Thanks for your comments Mike. As my Mum would say "It's not a race you boys".

I can't help but seem a fast painter compared to you, but when I see the extreme levels of detail you put into your busts, I feel like I need to slow down and take more time to paint the details into my busts.

I think I'll keep the face camo off this figure, but I will add some dirt and grime stains and some sweat marks on the skin to match the overall weathering effect on the bust.

To illustrate my point about the need for snipers to adapt their gear and their weapons to the variety of different terrains and topographies within Afghanistan, I've attached some reference pics of Australian snipers in Afghanistan to illustrate the high degree of personalisation that snipers apply to their camouflage.

As always, there's no substitute for research.

Great decision with the rifle Tony. Love these modern figures and what you guys do with them.
Looking forward to further progress. The only disappointment will be is that it will be finished soon and no more instalments.

Still look forward to your future work.
Peter.

Great progress Tony.
Your brushwork never fails to amaze and thanks for sharing some of your research material.
All the very best,
Keith

Great stuff, I love all the different camo patterns. One thing I noticed on the rifle... it seems like the Harris bipod has some sort of a small casting block which connects it to the suppressor? Or am I just seeing things?

Mario

Damn!

I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

That's one sharp looking trooper Tony!

Joe

Thanks for your comments fellas. I've made some more progress over the weekend and will show some pics.
Mario, yes the bipod is cast as one piece with the barrel.

Gee Wiz, just when ya thought it couldn't get any better, dang! What an incredible paint job Tony!

Cheers, Ski.

OK, I'm calling this one done. I've weathered the bust by applying a combination of earth colours pastels mixed with white spirits over most of the yowie suit, webbing and clothing and also a light dusting over the face and hair. The final step was to add some gloss to the eyeballs and a few dabs of gloss on the face to replicate sweat beads.

Final pics attached. Sadly the camera will never be able to pick up all the little details that go into a large scale bust like this, but hopefully the overall look is right. Thanks to everyone who has commented on the WIP pics so far, and I hope you enjoy these final pics.

He turned out great Tony!
Very much like the skintone. Great work on the different camos.

Cheers,
Adrian

Yup, what Adrian said!

Joe

Great result Tony....beautifully done, mate.
Another Dawesome bust.

Incredibly well done Tony, love it!!

Cheers, Ski.

Really brought him to life, has that 'long distance stare' about his face!

The camo work on the equipment and rifle works well, really comes together!!

Cheers

Jamie

Hi Tony,
Excellent work, everything works so well together. You are one of the people on here who I take great inspiration from for portraying a soldier in the field.
cheers
Richie

Hi Tony,

That 4th shot is a keeper!
So captures the truth of the lonely sniper holed up awaiting his next step.

I've gotta have a go at that pastel effect on a future project.
It seems so effective, as Richie said, to capture a feel for real soldiers.
It's an interesting choice I'm debating at the moment with realism vs artistic interpretation.

Thanks for sharing your thinking & references too.

You've again done Scottie & the Naked Army ANZACs proud

Stay safe

Mike

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads...cale-naked-army-bust.69036/page-2#post-711270

Thanks Adrian, I'm glad you like the way it turned out mate. The skintone was tricky as I didn't want him to look suntanned but I needed to put some colour into the face to avoid him looking too pale. The different camos was an easy choice. The variety of gear employed by modern special forces soldiers is staggering and much of it is commercially available, not just military issue.

Cheers Joe, I guess my same response to you as to Adrian. Thanks for looking.

Hi Mark,

Thanks again mate. Glad to know you like this bust. I wasn't initially that keen on it, but I must admit it grew on me as I started to get into it.

Hi Ski,

Thanks for your continued encouragement and support mate. I tried a few new techniques with this bust and hopefully achieved a reasonably accurate result.

Hi Jamie,

Thanks mate. The stare on the face is something I could tell you I spent hours on, but in reality the eyes took me about 45 minutes to do over a period of 2-3 days. Apart from altering the colour to reduce the blue colour a bit, all I did was some careful outlining around the eyeball and adding some oil wash filters over the eyeball to add a slight redness to suggest tiredness or fatigue.