bit more - shades a bit darker and highlights a bit lighter and then use a dry brush to blend and soften them a bit."

Yes, I completely agree with you. I also notice that I go pretty soft on both the shading as well as the highlights (even more on this case). I believe at that phase I'm often a bit concerned that I may do too much, which I also don't like seeing. On another recent Verlinden I finished (this one here: https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/verlinden-120mm-usa-navy-pilot-wwii-pacific.143280/ ) I feel that I over-shaded some areas. If you look at the back pics, particularly the shirt, I think I did too much. Wouldn't you agree?
Maybe I'll have to find the right balance here, kind of the middle between that shirt, and this new German Pilot here.

I think that the final colors also have some influence on that. For instance, on this other Verlinden I also recently finished (here: https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/verlinden-120mm-german-dispatcher-wwii-complete.156433/ ), as the final color of his uniform is darker, the shades and highlights look (to me anyway) look more balanced. Wouldn't you agree?



"Rock on........."

Thanks Always a pleasure having a chat with you

And thanks again for all the advice and comments


Cheers!

Dolf