US Navy ground crew

[geedubelyer]

Hullo blokes and blokettes,

This little project was a pleasant diversion from my on-going F-14 build and is intended to be used in the background of the finished aircraft (if I ever get that far..)

The first attempt was too sun tanned. I tried for a tanned look since these guys spend alot of their working life outdoors but this bloke was burned to a crisp.....

I used Citadel Miniatures acrylics for the colours and started with Tanned Flesh but it was obviously too dark.

For the second attempt I began with a lighter shade for the basecoat and this worked a little better...

The eyes are Vallejo light grey and black. White can often look too bright in this scale so using light grey tones the starkness down a bit. For the iris and pupil, I concentrated on trying to create the circular shape but making sure that the top of the iris was covered by the upper eye-lid. (All too often figure painters try to paint a perfect circle but if you look at real folk, some of the coloured part of the iris is often under the eye-lids.)

The paintwork is n't as crisp as some though,.....I can't see enough detail close-up to be perfect but when you view the figure at 1:1 he looks ok.

The flesh tones are Citadel Miniatures flesh shades dry-brushed. I used the darkest of three shades for the basecoat, painting the whole face with that. The mid-tone was applied from the bottom of the face up...I thin the paint alot and then dry-brush as normal. For some reason, using thin paint gives a smoother yet no less intense finish. I thought that thinning the paint would result in thin colour but the result is suprisingly effective and seems to give a smoother transition between tones. the lightest of the three tones was dry-brushed from the top down resulting in subtle highlights on the nose and cheeks etc. The Academy figure is beautifully sculpted which helps.

I picked out the eye brows and 'tache with a dark brown (Scorched Brown for them what know) and then used a lighter shade to give some variation to the hair using light strokes with a thin brush in the direction of the hair growth.

The "cranial" needs some work though. The detail is pretty soft and benefits from the use of a sharp scalpel to deepen and accentuate the borders of the hard sections of the helmet. The lost detail was replaced using metal foil to recreate the ear defender band and soft cover.

The colour of the hat denotes the job the crew man performs. This guy is a brown hat making him a Plane Captain. I had alot of help from Reddog over on ARC. As an ex-US Navy guy, Gerry was enormously helpful so a big thumbs-up to him.

With the head finished, it was time to sort out the rest of the figure. Academy have represented a Marine for use with their F-18 model which means some conversion is needed here.

I asked Gerry about these pockets and was told to remove the pockets on the legs but the jacket could be left as is, depicting a foul/cold weather jacket that the Navy uses. I quick session with a model knife, sanding stick and mini-files and the pockets were history. I then had to add a tool pouch from green stuff to replicate a Navy Plane Captain. As a first attempt at painting, I was off the mark with the body too. I used the same technique as the head, darkest shade for the basecoat, mid from the bottom, light from the top.

I had no idea what colours to use so my initial try was too light...

After consulting with Reddog I darkened everything up and finished the figure off with some bootlaces made from lead wire....

Now I've got to get back to the Tomcat so this bloke has something to lean against..

See you next time, cheers.

Edited November 1, 2009 by geedubelyer

[Guest snipersmudge]

nice and unusual figure

[James G]

Wow, superb painting! Is this the figure you get in with the Academy 1/32 F/A-18C? Looks nice for injection-moulded.

[addz0009]

Nice paint work

[Phil]

Should he not be wearing a flight deck jacket (Mk 1 life preserver)?

http://www.amronintl.com/mk1-inflatable-vest.html

[GH05T8]

Nice! Great paintwork and excellent detail on the cranial.

@Phil:This guys probably just overseeing a penalty turn on the beach.

Thanks for sharing,

Justin