Vietcong Sniper 1/35
Hey Tom!
I look forward to seeing your work on this figure. I am sure you will do just fine. Main thing is to not be in a rush and if for some reason you are trying to paint when you are tired, like after a hard day at work, put the paint brush away until you are well rested. I've made that mistake a few times over the years, so I know that the hard way.
Study other people's work like you are doing and figure out what techniques you feel comfortable trying out. Practice some techniques you'd like to try out on some spare figures before jumping in on a figure you really want to turn out well. I was hoping to have done a step-by-step on the painting of a figure, and I still plan to do so, but it will have to wait until we complete our move. If you have any questions about what I do, please feel free to ask. I'd be happy to help the best I can. Most of the techniques I use are pretty simple. There are also different "degrees" of figure painting completion and to what degree of completion you want to attain will drive how much highlighting and shading you would put into the figure. For example, for some of the museum exhibits I have worked on at the Air Defense Artillery Museum, there was a time crunch and the requirement was to paint the figures with a base color, one highlight, and one shadow. This created the contrast necessary for viewing from a distance, and the figures turned out well enough, but they were by no means show worthy like at one of the major figure shows. For figures that I intend to display at a show or to give to a friend, I take more time to do more highlights and shadows. For camo patterns, I usually take the lightest color of the pattern to use as the base color for the figure, then paint the camo pattern. I then shade with very thin coats of a dark color that may not even be part of the colors in the pattern. Highlighting is usually a light glaze of a very thinned out light color which is transparent enough not to obliterate the pattern.
Thanks for the positive comments about my figures. I am glad they have caused you to want to do a figure for this build campaign. I am sure you will have a lot of fun and may even get hooked on working on figures.
In regards to the camo pattern worn by VC snipers, you can either go off of the pictures you already have of the figures as Vladimir from Bravo 6 does extensive research on all of his figures in regards to sculpting the details and painting the figures for the box art, so at least one VC sniper wore the type of camo suit he depicts. Others could have been of Russian design and colors and others could have been made from parachute material like some VC used as poncho like camo covers for themselves. Old French camo patterns are plausible, too. However, most snipers that were encountered, killed, and recovered were wearing the basic black pajamas, NVA uniforms, or pieces of ARVN or US camo clothing. The thing about a guerrilla enemy is that anything available could be used.
Cheers,
James
