Bust of Ray Luce in Cambodia in 1970 (COMPLETED)

[JamesOLeary]

I am starting a project consisting of a bust depicting my friend Ray Luce when he was in Cambodia with HHC 2d BN 47th IN (Mech) 9th ID in 1970. Prior to being drafted, he worked at NASA as a Protocol Officer. Upon his return from Vietnam, he was successful in any endeavor he took on.

The bust is based on a piece by PMC Miniatures. The things I have changed or enhanced are the collar of the shirt (I do not know what the original sculptor was using as a reference, but the collar looked pretty jacked up. Not that mine is much better, but at least it is somewhat decent), added sleeves and shoulder patch, and removed the cigarettes as Ray did not smoke. I need to work on the helmet band where I removed the cigarettes before painting. For some reason, my photos uploaded in reverse order.



Tomorrow will bring some color as I will start painting.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

Dig it man, you never see cool daddy'o burns like that on a figure.

 

[JamesOLeary]

I am now getting back to this bust. I pre-shaded it with flat black and then started painting the bandoleer. I only painted the pockets of the bandoleer so far and still have to paint the strap. I started laying in the base color of the jungle fatigue shirt. I am using Scale 75 paints from their Colors of Nature Green Paint set. The bandoleer is base coated with Ardennes Green with highlights gradually applied as Sherwood Green is mixed in. The base color of the shirt is Field Grey.



Hopefully I will get a chance to work on this some more today.

Cheers,
James

 

[JamesOLeary]

I've been out of the loop for a little while. Here are some photos of the base coat of the uniform applied. He sat like this for couple of weeks until I started shading an highlighting today.



Shading and highlighting begins...



And this is as far as I got today...pretty much the same as the last 4 photos, but with the right shoulder with more highlight.



I will work on him some more tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

 

[JamesOLeary]

It has been a very busy several months and I finally got some time at the bench starting yesterday, and this afternoon I finally completed this bust. I did not take any more in-progress photos as I wanted to try to get this completed before the show in Oklahoma City on 12 June. I still need to do a title plate for the base.

Ray was blonde when he was in Vietnam and Cambodia. I tried my best to replicate blonde hair but under certain types of light it looks almost grey. Other than that, I think he turned out fairly well. At the next reunion of the 47th Infantry Regiment in April 2022, I will present this to Ray as a token of appreciation and thanks for his service in Vietnam.





Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[Impisi]

awesome

 

[moon puppy]

I'm sure Ray will get a kick out of this.

 

[mustang1989]

My hat goes off to you James. I really admire those who build figures and can pull it off this well. Fantastic work!!!

 

[sprueman]

outstanding work

 

[helios]

Brilliant James.

 

[Sherman 18]

Fantastic!

 

[Duke Maddog]

Magnificent job James! I'm sure he's gonna love it! Be sure to get pics of Ray's face as he's accepting this so we can all live that experience vicariously.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Thanks, Guys.