Alpine DAK Fallschirmjager Finished

That's this one finished. Had a great time painting this one and learnt a few things about painting lighter colours.

Things I would do differently next time but there always are.

I'm going to paint up the companion piece from this set and place the two figures in a little vignette, stay tuned.

Alpine DAK Fallschirmjager

So after my initial slight hiccup painting the face on this figure, this is how things stand at the moment.

Most of the upper torso is finished with just the legs and a few small details to paint. This was a little more difficult as I had to leave both arms off so I could get to the body parts to paint them effectively. Glueing and filling the arms then painting them in situ can be a slight issue, especially when I'm trying to match up the paintwork.

The focus of this piece was to try and practice painting a light coloured uniform, actually to pre-empt the painting of the figures for my SAS jeep vignette. Light colour uniform painting is something I struggle with, hopefully it works but it is something I still need to practice.

Sometimes it just goes wrong

Things don't always work out the way you planned, after a long lay off from figure painting sometimes it just takes me a while to get back into the groove.

Thought I would post this to illustrate that every now and again there is that project where no matter what you do it just doesn't go how you want. Maybe I left it too long between figures, maybe I was trying too hard or maybe I was just rushing it. Whatever the reason, sometimes it's better to cut your losses, strip it and start again.

This is my first attempt on Alpine's beautiful Ramcke Brigade figure #35125, face is not very neat and definitely not inspiring me to continue at all.

Back to basics then. I stripped the paint off the face with a cotton bud and some neat IPA.

To re-acquaint myself with face painting I watched the excellent youtube videos by Jaume Ortiz, you can find the two videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-pXKtjDd8E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7c6d8zFlZg

Although Jaume's technique is demonstrated on a 75mm head, the technique and colour palette is exactly what I used here.

A base colour of Vallejo 876 Brown Sand, highlighted by adding 815 Basic Fleshtone and shaded by adding 859 Black Red.

This is how face attempt number two turned out, better I think and now I'm more inclined to get on and finish this one.

So if there is a moral here, don't try and force something when it clearly isn't working. Come back to it with fresh eyes and if necessary, start again.

Andrea Miniatures Fallschirmjager, Holland 1940

The advent of 3D printing is slowly making its' mark in our hobby and this release from Andrea Miniatures is a great example of how these new digital sculpting techniques are becoming more common.
Oddly enough, this figure is a mixture of both resin (main body and head) and white metal (arms and equipment). I'm quite bemused by this, obviously Andrea are well known for their white metal figures but I can't understand why the mix of two materials ? Anyhow, once cleaned up and primed it doesn't really make that much difference.

Andrea are slowly adding to this range and these figures are also available in different scales, again an advantage of having digital data to start from. The one main reservation I have about this range of figures is the price, this 1/35th scale figure retails at around the £20 mark. A little expensive compared to say, an Alpine figure but that choice is obviously something to consider.


The figure is depicted in typical early-war Fallschirmjager attire; Fieldblouse over jump trousers, an MP28 slung over his right shoulder and a stick grenade in his left hand. The pose comes from a picture in Der Adler magazine from 1940, showing a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1FjR standing on the Dordrecht Bridge over the River Maas estuary.

There is a lot of equipment to paint on this figure, some of it quite difficult to get at, so I left off the Right arm until later in the paint stages so I could reach those awkward places a little easier. Anyway, here are the colours I used to paint this figure along with a few in-progress shots: (All Vallejo Model Color unless otherwise stated).

Flesh

Base - 876 Brown Sand
Highlight - add 815 Basic Skintone
Shadow - add 814 Burnt Cadmium Red

Helmet

Base - 888 Olive Grey
Highlight - add 815 Basic Skintone
Shadow - add Andrea Black

Scarf

Base - 899 Dark Prussian Bluie
Highlight - add 815 Basic Skintone
Shadow - add Andrea Black
White Spots - 820 Off White

Fieldblouse

Base - 816 Luftwaffe Blue
Highlight - add 815 Basic Skintone
Shadow - add Andrea Black
Yellow Trim - 953 Flat Yellow

Ammunition Bandoliers

Base - 314 Canvas (Panzer Aces)
Highlight - add UA430 HBT Light (Lifecolor)
Shadow - add 887 Brown Violet
Press Studs - 830 Field Grey, (point highlight with 820 added)
* Interestingly, as the figure is armed with an MP28, these KAR98 ammo bandoliers are completely unnecessary !

Gas Mask Bag

Base - 886 Green Grey
Highlight - add 971 Green Grey
Shadow - add 830 Field Grey
Straps - 988 Khaki
Press Studs - 830 Field Grey, (point highlight with 820 added)

Leather Case

Base - 871 Leather Brown
Highlight 1 - add 981 Orange Brown
Highlight 2 - add 819 Iraqi Sand
Shadow - add Andrea Black
Wash - Chestnut Ink (Scalecolor)

Brown Leather (Tropical Webbing)

Base - 875 Beige Brown
Highlight - add 876 Brown Sand
Shadow - add 941 Burnt Umber
Wash - Chestnut Ink (Scalecolor)

Trousers

Base - 830 Field Grey
Highlight - add 815 Basic Skintone
Shadow - add Andrea Black

Jump Boots

Base - Mix of 971 Leather Brown and Andrea Black
Highlight - add more Leather Brown then 819 Iraqi Sand, selectively
Shadow - add Andrea Black

 

 

 

Personally I'm really happy at how this one turned out but just when you think you have painted a nice figure you find an example painted by Jaume Ortiz and realise you have a lot to learn. This is his sublime version of this figure in the same scale ! - think I may just give up now.

This figure and others in the range are available in the UK from Steve Kirtley at SK Miniatures

Fallschirmjager Display - Overloon

This year, rather than fly over for the Scale Model Challenge show in Veldhoven, I decided to take the car and try and visit a few museums along the way. One of the highlights for me was the Fallschirmjager exhibition at the Oorlogsmuseum in Overloon; just North East of Eindhoven near the River Meuse and the German border.


As well as the vehicle exhibits at the museum, they have one of the most extensive displays of Fallschirmjager uniforms and equipment in existence and it has really got me thinking about a future project.
For obvious reasons the exhibits are all behind glass - I shudder to think how much this collection must be worth - and it does make photography a little tricky. So apologies for the quality of some of the photo's but hopefully they are of some use;