OK guys, now that we've cleared up the mud isssue, please allow me to display the latest WIP pics of my Australian infantryman.

Most of my time over the past 2 nights has been spent applying dark washes to the shadow areas and roughly dry brushing on the first highlight colours.

The next step will be to smooth out the transitions with some blending and sharpen up the contrasts.

Once I've done that, and added in the darkest shadows and upper highlights, I'll finish off the brass work and then get stuck into the weathering.

Hi guys,

Latest pics probably don't show much progress, but I can certainly see the smoothness of the transitions starting to take effect. Spent at least an hour today just on the boots to create a scuffed, worn leather effect.

Still plenty of work to be done and plenty of details yet to be added.

I've chosen to paint this figure as a private of the 16th Battalion of the 1st Division AIF. The 16th Battalion was raised in Sept 1914 and comprised mostly men from my home state of Western Australia. The 16th formed part of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Division of the AIF and was initially under the command of Lt Col John Monash (who would later rise to become GOC ANZAC Corps) and served continuously until the end of the war.

The attached white over blue colours, worn on the upper sleeve on each arm of the tunic, denotes the 16th Bn, while the rectangle shape denotes the 1st Division. The 16th fought at Gallipoli and in most of the major battles on the Western Front, including Poziers, Monquet Farm, Hamel, Amiens and the Hindenberg Line, where members of the battalion won 4 VC's. In total, 1,125 members of the 16th Battalion were killed during the war, and a further 1,925 were wounded.

As this figure is shown wearing a brass "A" badge on the colour patch, which denotes that he served in the Gallipoli Campaign , I chose a battalion that would have still had a number of Gallopili veterans in it by the time the AIF got to France in 1916. The "A" badge was first ordered to be worn in November 1917, although it's unofficial use among the Diggers themselves started as early as April 1916 (the first anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings) and was in wide use among ANZAC's by the time it was formally gazetted. The addition of the brass "A" in the colour patch marked out a soldier as one of "the original ANZACS", and he was accorded greater respect simply for having out-lasted his peers. By the end of the war, there were so few "original ANZACS" left among the returning Diggers that it became a rarity to see the brass"A" badge at all.

Hi guys,

Apologies for my lack of progress pics but I've been travelling in Africa on business for the past week and just got home today. Here are the latest update pics which include the colour patch as described in the previous post.

looking good Tony.
But..what happened to his hand??

Starting to take shape nicely, Tony!
Cheers

Hi Scott, the hand had a couple of small pin holes on it that I didn't notice until after I started painting, so I filled them and have yet to repaint them.

Thanks Nick and Carl

This one's looking good, Tony. Great photos too btw.
Did you get to bag any big tuskers on the 'business trip' then?

Sorry Mark, no four legged "tuskers" but quite a few of this variety downed in Tanzania.

Tony excellent so far and I'll be following.

Cheers Ken