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bangle

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Everything posted by bangle

  1. I finally got round to taking some photos of my latest figure, she doesn't look much like her box art and i'm not so great at painting blondes so she has light brown hair. She does look a bit like she has a smudge on her face in the photo because cameras but in person she doesn't. One of the frustrations of photography I suppose, the camera does pick out every flaw!
  2. I might have to try it, it sounds like a good challenge! After these ones I might have a small break. With 4 figures to go (having finished an as yet unphotographed one yesterday) I feel like i've painted enough figures in one go for my liking. I'm glad I didn't pick an army! Though at some point i'd love to do a diorama with ships, I saw an epic cutting out expedition diorama the other day and I do like making wooden ship models!
  3. Now that would really be great! Also that's very handy info, I think I may have found a face for my loco driver in there.
  4. I've never heard of Bravo-6 but I suppose that's no surprise seeing I haven't really been into making figures until recently. They do look like they paint well, it's just a shame there's a fairly limited choice when it comes to civilians across the board, unless you want a refugee, a lady of the night or a pin-up of course! I suppose it's supply and demand though, most dioramas tend to be military.
  5. On another note I have another figure that I completed late yesterday minus the newspaper of course!
  6. Thanks guys, I'm sure she would! There is indeed a tram figure to go with the figures, David (husband) is busy on the construction, it's a joint project so i'll be contributing to that too. After the figures are mostly done (some will have to do without arms or legs till certain parts are constructed), i'm going to be on wood effect among other things and anything that happens to be my particular strength. David's much better at airbrushing than I am so the exterior will mostly be him. It's the MiniArt tram so it's super fiddly with plastic that likes to fracture when dropped so he's working hard but coming along slowly. This picture was taken last week so there's been some progress since then. It's only one of many test fits as MiniArt likes to make it difficult! Thanks Kev, i've been having a good look at some of the other stuff, I think I prefer the Master Box as it seems much more crisp, particularly the faces. The MiniArt sitting figures and tram crew are really good though. I wasn't as keen on the German Civilians set, I had a bit of a fight with the legs on the tartan lady, I don't like how the legs go into holes on a plate and the break down wasn't as good. The other two sets break off at the shoulder joint and natural points where you'd expect a seam, those ones didn't and their faces aren't as clear. That said, it was a complete nightmare getting the sitting lady in the green dress to cross her legs without looking like she'd dislocated one. I noticed MiniArt don't even try on theirs! I can't complain too much though, all their figures seem nicely proportioned all round and the detail is there.
  7. Nice work! Your cast looks good and cleaning up a few rough edges has got to be better than trying to sort out a broken piece, I find the filling and sanding of resin figures a real pain too! I'll be interested in seeing your work on Akane when you get started, I remember watching Rumbling Hearts, it's a surprisingly hard hitting anime compared to the cutesy outside appearance of the front cover.
  8. Thanks guys! I'm sure Hitler's mustache was very popular in the day . I'm sure that's one fashion that will never come around again! I didn't see it before but I believe you're right crayons, I was looking at figures for my poor neglected BR86 the other day and there's not much to choose from. It's a shame he's not standing! He'd look just perfect leaning over the door of his cab. I looked at the LZ models figures and they look really odd to me, kind of chunky and bow legged somehow, like their hips are in the wrong place. The other figures available from CMK look the complete opposite, all spindly with huge hands and strange trousers! The man shoveling coal looks fine though. Maybe i'll look into it sometime, I do want to finish the loco some day. My next figure is in progress, i've had a little break but i'm back on them. For this one I seem to have accidentally made my old lady look like David Dickinson . I should be finished today so you'll see what I mean soon!
  9. One more figure down, I'm half way through now! This is the old gentleman who won't really seem all that complete till I paint his co-conspirator lady friend to chat to. I'm not as happy with my effort on this one, but not enough to re-do him. His trousers were a complete pain to get the right colour, I messed up and had to change the shade twice! I'm happy with the colour now though, my selection of blues is a bit limited so it took me a while to get the mix right, Prussian blue is a very strong colour to work with!
  10. Of course they are Your grandmother sounds like she was a real character! I'm not sure i'd enjoy a sharp poke to the ribs though! Hopefully not, I might just hide him somewhere! I also like Vallejo though the very first time I used them I hated them as I tried to sand a painted surface and was horrified to see it peel off as rubbery globs. My paints went back in the drawer for a couple of years and I learnt a valuable lesson! Thanks BillyD, I feel like i'm discovering something new each time I paint at the moment. It's been a while since I felt like my model making abilities have taken a leap forward so i'm enjoying the experience. I have a 1/16th scale French figure with my Takom tank so I might give him a go when i've finished these. I've made some significant progress on another figure today as it's my day off so hopefully it will be made by tomorrow.
  11. It's nice to know I can have a little bit of realism into my diorama, I believe the lady in question is based off a well known photo of the time. I'm quite impressed your grandmother managed to live to such an age with all that smoking, she must have been very active! Today's progress involves completing another sitting lady, I think she's the type who is unnerved by strangers! I also took a picture of my gentleman with the suitcase, he's the first one I made of the series and I think I may have improved since I started.
  12. I agree, the tartan lady does indeed look like she's put on a bit of weight! I can't really say my method is my own, I just followed the instructions in a book I bought 'The paint guide for figures of WWII' by Joaquin Garcia Gazquez and they came out really well! I was quite impressed as I have been a pretty poor figure painter before then. I didn't use his color suggestions though, I prefer different tones to what he uses. The core idea I got from his book is to look at the shadows and highlights that naturally form on the figure before it's painted and gradually shade based on that. I found I could tell if i've gone wrong as i'm going along as it really stands out! Also I learnt it's very easy to overdo it! I use vallejo model color paints, a fairly recent thing for me as i've only just converted to acrylics from enamel for hand-brushing so i'm still experimenting with using them. On the whole a lot of this is new ground for me so i'm still learning a lot! I find each figure has a new challenge in it somewhere. For my latest figure it's blonde hair, I had to do a lot of trial and error to find a selection that I was happy with. She's nearly finished now so i'll have some pictures up soon.
  13. Having very recently felt flushed with success at painting up 2 figures for my husband without making them look like googly eyed monsters, I suddenly went crazy and agreed to paint 14 (yes 14!) figures for our next model making project. We're building the MiniArt tram and we're making a nice non-military diorama to go with it. I bought the MiniArt german sitting civilians, tram crew with passengers, the 1930's-40's German civilians and Frau Muller with her bicycle from Master Box. So far i've discovered that 1:35th figures are terribly tricky and photographing them is even harder! I'm doing my best to replicate the images on the box art (I will for ever more despair that MiniArt decided that one particular lady would look lovely in a tartan coat!). I'm just less than half way through, here's the line up so far:- First we have the old lady from the 30's to 40's set, now in the images she's supposed to be looking shocked looking at bombed out stuff, but as trams aren't really all that shocking I turned her into a smoker with the addition of a little brass rod. First she looked like a scary gremlin, but I fixed that eventually. She's standing with her one armed friend, who was actually the first to get painted, he actually has an arm and a suitcase now. I actually enjoyed giving him pinstripe trousers, which are surprisingly effective. I'll have to include a completed picture of him at some point when I can be bothered to faff with the camera again. Next I painted the man I call the grumpy gentleman with the mustache. The next one is my favorite so far, I added a little pattern to her headscarf which was fun. Finally my latest completed figure was the trickiest, yes it's the lady in the tartan coat, this was horribly tricky to achieve but I think I just about pulled it off. Irritatingly cameras have far better vision than we do! I'm working on another couple of figures at the moment, another lady and an old gentleman. I'm hoping by this evening i'll be another figure down!
  14. I certainly understand that feeling! I'm very much enjoying not having to reshuffle my pile of various model making paraphernalia as i'm working!
  15. I also finally have some progress, after much messing about with cars and other annoying things I have actually managed to complete a model. It's rather embarrassing that it's been so long! Anyhow, I had much fun with paint, first making the model far too dark, then finally settling on a yellow primer and Tamiya X-7 on top. I decided to do all the no step stencils and all the other tiny ones I could see freehand with white enamel paints. I also added some silver rivet details and of course the back of my props are black (thank you all of you for leading me in the right direction). There are a few minor inaccuracies but i'll leave them to those who wish to spot them. I'm just pleased to have actually completed something for a change! Here is my aircraft just after the red was applied, progress photos pretty much stopped after this point! Completed model pictures will arrive as soon as i've finished messing around on photobucket. As with the rest of the build there was barely a hitch, the undercarriage went together perfectly, which is pretty impressive seen as i'd, rather irresponsibly neglected to do a test fit! Also included is a picture of me applying decals at our new 2m long husband and wife model making table, which I love and is probably the sole reason I actually regained the motivation to actually complete my model. Since I mentioned it here's a lovely photo of the chaos that was before and our new table, before we put all the same clutter back on it (just much more spread out now).
  16. Thanks both of you, for some reason I never actually replied, i'm back to model making again, it seems a new desk works wonders!
  17. Thanks for the encouragement, I really appreciate it! Despite the fact that I know it's going to be a massive pain to mask I decided I really needed to blend in the glass on the nose with the rest of the fuselage as on the real thing it is very much an almost seamless transition. I also pre-painted a ring of black underneath before I glued on the part so it has a black rim inside like the real thing. It's going to be subtle but viewable (I hope!) I also added the tailplane, the undercarriage bits (whatever they're called) the canopy and the pitot. O ha and of course the tail skid, which i'd say if I had to pick the only part that doesn't really fit very well, this is it. I ended up fitting it then cutting it down to a shape that looks kind of right. I suspect it would have been a better idea to test fit it more and cut it down a bit before I glued it on as the main issue seemed to be that it had extra material that made it step rather than curve onto the fuselage. Thankfully though my new friend supeer glue helped me out and all is well again! Up next is some masking, then i'm hopefully on to paint!
  18. I got some of my least favorite jobs done yesterday. I scribed the underside, which i'm quite relieved actually worked ok as my scribing skills are highly variable. Thankfully I now actually own a scribing tool that works so that probably helps. I also got my canopy off it's casting block, and i'm quite relieved to say I didn't break it! It looks lovely and clear and shiny now it's had a wash. I test fitted it on the model and i'm pleased to say it fits extremely well and is displays the interior very clearly which I really like.
  19. Thanks! It's update time again. I've been busy with the super glue as filler again. The wings and the tail are now very much firmly attached. I love the shape of the wings on this plane, they almost seem glider like. I had to do some filling but it wasn't all that arduous, although I will be going along and putting the panel lines back in along the wing roots. I think I might fill the lines on the underside and scribe them thinner than the originals too. The nice thing about the super glue is it's clear so I can see exactly where the lines were!
  20. Thanks for letting me know! Those are some excellent photos you've taken there! I'll certainly be using them as a reference. Your underside photo makes me want to work on maybe reducing the width of the panel lines on the bottom. It also helps to know the rudder would be better blended, among other things. Looking at the pictures the propeller blades look like they're black on the pilot's side is this right?
  21. So my fuselage is all together, the tail piece needed a bit of filling but it's not too bad when you can use super glue as a filler material, it being so small! Anyhow, here's some pictures, i'm still kicking myself about that underside. I could have done so much better had I taken more time! Of course the knock on effect is I spent more effort sanding and I managed to round off my wing root on one side so I just created myself some more work!
  22. The SBS kits really are great, the precision on these is quite impressive. Everything fits pretty much first time, though I did make the mistake of trying to glue the bottom and sides at the same time which means I have some gaps to fill on mine. Definitely more user error on that one though than kit as when I tested it there weren't any gaps on the fuselage halves. There were some on the floor piece but nothing too drastic. I found some photos of the cockpit in its current form on someones walk-around pictures from 2005 so I used those. I don't mind going for the modern rather than period look on this one. I'd say they're a model maker by the photos they took so plenty of information to go on. Here's the link http://digitalaviationart.com/skyraider3d/photos/walkarounds/dh88.htm#09 Also i'm pleased you all remember the 86, it is still around and I do intend to get back on it once i've built up a bit of model making momentum again!
  23. Thanks! I'd agree it is a rather attractive looking plane. It may be the obvious choice but i'm going for the red scheme.
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