After a long time building this small diorama featuring an burnt out Opel and four Dragon figures it is finally finished. I am very happy with the result. The final steps were carried out by attaching shoulder straps (made from paper and some brass parts from Aber) to the remaining rifles and then painting the rifles. The final fixation of the figures to the base brought no further difficulties.
And that is how the finished diorama looks like:
I reworked the Opel using the Lifecolor rust set. The colors are very good to use, they can be thinned very heavily and still dry totally matt. Here they are:
I applied these (from light to dark) on the already rusted areas. Then I applied pigments in light colors (light dust, concrete etc).
The look of the debris was enhanced using different pigments (brick colors mixed from pastel chalks, rubble) that I sprinkled over the bricks and then fixed using pigment fixer.
As a final touch I also added some dark oils to the rims of the steel door.
This is the final look of the diorama base:
To achieve a better fit of the figures to the base, I applied dirt using different oils and humbrol colors. Humbrols were used for earth colors, and oils for dust and traces of brick dust:
Now the figures are ready to be fixed to the base. Then I will finish the helmets and the weapons.
The figures are almost finished now. Yesterday I applied the base color of the boots, details and shading are still to be done. I will also try to add dust and dirt to the figures.
That is how the guys look now:
One figure is carrying a Karabiner (rifle) on its back, therefore I painted it already:
Now I finally finished the last figure for now. I also started to paint the heads and hands. The last figure already has its hands attached:
This is how the hands look like:
The eyes have been painted, and also the heads have been painted in the base color and then highlighted:
I use a mixture of Vallejo US Olive Drab (889) and English Uniform (921) for painting German Felduniform 44. The original color is slightly more brownish, but I am happy with the color I use.
Below are some color samples:
C is mixed from 921 and 830, D from 921 and German Cam Black Brown (822). Both look very similar, but I think both are too bright.
F is mixed from 921 and 924. I use color H, mixed from 889 and 921.
Unfortunately I did not find time to post new material for quite some time. Since the last post I continued painting the figures.
After some critical review, I decided to repaint the uniform of the first figure. The color looks now more natural, and also the shadowing of the creases looks better:
The second figure is also finished for now:
I just started painting the third figure:
After finishing all four figures, I will continue with painting the heads and hands, and then the rifles. Still some way to go…
And of course Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
During the last weeks, I built the figures and started painting them. I kept the arms, heads and hands apart for ease of painting. The parts of the gear were then cut into shape using the Dremel tool and a hobby knife to make them fit to the underlying parts of the figures (e.g. the bread bags). I then also added parts of the carrying straps from Milliput.
Then the figures and all parts left were primed using Tamiya grey, and then I started painting them. One figure is now finished except for the boots (I will paint these after the heads and the hands are finished and glued to the figures).
The painted figure:
Almost everything is painted using Vallejo acrylics, only for deeper recesses (gas masket can, canteen, mess kit) a slight oil wash was used. Seams were also highlighted and shadowed using acrylics.
I also started with the second figure:
The uniform jacket is already shadowed and highlighted, outlining is still missing. The belt and the ammunition pouches are also finished, the bread bag received its base color.
Until now, I have painted the helmets of the Dragon figures. A lot of material dealing with German helmets can be found on the web, these helmets will be painted in slate grey.
I started with priming with Tamiya medium grey and then hand painted the helmets using Vallejo Black Grey with some Russian Uniform added to lighten the color.
Inspired by an example from Calvin Tan (http://zyclyon.blogspot.ch/2011/09/alla-prima-wet-on-wet-with-acrylic.htm), but he is using acrylic color with drying retarder) I added tiny spots of different oils (yellow ochre, burnt umber, black, warm grey) and blended them carefully with a brush dampened with turpentine. You have to work very concentrated and stop blending in time, otherwise the helmet is covered with a single color mix. First, I tried also using blue, but this can result in some ugly greenish tint together with the yellow and orange tones.
When dried, a point wash around the rivets was added. Then, some highlights on the top of the helmets were added using the Vallejo base color lightened with Deck Tan.
Now I finished the bricks and the rubble in the space where the figures are to be placed. And this how it looks like (the holes / brass rods show where the figures will be fixed to):
To the right of the Opel I added two burnt out jerry cans:
During spring this year, I already started building the figures, and added ammunition pockets made from Milliput:
Now I will continue to build and paint the figures.
fieldgrau - military scenes in scale 