Verlinden Resin WWII US Navy Pilot painted with acrylics only. This is
120mm figure. Comments welcome, of course.

I see you managed to get the problem of posting the thumbnail image sorted at last mate, i had only just sent you a mail explaining it as well so just ignore that mate.
Good to see the navy pilot posted up and real nice work on that flight suit, shading is very nicely done.
The scratchbuild vegetation really adds to the scene mate and gives him more of a story.

Lovely work Rick,

Stevo

Hi Rick, that's a great looking figure. I'm just wondering if WW2 US Navy pilots wore green overalls??? I may be wrong but I thought they wore blue/ grey overalls when flying??

I think you're right Tony. . .

Hi Tony:

Thanks for taking a gander. I'll admit this is a figure that was given to me,
and along with several other figures I didn't have to pay for, I decided to dive
into acrylics only (meaning not using oils after acrylics as in the past) for
several of these figures. So in my haste to get started — oh boy, haste does
indeed make waste — I didn't do any research or even recall all those years
of interest and reading on WWII back in the 1970s and 80s. I just went with
the colors on the box art.

Several of my modeling friends to whom I've sent JPEGs of this figure, have
also questioned the green flight suit. And my best friend, US Marine Corps
Retired Gunnery Sgt. "Gunney" questioned the reddish flight helmet as well.
So I have to plead guilty on this one, Tony. I was hoping to figure out how to
post these images from my home 'pooter without using Photobucket and just
picked my lastest project.

To speak candidly, I was hoping someone would ask about the tropical
flora, foliage. . .

Hi Carl . . .

Hey there Carl:

I got a kick outa your sense of humor. So I guess I did some prompting, . . .
did't I Oh well.

On to the flowers and how they were done. Not only am I old, but I've become
stubborn as well. Yes, there are all kinds of broadleaf selections available
in PhotoEtched sets. And these things are so expensive. I wouldn't be surprised
even if there are Elephant Ears (that is what I was trying to fabricate for the
feel of the jungle) available in Photo Etch as well.

But all the foliage in the picture were made from bond paper, the kind that I
use in my 'pooter printer. In some cases, as with the long stems for the
Elephant Ears, and with the long grasses, it was bond paper glued with a mix
of Elmers White glue and water to another piece of white bond paper. Or as
you might say "two ply". This made the paper must studier and easier to
fold and bend and curl into the shapes that I wanted. It seemed that the
paper would stay in the position or shape I wanted it to with the two ply.

Another thing I did when I glued two pieces from bond paper together (say
two pieces a size about a 4 inch by 5 inch) was to put them in the Micro-
wave oven for about 20 seconds to speed up the drying time. It seems
as an oldster, eh? . . . what? . . . I don't have much patience either, for
sitting around and watching white glue dry. But anyway you get the picture.

Of course, I painted the shapes for the Elephant Ears with acrylics and
my small brushes to put in the colors and the linear patterns, using the
reference pictures printed from the internet as a guide.

I have made another try at doing the purple tinted Elephant Ears, from
photos I saw on the internet, and the painting of that has come out
a lot better. So I may redo all of the broadleaf pieces on this Navy Pilot
base. If so, I'll try to post some pictures with close up photos of the
individual Elephant Ears painted. I Hope that answers the question
and thanks for taking a look, Carl.

Jayhawker

Rick,
Nice job and thanks for the instructions.
Cheers
John

You are welcome, Sir. . .

Hello John:

You are welcome, Sir. Hope you found my idea for foliage interesting.
Personally, I think paper is a very good medium for model building. Altho
I think my initial attempt was a failure, when I tried to create a scratch
built tree with paper leaves in Autumn colors, i.e. melon red and
yellow leaves, I learned a great deal. And feel I can do a much better job
on the next try.

Hopefully, I'll have time to post that vignette with the tree on PF at some
point in the near future. Thanks for responding, Hoosier,

rick

Rick, great painting, . I Didn't realise how much work went into the foliage, bet it took you longer to type in the method than to build
Thanks for the info.

Cheers Ken

Thank you Gentlemen. . .

Ken:

Ha haa. . . yeh, I seem to have a penchant fer paper, if you'll pardon the
obvious alliteration. I have a penchant for that too. What do they say? "Old
age ain't fer sissies!" Whoa. . . But yeh, it did take a while to get to the
heart of the matter, the best way to go about it. And after finishing the foliage,
oh stop it. . . I think there are better ways than how I did the first try. I'll
put some graphic examples below in my next post below this one. And you're
welcome.

Hey Carl: Cute, origami. . . I always wondered how to spell that woid. Hmmm
As soon as I started on the Pilot, since he was in the South Pacific, I thought
it might be fun to try paper plant life again. You really don't see
that kind of vegetation in figure bases that often. And I like to try
different things, take the road less traveled, I think they call it.
And thank you kind sir, for the positive comments about my meager
efforts. Altho figure painting is relatively new for me, I've been a plastic
model builder for over 40 years. It is a wonderful hobby because you meet
such class people, from all over the world.

Kind regards, Gentlemen

Paper Jungle foliage

I mentioned that I would try to put some newer examples of my
experimentation as an attempt to fabricate Tropical or jungle foliage/flora
using white bond paper and acrylic paints.

So Rick, tell me about the amazing vegetation? I too have tried scratchbuilding plants from paper, but I eventually gave up and bought commercial paper plant products instead, because of the huge variety now available and for sheer ease.

Those latest versions of the leaf vegetation looks fantastic mate, they are painted very effectively with the varying shades, nice work Rick.

Stevo

Excellent paintwork.
thanks for sharing your modelling of the plants.

Marc

Hello Rick,

nice figure
Thanks for sharing your work on the foliage.
Congrats

Further "opinions" about painted paper plant life. . .

Hello Gentlemen and thanks for your comments about the attempt at painting
jungle foliage using bond paper. So I'll try to take the threads in order:

Tony: Sorry the paper attempts didn't work out for you Tony. But over the
years that is something that I've noticed about model building/painting. Some
idea or procedure works for one modeler, but that same "thing" doesn't work
for another modeler that is just as talented. Go figure. I wonder if both of
the modelers, who live a world apart, were sitting at the same hobby bench
working on it, if that might mean success. Yes, I am familiar with the Paper
dye cut leaves, et cetera that Hudson and Allen put out. And they are really
well done. I've held the packages in my hand, I'm meaning here. It must be
for me, just that stubborn streak of not wanting to pay that much for leaves.
Also, I'm retired and don't have to spend 40 hrs. or so at work. I have the
time to cut out petals and Elephant Ears, sans the peanuts.

Hey Stevo: Thanks for chiming in here, mate. I got your written explanation
of how to post pix here from my home 'pooter. And it works great. However
I was going to add more text to the new pix of the Elephant Ears above, and
I hit the wrong button and it disappeared. Yeh well. But the
white "leaves" were to show the various sizes, and in the two painted
Elephant Ear leaves the one on the left was just the base colors and the
one to its right was the finished one. Thanks Stevie.

Hi Marc: Appreciate your comments, and I admire your talent a great deal.

Hey Pedro: Thanks also for your nice words, I do appreciate it. Hopefully,
later on, I'll find time to post the scratch built vignette I have mentioned.