G’day,

I joined this forum about 5 or so years ago and up until Covid I had only painted 2 large scale figures. Both were in acrylics and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the results. I’d given up until recently when I stumbled across Milan Dufek from the Czech Republic. I’d never before considered using oils but after following one of his video tutorials I became an immediate convert. I shared my work with him and with his support and encouragement I became more confident and open to challenges and my work has improved.

My inspiration for this figure came from Milan and with the encouragement from PF I thought I would share this project on V-Bench. I still regard myself as a relative newcomer and beginner with the genre and would be grateful for any feedback on the way.

Anyway, here goes nothing. The figure is huge, and heavy. The sculpt is crisp with exceptional detail.
This first pic is of the kit parts without any cleaning or figment.

‘’Cheers

The flagpole was problematic so a bit of cut and paste was necessary. The flag base was drilled out to about 20mm and the resin pole replaced with 3mm dowel. It sits well in the hand and is well balanced despite the weight. The hand guard is replaced with brass rod and tube and additional pinning needed for the standard.

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BTW, my thanks to svt and Grasshopper for some very helpful tips and for getting me to put my big boys pants on.

Milan is excellent….and your newfound skills aren’t too shabby either. Well done

I have this piece and will follow this build and suggested 'tweaks' with interest. Look forward to seeing this progress.
Gary

Great project to get rolling on, Dozer, this is a beauty of a kit. It's not too often you see someone cross back over from the "dark side" back into the light of oils, I commend you on your decision.

Congratulations, welcome aboard, take your place right up front with the rest of the "sane" individuals who would rather "blend" than layer, HA! I probably just lit a fire with that comment, but T'sall good. We "sniff" whichever paint suits us, lol. Just a little levity to keep things rolling.

That rework on the flag pole looks great and more realistic, imho. That resin can tweak just a bit more than acceptable, so your fix is perfect, I like it.

As far as using acrylics, they are a great base tone for whatever color I’m intending, but if I were to do that flag, it would best serve me to do almost the entire unit in acrylics, only using oils for the main portion tones and for highlights and shadows on the ornamental decorations, etc. Basically, blending tones that make the flag come to life. I did my first flag not long ago, mostly all acrylics, so they have their place, but the folds and anywhere else I could, I used oils.


Great start. Ruck On, got this bookmarked. Cheers, Ski.


P.S. Milan Dufek from the Czech Republic, his tutorials are awesome!

Thanks guys,

still cleaning, filling, dry fitting and pinning. Oils over acrylics for me Steve. Every time.

Milan is a great bloke and a wonderful teacher. He has been my mentor for 18+ months. His video tutorials are excellent. The few he did with voice over were the best. He is reluctant to do videos with commentary although I’ve tried to convince him otherwise.

This looks like a great piece . And what I am seeing so far looks great . I agree about Milan his work and vids have a way of giving you the confidence to go into oil looking forward to your progress

Clean up and pinning all finished.



There were some kit bits I didn’t like and made some alterations, particularly with the tack. I’ll make further mods when I eventually get to the reins.

Beware the double bridle. The mfr’s website pics show the reins on the double bridle all coming from the front or snaffle end of the shank. Wrong! One set are from the curb rings at the corners of the mouth, the other from the snaffle end



I hope my clumsy explanation makes sense. Curb and snaffle might be known in other places as bit & braddon or bit & bridoon or just horse stuff.

Flag finished.


Before priming I have to attach horses head. There’s a fair gap to fill between the neck and breastplate. Any suggestions for the best way to go. I have green stuff but it’s a PITA to sand. Would Milliput or something else be a better way to go.



Cheers

Very nice and thank you for the horse furniture update/correction which is most useful and I have made a note of it for future reference when working on mine.
Gary

This is looking great , I have not used green stuff before i have used aves epoxy putty a few years ago imo it’s great to work with smooths with water and sands well . Your mods are going great as well .

I broke one of his earrings. I actually can’t believe I managed to fix it and then replace the other one to match. Whod’ve ever thunk it. Certainly not me.

First fill on horse. On closer inspection it needs a little more in places after which it should be ready for a lick of paint. I pinned the neck in two places with 40mm lengths of 3mm brass rod, glued with 2 part epoxy resin and the filled with Milliput white super fine. Thanks for the suggestions but I had to go with what I had available. I have previously tried to find Magisculpt in Oz without success and the same more recently with aves apoxy.

The Milliput, whilst a bit messy, cleaned up well with water. The pic shows the tools I used.

A very interesting and exciting subject to follow.....

Great job so far Dozer. It’s a hefty piece of resin. Looking forward to further.

Neal

Some of the parts already primed and the paints I’ve used.

I first airbrushed a coat of flat black then Mr. Surfacer. I used the flat black first because I couldn’t properly see where the Mr. Surfacer was on the Grey resin. Only a thin layer was applied so that the black showed through in the shadows like in pre-shading. Only a bit of further clean up needed.

The flag and banner slowly taking shape. First colours applied.
Pole - a random mix of umber, sienna and red/brown oils left on my palette.
Butt and hand guard - AK1194 brass over a flat black base followed by one thin was of army painter strong tone wash.
Standard - base of black the 1st layer AV175 bronze. 2nd layer AV175 + AK 1194 @ 70/30. Dark tone wash.
Flag - basic colours with airbrush - Model Air blue, Ammo lightgrey brown from white set and AK Vermillion Cadmium Red from red set.



I’ll touch up the flag with acrylics for basic shadows and lights then oils.

Face started with acrylics.

Started with oils on the flag. But what’s more important is that I found some brushes at home that are fantastic for blending/smoothing oils.



However, Kriegs-und-Finanzministerin is really pißed off. Ah, the price we pay!? Egal.

Peter