Hi guys,

Here are the first pics of my latest figure, Latorre's magnificent 54mm Officer,79th Cameron Highland Regiment, Crimea 1854. Another classic!!

This figure was made famous by Marijn van Gils at Euro in 2007 when he made that mind-bending Lilliput construction diorama around this figure and won BOS. I had the pleasure of seeing it with my own two eyes last year and couldn't believe how good it was.

Anyway, I'm nowhere near Marijn for talent, artistry, creativity or bravery and will attempt to do a stock-standard version as best I can. Just painting the Cameron of Erracht tartan will be enough of a challenge for my failing eyes.

I'm just base coating the uniform and blocking in the main flesh colours and highlights at the moment. Still lots of blending to do and more highlights on the face.

If anyone has some good pics of the Cameron of Erracht tartan (and Marijn's great diorama), please send them to me. Google Images is OK but there are so many different tartan versions to choose from, and I'm bound to pick the wrong one.

As always I welcome your comments/ criticism.

One of my favorite's.
I believe that you gonna end it as a masterpiece.
Good luck with all the line's.

marc

Painting tartan? Who's showing off now!!!!!
Brian

Hello Tony, nice start, you can see how to paint some tartan in the book of Danilo Cartacci Painting Miniature (auriga publishing International) great bible to paint.

Here is a link to a hi-res picture walk around of the Van Gils Construction Company that I posted on my blog while back.

http://andersheintz.blogspot.com/2010/06/figure-of-week-van-gils-construction.html

Thanks to Marijn for letting me take the pictures as well as post them online.

And an example on the quality and size of the pics

Anders,
Thanks for the incredible link and to think it is 54mm. Wow.

Tony,
Looks good so far.
Cheers
John

Tony; excellent work so far. I am really growing to love this figure. I know your version will be nothing short of spectacular.

Hi Carl,thanks for sending the email with the tartan and links to Ray Farrugia's Painting Tartan thread. I'll check both out very thoroughly. Once again I appreciate your help with my research.

Thanks Marc, I'll have to lay off the coffee before I sit down to painting the lines. I don't want my hands shaking from the caffeine.

Hi Brian, touche mate. I deserved that!

Hi Philippe, I must be the only figure modeller in the world who doesn't own Danilo's book. I'm "old school", so when it comes to difficult jobs likepainting tartan I refer to Shepard Paine's Bible on Painting Scale Figures. Thanks for the tip though. I must get that book.

Hi Anders, thanks very much for showing the pics of Marijn's exceptional piece. He directly inspired me to buy this figure, and I was pleased to meet him at Euro last year and tell him how much I enjoyed it (and indeed all his figures and dioramas).

Hi John, thanks mate. I only hope that I can do a decent job on this figure.

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your confidence in my painting ability. I'm not quite as confident at the moment, as I still haven't started on the tartan. Once I've done it, hopefully I'll be a bit more confident and relieved. It's hard not to like this figure. The pose is classic Latorre and the sculpting and casting is first class as you would expect.

Have been waiting for this one

I've had this guy primed, block in and ready to go for quite a while so I'll be following this closely. Please expect a few questions along the way.

Hi Tony,
Very good start in painting the face.
Now the painting of the tartan is a matter of wanting a simple coding.
Photos from the internet may help you enough...
http://balagan.org.uk/
http://www.lochcarron.com/reiver/cameron_of_erracht.html

You can also consult tartan I've done the Scottish forener...vBench

Alexandros

Tony,

You are doing a really nice job. I have one that is painted really well and can take pictures if you like, it is the one Jaume painted.

Joe

Cameron of Erracht tartan

Hi Lepman, thanks for your comments. I hope to see your version soon.

Hi Alexandros, thank you very much for the links and the references I got from looking at the Piper on your Vbench. They were very helpful.

Hi Joe, I remember Jaume's version of this figure and have savedthe picstomy files for reference. Thanks for your encouragement.

Well the juices were really flowing today and I managed to get a long way into painting the tartan pattern. The pale white lines are too bold and will need to be toned down and the lines tidied up a bit, but the basic pattern is now done.

I spent a solid 6 hours today painting the tartan and my eyes are very tired as a result of a lot of intense staring and trying to hold my hands dead still.

As I said there are a few blemishes that I will tidy upin the days ahead.

Thanks to Ray Farrugia (and Carl Barton) for the excellent SBS on painting the Cameron of Erracht tartan pattern, this wasn't the daunting task I thought it would be. I must be going mad!!!

Awesome work Tony.
Where did you find that SBS???

Marc

very nice. I am curious about the SBS as well. I would one day like to paint this guy but am so afraid of the tartan. Looking forward to more.

This is a link to Ray Farrugia'sVbench where he did an excellent SBS on painting the Cameron of Erracht tartan.

www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33363

Thank you so much

Marc

Looking good so far Tony.


Cheers David

How to paint matallics

Here is my first question: and this is the main reason why I haven't carried on with this figure. How do you ..... and everybody else PLEASE feel free to join in: paint gold braid and lace without using metallic paint (I use acrylics). What colors do people use. Have been trying to figure this one out for ages. Great job, hope mine looks half that good.

Ken Neil

Hi Ken,

I guess the first thing I would say is that you can get all sorts of metallic colours in acrylics these days,and they doallowyou to achieve very realistic effects,particularly lace and braid. What I've done on this figure is undercoat the areas that will have gold braid and lace with Vallejo English Uniform, a mid brown colour. Once I've painted everthing else, I'll then paint the gold braid and lace with Vallejo Old Gold, a metallic colour. To highlight, I will add some Oily Steel to the Old Gold. For shadows, I tend to favour a very thin(dilute) wash of Burnt Umber and Black.