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.

Alpine US Tank Crew #1

Some final snaps of the figure I've just completed, Alpine Miniatures 35051 WW2 US Tank Crew #1.

Painted with Vallejo Model Colour and Panzer Aces acrylics.