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Hero of the Soviet Union, MMM 1/9 scale bust


Eludia

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Hey again folks,

Here is my latest WiP, one of the Heroes of the Soviet Union trio by MMM. It is a fantastic sculpt by Pavol Ovecka (Offo) and has been a pleasure to paint so far. He is painted in water mixable oils over acrylic base coat. Metals are done with printers ink.

The red star on the base is a cheapie from ebay but, after polishing, I think it came up ok (there was a much more authentic looking WW2 era star on there but I didn't fancy paying £55 for it).

Comments and critique are most welcome, as always.

Thanks for tuning in :)

HotSU-1.jpg

HotSU-2.jpg

HotSU-3.jpg

HotSU-4.jpg

HotSU-5.jpg

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Cheers Billy, there's not much more to do really so hopefully he'll be done in the next week or so. I was quite far into this project before I remembered to take some WIP shots, oops ;)

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Cheers Crayons :)

I've stuck to the limited palette as much as possible but I've also (sparingly) used Crimson, Raw and Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna on this one. Although I wasn't happy with the skin tone shading I was getting with Burnt Sienna so I've redone the skin using the limited palette. I used a little Crimson on the medal ribbons and epaulettes, Raw Umber was used for the poncho draw-cords and Burnt Umber was used as a base for the yellow metals.

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Oh, and I'll be using a little bit of Cad Yellow for the striping on the Order of Lenin ribbon as they are a deep warm yellow.

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Thanks Mitch, it's nice to know my stab in the dark at the hat colour hit home (or close enough anyway), most of those I saw online were variations of khaki/olive so I decided to do something different to avoid the "sea of green" look ;)

Thanks for looking in :)

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This bust looks very well sculpted, and you are absolutely making him justice with your painting! :thumbsup: I really love the skin tone; how about trying also with some traces of unshaved beard ? :devil::whistle:

Ciao

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Thanks Giemme, I'm glad you like him. I want to emphasise how young the unknown soldier is and so will probably depict him clean shaven (or not even shaving yet ;))

I believe Pavol used the following photograph as the basis of the sculpt and it will hopefully give you an idea of how young these soldiers were:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4039/4409878237_46fd301496.jpg

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Thanks Giemme, I'm glad you like him. I want to emphasise how young the unknown soldier is and so will probably depict him clean shaven (or not even shaving yet ;))

I believe Pavol used the following photograph as the basis of the sculpt and it will hopefully give you an idea of how young these soldiers were:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4039/4409878237_46fd301496.jpg

I'll stand corrected, then :winkgrin:

Ciao

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Thats a nice figure, paint looks excellent so far, I don't think he's an unknown soldier though, he does look very much like a representation of Vasily Zaitsev who looked NOTHING like Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates.

Vasily_Zaitsev_zpseke1xykg.jpg

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Thanks Mick :)

I'm not convinced that the sculpt is of Zaitsev, although that would have been pretty cool (especially with a chest full of medals and the sniper rifle). My main reason ing is that Zaitsev was assigned the rank of Senior Warrant Officer after transferring from the navy in order to serve on the front line (according to Wiki, not the most reliable of reference sources granted, but good enough for me ;)). The subject of the sculpt wears the rank of junior sergeant (2 bars on his epaulettes).

Also there are too many similarities between the colourised photo and the sculpt; the tear in the shirt, the correct medals etc. although I don't the think the facial features match either photo if I'm honest but that's just down to the artistic license of the sculptor, as is the addition of the poncho methinks. Basically I feel he has used the photo as a starting point and then just worked his voodoo from there ;)

The model is also marketed as an "Unknown Hero": http://mitchesmilitarymodels.co.uk/?product=vbust-hsu01-unknown-hero

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On a side note, I had a go at doing his hair and eyes tonight and it was a bit of a disaster. I ended up putting it aside for the night before I did any more damage, I'll try and rescue it tomorrow or Wednesday :(

No photos, sorry (too embarrassed)

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I see what you mean about the figure and the naming, it might be something to get around not actually calling it who it actually is, same as Han Solo figures being called space hero etc. Hair and eyes are my downfalls every time, googled eye colours and hair colours but no matter how carefully you match colours it always seems to lose something in the change in scale, eyes too bright, hair wrong colour etc, so will definitely be taking my time, as I'm doing the Nutsplanet Viking Shieldmaiden I need to research Katheryn Winnick from the TV series Vikings, she seems to be the inspiration for the figure, it's my excuse and valid :analintruder:

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A perfectly valid excuse, I might even volunteer to be your research assistant ;)

I just found your WiP thread, I'll be following with interest.

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