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Author Topic: Scratching my Star Wars itch.  (Read 9211 times)

Offline Cubs

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #45 on: July 11, 2020, 07:47:07 PM »
Playing around with different skin tones now for a change from the standard 'Western European' flesh shade.

The first pair I did with an Afro-Caribbean brown skin tone. I was still trying to get the uniform shades exactly how I wanted them with the guy on the left, so you can see his shirt is a little more blue and his trousers a little more brown than the rest. Some very clever person on LAF (I forget who, it may have been the late great Andy Zeck) told me to paint Afro-Caribbean skin by starting with a dark brown and then adding more 'flesh' (ie. the 'Western European' flesh colour) to highlight up, then do the last highlight the same with both skin tones. Raise my rent, but it absolutely does work and this is such a rich skin colour, much better than the flat brown shades I have produced in the past. The guy on the right had a 'tache as well, so it just had to be grey - "Just three more days to my retirement ... I'm too old for this bantha shit."



The second pair I did with a lighter brown shade, same sort of lightness as Western European, just with a brown tone as opposed to a peachy tone. At a pinch I usually use this for Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Latino, etc.. so it has a wide application. The running figure has so much right with it, but also so much wrong. I do like the movement in it, the fact that it's a great 'normal' female model without giant boobs or pouting lips, and the tilt like she's racing along a corridor. But, from the side it's a very awkward looking pose, very upright (I'd have preferred her to be leaning forward into the run) and she has her left arm and left leg both back. People don't run like that! Even if she's not pumping both arms because she's holding her pistol aloft, the left arm would still not be swinging back as the left leg is ... very odd pose. Anyway, probably me over-thinking again. if I get more of these models, she'll be one who's chopped up and re-positioned for variety, probably kneeling down.

'Sir John ejaculated explosively, sitting up in his chair.' ... 'The Black Gang'.

Paul Cubbin Miniature Painter

Offline AKULA

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #46 on: July 11, 2020, 08:02:14 PM »
Love the latest batch Paul - thanks for the tip on the skins tones, will have to give that a go at some point.

 :)

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #47 on: July 11, 2020, 08:02:56 PM »
Brill  8)

Love the skin tone variety  :)
cheers

James

https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/

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Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #48 on: July 11, 2020, 09:35:52 PM »
Nice work on the skin tone.

Offline Swordisdrawn

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #49 on: July 12, 2020, 05:28:44 AM »
Very nice indeed. The skin looks good
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Offline Andym

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #50 on: July 12, 2020, 07:05:23 AM »
Fantastic!  :-* Its the thing I always love about your painting, and its shown again here, how rich your colours are when you paint! They're not just flat colours, there seems to be sooo many tones through them!

Is it just me or does the grumpy old man on the right resemble Harrison Ford?

Offline Cubs

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #51 on: July 12, 2020, 06:44:38 PM »
Thanks guys, just a couple now to finish off the squad.

They're not just flat colours, there seems to be sooo many tones through them!

Thanks, I do have a bad habit of trying to highlight too far quite often which just bleaches out the mid shade, so now I deliberately try to leave deeper shadows in the early layers, so I can get that depth of shade without losing the colour.

Offline Cubs

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #52 on: July 26, 2020, 02:21:29 PM »
Phew, one squad down! I repainted some little bits on the blasters I realised I'd done wrong. The little poky-out bit on the front of the sights are clear plastic or glass caps over a dark peg, so I did the best I could with such a tiny part (as on my wedding night). I also added little helmet aerials made from a split bristle (they're fibrous plastic and split easily) cut from the dustpan and brush I keep in the studio. I used a tiny 0.5mm drill bit in a pin vice and very very carefully drilled a little hole for each, then superglued them and trimmed them with a very sharp scalpel (to avoid shredding). I love 'em, they add such character. I know I should be doing lots of Stormtroopers but ... Odin's chin-dandruff they're boring to paint ... grey, white, black ... grey, white, black ... it's draining. These guys are so much more fun.



I did Captain Antilles' uniform as in the film, but I'm a bit confused. According to the Star Wars bumf I found online, his rank badge (the five blue squares on his chest) denote General (Navy) rank. Perhaps he's referred to as 'Captain' because he was in command of the ship when boarded. Maybe I'm over-thinking. Anyway, further Fleet officers (if I do another pack of these guys, which I might well because they're just so cool and very easy to paint) will be of more junior rank with fewer squares. I'd like to do some NCO's as well, but I don't know what ranks badges they have (if any).





The grenade launcher is a bit of a worry. Perhaps not the sort of thing you want being let off willy-nilly in space and best reserved for ground actions. Maybe that's why they gave it to a solid veteran trooper in the shape of Reg. What they don't know is that Reg's wife left him this morning and he's on the edge, man ... he's on the edge ...





Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #53 on: July 26, 2020, 03:19:58 PM »
Fantastic  8)


Offline Mason

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #54 on: July 26, 2020, 03:29:55 PM »
They look wonderful, really gritty and 'realistic'.
 :-* :-*

As for Rebel rank markings, this may help:
https://www.justingrays.org/my-blog/2018/2/10/rebel-alliance-ranks-explained


Offline Cubs

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #55 on: July 26, 2020, 04:09:09 PM »
As for Rebel rank markings, this may help:
https://www.justingrays.org/my-blog/2018/2/10/rebel-alliance-ranks-explained

Aha! So it was as I suspected! It is a bit of a tooth-grinder that the models all clearly have square rank pips though, where they should be round. I just know this will get to me eventually and I'll end up ruining all my officers by chopping away at their insignia. They don't seem to have any ranks equivalent to NCO's though. 

Offline majorsmith

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #56 on: July 26, 2020, 04:48:28 PM »
Wow! Fantastic!

Offline gamer Mac

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #57 on: July 26, 2020, 05:25:41 PM »
Stunning :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
Love the faces

Offline Nicklas P

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #58 on: August 01, 2020, 09:34:28 AM »
These are excellent, Paul!  :-*

Offline Cubs

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Re: Scratching my Star Wars itch.
« Reply #59 on: January 15, 2022, 06:02:46 PM »
It's been a while (grown-up stuff getting annoyingly in the way) but I've done a couple more. These are the Star Wars Legion Hoth 'Rebel Veterans', or at least 3 of them. They were a surprising ball-ache for me, blending up several different off-white shades for the various parts of the uniforms and kit, just for them to basically come much the same. Bum. The snow flock is a lovely product I bought years back from a railway shop with just the right balance between powder and sparkle, but it's a bit of a pain to apply. If you just glue it the flock soaks up the glue and goes translucent, so I paint the base white, then mix up a paste of glue, water and flock. I brush a thin layer of glue on the base and then apply this paste to it and tamp it down as well as I can with a sculpting tool. When it's firmly in place but still moist, it gets dunked in the flock and left. I then get a nice thick carpet of snow that still sparkles on top (although the photos don't really show that off too well).



The first dude had a Sullustan (the species that Nien Nunb is, with the big pleated cheek flaps) head, which didn't sit well with me, him being standard height and all with Sullustan's being usually much shorter than humans. Thus I decided to carve away his big cheeks, cover the bottom half of the face with a cloth (a cheat I know, but he already had one round his neck) and reduce the size of his eyes during painting to make him a human. It came off fine, especially since his face is largely in shadow under the peak of his cap anyway.




The second model I was surprised to find was female during the painting. I do like the female models in the Star Wars Legion range - they're not overly obvious (body shapes aren't easy to distinguish under all that padding after all) but have subtle proportion and facial hints. You could paint her as male quite easily if you wanted to, but why bother? She's a great pose with a great face and ... some sort of big gun. I don't know, more knowledgeable Star Wars peeps can no doubt tell me what it is.




The third model is a great pose but the beard looked a bit odd to me - too much like a Lego beard stuck on. Maybe he's in disguise? Or he's on the way to a fancy dress party? I appear to have gone mad with the flock here, because he's had a liberal dose of the stuff and I failed to brush it all away before taking the photo. However, there is a peek into my OCD here - I always need to paint something on the bottom of feet if they show. In this case, I wanted to put a realistic snow-boot texture on the bit of heel he's cheekily showing as he crouches. It's a sickness, I know.