Here are a couple of pics of a piece I am painting – ok, re-painting. It is a small bust of a Franco-Prussian War Bavarian Jager by Heroes and Villains Miniatures. What you can see here has been done using an airbrush to lay in smooth coats of paint, and some shading is done to the main body. I am using Jo Sonya acrylics though the face and straps etc. will be finished in oils. One thing to note if you try and use JS paints in your airbrush is to thin them heavily. They are more viscous than, for example, Vallejo’s and require thinning. I use a mix of JS flow medium and water. The ratio is roughly one-part paint to three parts water and three-part flow medium. I then spray at between 15-20 psi. This is still a bit of a learning curve ahead as I used Vallejo’s in the UK, so I am still learning about the characteristics of the JS paint.









Ross

Nice start ....awaiting more updates ....

Thanks. I painted the face last night and will take some pictures once it has dried.

Ross

Thanks,, Kev. The blue is a mix of Sapphire, Ultramarine Blue, Naples Yellow and Titanium White from the JS range. Then the bit of shading was done by adding Prussian Blue Hue. The Cornflower Blue used by the Bavarian's is a pain to get right. I have stripped this figure at least once because I was unhappy with the mix. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest what we typically think of Cornflower Blue is not actually right.

The hobby here in Australia is excellent. We have a local club here in Brisbane - Queensland Figure Modellers - and we meet every month. The critical difference is the number of shows. Whereas in the UK you can probably attend a show a week between February and November, that is not the case here. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are other challenges but nothing that isn't insurmountable.

Ross

I sat down and painted the face on this piece the other night. The face has been painted in oils and is still drying. Hopefully, the sheen will dry out over the next few days. I need to go back in and refine details, but the basics have been blocked in.







Ross

A couple more rough pictures of this piece before I go away for work next week. Here I have started to lay in the highlights and shadows on the uniform. When I get back, I will move onto the belts etc., which will help further refine how I want the rest of the piece to turn out. I usually do the final work on the face once I have these parts in place as it helps frame the final refinements in my mind.









Ross

Little modelling has been done of late primarily because I was working in Canberra last week. However, small steps have been made on the Bavarian Jager bust. Principally, I have been working on webbing for the piece. These are black leather, but rather than just leaving them in a single monotone colour, I am trying to add to depth to them buy illustrating some wear in them. As such, they were undercoated in black acrylic and then I have started adding another layer in oils. I base coated the webbing in Old Holland Sepia Extra and then added various dots of Winsor and Newton Mars Yellow, Mars Brown, and Light Red. These were added to the edge then blended in by dragging the paint towards the middle of the webbing, thus trying to show the type of wear that you often see on the sides of leather material. At the moment this is not too noticeable, but the next step will be to try and build up some depth with washes of Ivory Black and Old Holland Warm Sepia Extra. I will then go back to work on the edging again. It is merely a case of building up the effect while trying to avoid overdoing the look you are trying to achieve. Here are some smudgy photos courtesy of my iPhone.









Ross

Thanks, Kev. More to come.

Ross