"Can we keep him, Sarge?"

[JamesOLeary]

It's been a while since I've been able to do any modeling. I finally got to do some this morning and what I am going to work on now is a vignette titled, "Can we keep him, Sarge?" which should be relatively easy to complete. It is going to consist of three converted Bravo 6 figures, they won't be wearing gear, and the base is going to be small so that should make for a reasonably quick project. The story is that a Sergeant is checking on two of his Soldiers who are relaxing and are also playing with a puppy. One is asking the Sergeant if they can keep it. The figure on the left will be built pretty much stock except for a new head from Armor35 that I will put some hair on with putty. The figure in the center is from the yet-to-be released Bravo 6 "Puppy" figure set and is of a Soldier holding a puppy. It will be built stock except for the head. The standing figure also receives a head from Armor35 and some putty work will be done to fill in the area where the belt had been and different arms will be used. The base will consist of a wedgie of sandbags where the back seat of the M151 is sitting behind the two sitting figures. There will also be a small dog (possibly the puppy's mother) and a cat in the vignette.

I think it makes for a nice compact, light-hearted vignette.

Well, back to work on it.

Take care and have a great weekend.
James

 

[Iron Mike]

Fun! Good to see you back at the bench, James.

 

[iambrb]

Neat stuff! Too bad the cat is getting better billing tho'

 

[moon puppy]

Nice subject, glad you're back James. :salute

 

[errains]

Great Composition!!!...looking forward to seeing this come together.

:v

 

[lupanzer]

... ... Glad to following your projects, again ldguy

Luiz

 

[JamesOLeary]

Thanks, Guys. It is good to be back modeling again.

Here are some photos I took the other day while the putty was still wet, so there are still some imperfections visible that I have since smoothed out. While the putty was wet, I made the impression from the M16 that will be slung on this guy's shoulder so it will fit more realistically when I add the rifle to the figure after painting. I still need to add a couple more things like the waist adjustment tabs to this guy's uniform.

Well, I got to run. Take care and have a great day.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[JamesOLeary]

Neat stuff! Too bad the cat is getting better billing tho'

Well, I'm a cat person, so the cat gets the better billing.

Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

 

[Frank]

Great idea.
:drinks
Frank

I am a cat person also.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Frank, your cat looks pretty relaxed.

This is how far I got this past weekend. One good thing about taking these pictures is I can see flaws that I can't see with my eyes and even the magnifying lamp, so I will be taking care of the rough spots tonight so I can wash and prime him tomorrow.

Originally I had the left hand holding a cigarette, but I found a hand holding a notepad and a right hand holding a pen, so those are the hands I am going to go with for this figure.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
James

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Yeah the camera doesn't lie James. It can be a good tool for doing a flaw check though as you stated. Looking good so far! (an yeah I saw the flaws as well) You will get 'em all I am sure.

 

[JamesOLeary]

I was able to smooth out the flaws in the putty work, but then in these photos I see how the paint is glopping up. Before painting I prepared a new piece of palette paper and made sure the sponge was properly hydrated for hours of painting fun. However, when I was painting I found that my paint was drying too fast even for acrylics and that the palette paper was even drying out. WTF? Then I heard the heater come on and realized that was probably the reason why. I looked up and sure enough, there was the vent just behind my chair to my desk and the louvers for the vent all point towards the desk. Dammit!

I think the color placement and shading and highlighting is good, just that the texture sucks. To the naked eye and even under the lower magnification of my magnifying lamp, I couldn't tell that it is as bad as depicted in the photos. All that time spent thinking this figure was going to look good somewhat wasted.

Since it does look pretty decent when viewing at 1/35th scale size, I am going to continue on with the vignette. I am just disappointed in how this face turned out in regard to it not being as smooth as I would like.

Instead of cropping to resize the photos off of my phone, I need to figure out how to resize the original image so it can be downloaded on this site.

Since these photos were taken, I started painting the left and right forearms. I will try to finish those up tonight and then tackle the boots and weathering on Saturday or Sunday to finish this figure.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[Iron Mike]

When I use irfanview, I make the width 1024 and it magically resizes the height too. I've never had any issue with that size when I post.

A lot of folks would be tickled pink to get that result on a figure, carry on!

 

[centaur567]

Neat stuff! Too bad the cat is getting better billing tho'

Well, I'm a cat person, so the cat gets the better billing.

Cheers,
James

Cats rule, dogs drool. Not work. Hurry up and finish before the Vietnamese eat him. Gary S. XXXXV XX XX

 

[Jeeves]

Not sure what sort of phone you use James, but for my Android I use a free app Photo and Picture Resizer that lets me resize to 800x600 at one click, no cropping.

As far as the paint drying, I just saw a video on using a wet pallette...seemed useful and might slow down your drying paint.

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Love watching you work!

 

[JamesOLeary]

When I use irfanview, I make the width 1024 and it magically resizes the height too. I've never had any issue with that size when I post.

A lot of folks would be tickled pink to get that result on a figure, carry on!

I will have to try that this weekend. Thanks.

Cheers,
James

 

[JamesOLeary]

Neat stuff! Too bad the cat is getting better billing tho'

Well, I'm a cat person, so the cat gets the better billing.

Cheers,
James

Cats rule, dogs drool. Not work. Hurry up and finish before the Vietnamese eat him. Gary S. XXXXV XX XX

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[JamesOLeary]

Not sure what sort of phone you use James, but for my Android I use a free app Photo and Picture Resizer that lets me resize to 800x600 at one click, no cropping.

As far as the paint drying, I just saw a video on using a wet pallette...seemed useful and might slow down your drying paint.

My phone has the Android operating system. I will have to try that app.

I do use a wet palette and usually it works pretty good at keeping my paint wet, but being under the vent with the heat on negated the way the sponge and special paper work together. Once I replaced the lid, the paper uncurled and rewet itself. With the other figures for this vignette I will either close off the vent or move to a folding table while painting.

Cheers,
James