1/35 scale civilians -- figures

[Malachi Constant]

Speaking of sculpting videos, took a few minutes at lunch time here to browse some of the "miniature figure sculpting" videos on you-tube.  This one is by "Solo" -- the artist who sculpted the Aurora-Models street girl figure shown before.  Video shows figures emerging from clay with some groovy music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y6bfrJZDoo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11D0hiFLhyE&feature=related

Well, actually, I dig the music on the first one ... second one not as much (ymmv) ... but neat vids!

Cheers,
Dallas

[eTraxx]

Ed -- You might want to have a look at Creager Studios:
http://www.creagers.com/index.html

and search "Creager Studios Sculpting" on you-tube for some sample videos. <snip>

HOLY CRAP!! I just sat and watched videos (clips) 1-9 on Sculpting the Head. I was transfixed. That is great stuff. Looks like I will be ordering a video!

[Malachi Constant]

Glad you liked.  Think they used Sculpey ... which requires that you stop and bake it a various points.  With the Magic Sculp, you just stop and let it harden for an hour or two before moving on.  That way you can get a head shape, let it sit, then come back and add more details, etc.  -- Dallas

[eTraxx]

Yeah. She used Super Sculpy. I was just fascinated at the skills .. someone takes clay .. and adds a bit of 'magic'

[Ray Dunakin]

I just watched a couple of the videos by SOLO, and was surprised to see that it starts with a blob of clay and carves away at it to get the shape. Everyone else I've heard of, works by adding clay to an armature. Very interesting to see a different approach.

[Malachi Constant]

Started working on the hair color and ran into some trouble getting the effects I wanted ... stripped off the first round of paint ... and did a fair amount of additional carving in the hair to bring out more individual locks/strands of hair for highlighting ...



Left side shows the re-carved hair with the base coat, a sepia ink wash and three shades of highlighting ... right side shows the same after glazing with sepia ink and glaze medium to unify the colors a bit and bring back the honey blond color.  Will let this dry fully and see if it needs another layer ... also did additional carving in those little pigtails at the end of the braids to get some more detail there. 

Lemme know if anyone is interested in specific details on paint colors, etc ... have notes ... otherwise I'll just occasional progress shots as she "shapes" up. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[eTraxx]

Dallas .. she needs some big hoop earrings !

Looking good. Got my Magic Sculp in so will be playing with it shortly.

[Ray Dunakin]

Dallas, I'm curious about the process of stripping off the paint... what type of paint was it, and what did you use to strip it? I may need to do that some time.

[Malachi Constant]

Hi Ray --

I realized that I didn't like the original paint soon after it had been done, so I took some Testor's Universal Acrylic Thinner (from the hobby) shop ... scrubbed that on with a short-bristle nylon brush ... as that collected paint, I wiped it off on a paper towel and went back with more clean thinner until it was down to the primer.  Pretty easy in this case, since the paint hadn't really dried completely ... would probably work in a similar fashion with "set" paint ... just a little more time to do it.

PS -- It's also handy to have that thinner around for other uses.  For example, if you want to do a really thin, translucent layer of paint, you can use the thinner rather than water to thin the paint.  If you thin acrylic with water too much, the pigments will start to float or separate and create a grainy look ... with the thinner, you can thin them a little bit more ... and the thinner will help that very thin translucent layer adhere to the layers underneath.  (But, if you're going to layer in this fashion, allow the underlying paint to fully dry before adding another layer ... otherwise you'll "mud" the layers together.)

Cheers,
Dallas

[Ken Hamilton]

Dallas, I really need to poke around this Forum a little more.
I found this thread thru a link from another Forum and have totally missed this until now.
This is some great modeling!  LOVE the structure project "over there".....
Beautifully done.

[Malachi Constant]

Making some progress again ... last week, it looked like Lucie might get assimilated by the Borg!  Was trying to do the eyes (with mascara) using my cheap, crappy brushes ... which was hard enough ... when it became apparent that I'd have to do some re-shaping of her left eye to get the desired appearance.  Ugh!  Stripped the paint in that area ... managed to get in there with a knife and tiny riffler file ... then I was kinda stumped on how to sand/smooth the area after re-shaping.  Cheap tiny burnishing tools:  Managed to do that by whittling, shaping and filing a flat wooden toothpick to do the first round of smoothing ... then cut the swab off a Q-tip and used the hard paper stick as a burnishing tool.  Ended up doing some additional re-shaping after the photo above right.



Good investment:  After struggling to do 1/35 scale mascara with cheap, crappy brushes, decided it was time to invest in some DaVinci Maestro Kolinsky Sables.  Good move!  Old brushes shown on the left, the sables are on the right ... they're shaped to hold paint in the body, but remain sharp at the point.  Very nice!



Oooh, scary!  Alright, this is pretty dang scary, cuz it's about 6x actual size (on a 19" monitor) ... and there's no way I can make one of these little figures look good blown up that big ... BUT ... demonstrates how well those new brushes work.  Was able to do almost everything with the #0 sable ... did the mascara & irises with the #3/0 and used the #10/0 to dot the pupils and do some touch-up of the mascara, whites of the eyes, etc.  You could paint freckles on a gnat with that brush.  The extreme close-up is scary, but shows how the brushes allowed good placement of the irises, mascara, etc.  Will be working on better pre-paint prep and sanding of primer on future figures!



A little better:  Goal is to make the figure presentable at 2x actual size, so I can do some close-ups.  Face and chest have received the first layer of glaze to smooth out the transitions in shading, etc.  Think this is akin to the "filter" concept, but not sure of the terms there ... will get another round or two of the glaze ... once the arms and hands are done.  Want to keep her skin tones light, but add a little warmth and depth ... first glaze is a definite step in the right direction, but wanted to keep that really light to make sure before doing too much.  Making progress on coloring the jeans and figured it was best to get those and the shirt done before final painting/shading on the arms ... for obvious reasons! 

[Ray Dunakin]

The extreme closeup really isn't too bad. Painting any face on a figure that small, to look that good in such closeup, is tough!

[DaKra]

Well since this is the forum where its cool to offer constructive criticism--  IMHO she looked really good until the makeup went on.  Why is a tomboy wearing makeup at a garage?    I'll buy the premise of a female helper, its a good visual gag.  And I'll accept the tight pants and low cut T shirt, even though it might cause a scandal for a female to be seen like that in the 1930s, outside her home.  But the makeup ... too much.

Other nitpick-- the cobalt blue pants seem too bright at this stage.  You can find vintage color photos of train men wearing denims in various stages of wear and grime, they start a deep dark blue and end up blue grey.  Personally, I'd have put her in baggy overalls to match her environment better. 

The fact that you have a female helper is a nice visual surpise, don't want to negate it by overdoing or making her out of place or otherwise not-believable.

Just some thoughts, I'm enjoying this build!   

Dave

[Malachi Constant]

You must realizink, of course, that she is Russian spy with difficoolties blending in to general populiss. 

Okay ... no BIG arguments ... in fact, I'll concede you're right or essentially right on all points.  She's a total anachronism in those snug jeans and real snug T-shirt ... the coloring of the jeans HAS been toned down a lot since those photos were shot ... (definitely favor your view there) ...

Make up is a bit strong in the close-ups ... but in normal views, I think it'll just make her look "cute" and "girlie" ... in that regard ... I present Miss Fay Wray ... circa 1920s ... and note that she was a bit of a "nipper" too!

Lefty Lucie will be included in a variety of scenes for fun ... if I somehow manage to make the whole garage come out somewhat realistic, I'll includes some shots with a more dirty, ugly, ordinary looking staff!

Again, no arguments ... appreciate ALL input ... the figures are planned to remain "mobile" ... so there's a chance that even Charlie Chaplin or Groucho could show up in the joint ... only the shadow knows.  Will post some updated photos of Lucie soon for final review.

Cheers,
Dallas

[Malachi Constant]

Here's another "misfit character" that I'm working on.  This one is a joint project between Garry Cerrone & myself for our mutual friend Steve Fisher, who's now building a dual-gauge layout with 3/8n40 and 3/8n20 ... and there will be an odd mix of stuff, as Gary and I will bring some 1/35n2 models and 1/35 figures to mix, match, mis-match or whatever. 

This guy started out as a Tamiya figure with bicycle ... Garry sculpted the hat and big mustache and did some re-working of the military jacket on the original figure.  I saw that big hat and mustache and decided that he needed a splashier jacket and a bolo necktie.  Did some more carving on the jacket, then some putty ... still needed to do the bolo strings.  Named him "Eduardo Carrochio the bicycling bullfighter" ... but since he's not destined for my layout, Steve will have to come up with the back-story on this odd character! 

Will start painting him after Lucie's done ... and also get back to work on the garage ... we've got some pegboard, fanbelts and other "junque" to ornament the place!

Cheers,
Dallas