Well, I finished two figures. The workshop figure and the Rough Rider that came with the FI magazine subscription, These "ARE" my first figures in 35 years, and in acrylics. Please pardon the photography. All comments and critiques welcome.

Very nice looking figures Tony

Please explain how you did the groundwork for the Volunteer Cav figure. That is some really nice looking groundwork.

The Vionlinist- Why the greentones on the flesh? It's still a nice looking figure and it appears as if there is a paticuliar effect you are trying to accomplish here.

Both figures appear to have a bit of sheen to them. Maybe a coat of flat airbrushed over them? It could be the lighting here. Your photography isnt really that bad. Better than mine .

All in all, not bad at all when one considers these are your first figures in 35 years! Keep painting and let all of us here on pF see your progress.

Jim Patrick

Hi ya Jim, thanks for the comments;

I found some great "landscape" kits at our local Games Plus hobby shop. I just picked out a few of the sets and put this together in about an hour. I bought a resin base that looked good, ground down the base to fit the block and then added the sand, grass and plants. I weathered it with some pastels - and that was it. The hobby shop specializes in fantasy stuff, not my thing, but it has a good selection of resin accessories that can be used for military figures. Good selection of paints, brushes etc. http://www.games-plus.com/.

I will brush or spray on some flat/matte finish. The lighting consisted of 2 clamp lamps with 100w bulbs and shot with a Kodak C743. I have a terrific Nikon D60 with all the bells and whistles, but have never shot macro before with it, so I went with the goofy Kodak and color corrected the images in PhotoShop CS3 on my Mac.

nice work Tony! You will have this down pat in no time after these two.

I forgot to tell you why the "green". It, to me, was such a weird figure, and didn't fit in any category, that I went with "dead-tones". Everyone else was trying to copy the exact formula Fernando was painting with and I didn't want to do that. I got the concept really quick on using the acrylics, so I experimented. I never would have purchased this, so nothing to loose.

Thanks Mike - in between my duties as Dad, fix it man and taxi driver for the kids! I'm really thinking about doing the 75mm route though, this 54mm thing is killing me. Bought the #10 Opti-Visor lens and it helped... looked like Mr. Magoo though.

Wow Tony super job!

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

That's the way to go. Too many painters try too hard to "copy" a certian painter. Learn the techniques and adapt them to your own. Well done.

Jim Patrick

Good job on both figures. The, "dead" green effect came out well. I like the skin tones on your rough rider. I forgot I have that figure too from the subscription, Thanks for reminding me

Thanks Tom! BTW, new subscription is coming out with a figure, have no idea what it is, but I ordered it. I had to call their US office to make sure I would receive the next magazine, their renewal system "ain't so good", but a very nice lady called me back and put me down for another 4 issues.

Love 'em both Tony...especially the flesh tones on the cavalry figure. What color mixes did you end up using?

Cheers,
Doug

For your first figs in 35 years I think you can call them a resounding success, good job! I shudder to think how rusty I'd be if I hadn't picked up a paintbrush in that long.

Einion

Tony, thanks for the heads up on the magazine subscription. I was wondering why it seemed some time since I received an issue.

Hi Doug; I am sorry for the late reply! I used a couple of brands for the face, experimenting and testing out which ones I liked: base color was a mixture of Reaper rosy skin (09068)+Reaper buckskin pale(09075). 1st highlight was Model color beige red + MC off white(820). 2nd highlight was buckskin pale + MC Basic skintone (70815). 1st shadow was Reaper deep red (09002)- one of my favorites + a bit of the basic skin tone mix. 2nd shadow was deep red + Andrea 1st shadow #5 (set). Lastly I washed a THIN layer of Reaper bone shadow MSP (09058) + a "tint" of MC Oxford blue (807), but it was only a small amount and really watered down for a 5 O clock shadow. I swear by using distiller water because I'm on we'll water, and it shows even in my canvas art.

I'm no guru on this, and sometimes I just mix and see what happens. One thing I found that really helps is to buy a cheap figure (e.g. Valiant figure-www.veltd.net) prime with same paint I'm using on the "good" figure, and use the cheap one to see what happens. A rough sketch mentality from my illustration background. You screw up, no problem, and no fear!

Hope this helps.

Tony,
Nice pictures and the figures came out great. It was good to see it in Chicago.
Cheers
John

That violist is outstanding.
Like the colors.
The volunteer is great.
You haven't lost nothing from the painting technique's.

Marc

Nice work. mate! Glad you finished the miniature. The color choice is absolutely weird, but I know first hand it looks exactly the way you intended so, congrats!
regards
FeR

tony, you still got it!