SPA Modeler

There has been quite a bit of progress since my last post mainly because the weather has cooperated and has been wet and unusually cold over the past few weeks. I was able to paint the checker board patterns (dice) on all the hats/bonnets and on this particular Officer figure I painted the highlights of the feathers using a mix of Ultra Marine Blue and Ivory Black oils. After that, I worked the main coat in a red tone and completed all the trimmings. This wasn’t a simple task, there’s a lot of detail to tend to here. After working my way down the figure everything began to fall into place. The oils just do their magic, so to speak.



I will say it now, so there won’t be any further debate, the 42nd Highlander kilt/tartan is not correct, but it stays. I may attempt to correct it with the rest of the crew, but to those of you that know, it will be obvious. This was not intentional, it just happened, and after I finished my 4th attempt, I’d had enough, it stays! Like I said, the Denison smock was easier in the scale I rendered, but in this scale, sheeeesh, I give no excuse.



The figure received a Dull Coat and was dried quickly with a hair dryer. I have thoroughly enjoyed working this figure, especially once the oils were broken out and the brush strokes began. Up next, the Hatchet Man!


Thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

Moving on in an attempt to keep up the current momentum I started Hatchet Man in the same fashion as the Officer figure, from top to bottom.

I changed the dice color to a Royal Blue instead of green and continued from there. Starting with an acrylic coat on the straps, bags, and bed roll, I worked all the way down to the tartan base tone. The small details on the head, collar, and epilate were finished in oils before tackling the larger areas. His beard is a bit more toward the blonde tone than intended so I may add a touch of gray giving him that “battle-hardened” look. There’s some clean-up to tend to on that beard not easily visible in the photos, but nothing major.

Working my way down I painted the bed roll before working the coat just to get that portion out of the way. Next, I applied a very light layer of Cadmium red oils on the coat, then feathered in the shadows and highlights. I’ll let this dry a bit before I go back and correct any shadow or highlight issues. So far, it’s rucking along nicely.



I really like how Vladimir sculpted Hatchet Man’s face, he looks more than peeved, HA!



More to follow soon and thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

Strangely enough the bunker is still up and running. I don’t ever remember working oils this late into the spring season. The bunker is usually powered down by the end of March and we’re already at the end of May. Well, there aren’t any major construction projects to be done nor any overly intense outside projects either. It’s pretty much maintenance this year and that’s a good thing. What do they say, never look a gift horse in the mouth?

On a side note, sadly many of us have seen quite a few legends in this hobby pass beyond the veil lately. Not only have we lost a lot of incredible talent, some have lost close friends. One thing I have gathered from them all, in general, is that time is short. Life is but a vapor, in the grand scheme of things, so there really isn’t much time to waste. The younger we get the better our eyes and steadier our hands become, right? Not hardly. I’ve learned quite a bit from some of those fine Gentlemen, so I will carry on as best I can whenever I have time to do so, and “get er done”.

Hatchet Man is beginning to take shape rather nicely and the process seems to be flowing well. But I have now come to the two most difficult portions of this figure and those would be the kilt/tartan and socks. Both will require a lot more attention to detail and it will be slow going. Keeping the tartan pattern within the range of acceptability in comparison to the Officer’s pattern will be the challenge. Once I get Hatchet Man figured out, I will have a template to work from for the other nine figures.



Before attaching the arm, I had to make sure all the minor details within those difficult to reach areas were finished. I will need to go back and increase some shadows, but nothing major. And those ornamental items on the cuffs, sheesh! They were pretty intense in detail (super fine lines) and I’m not exactly thrilled with some of them, but for the most part, they will be fine. The canteen may look a bit bright in color, but I like the tone, so I’ll run with it. I still need to add the lettering on that canteen. Also, the right epilate will need more definition, it appears a little “white washed” right now.



The rifle, havre sacks, and leather cape (I have no clue what it’s called) were not too difficult to complete. The hatchet itself will get some more metal work, but it’s almost done. I’ll work up a punch list for Hatchet Man once the kilt/tartan and socks are completed. This figure is almost at the finish line, so if you see anything I may have missed, please sing out and I’ll get it handled. I’m a slow painter, but this project just might get done within a year and that would be impressive, to say the least, HA!

After wrapping my head around the correct pattern, the Battle of the Tartans was well underway. The Officer figure has a checker board pattern which is incorrect whereas this pattern on Hatchet man is more correct. I’m no expert by any means when it comes to this portion of the process and had to have my pretty little woman, my wife, get my head straight on what I was looking at. She recognized it right off, but oh no, not me, HA! She’s a keeper!



The colors used are pictured above, all acrylics. All of the black acrylics I have would not cooperate with the thin line process so I dug up my black resin dye and proceeded. I thinned it with water using small amounts on the brush to avoid “blob” lines. It was a long painful process to get the lines in place and, as you can see, it ain’t pretty. I went back with each color to fix some of the line “blobs” wherever possible, but the thickness of some of the lines are glaring me in the face.

These pleats are nothing but a nightmare, for me anyway, just sayin. This is a frustrating process, but it turned out acceptable enough, especially when later I’ll give the tartan a few tonal washes so most of my boofs will not be easily visible. Like a good carpenter, ya gotta know how to hide your mistakes, right?

It sure would have been really swell to leave the tartan without the lines, but that would not be correct.



Being self-critical, as I often am, I was not exactly pleased with the outcome of the lines. I recon after the last figure I will have perfected some process or technique that will make these tartans look real, but not yet, lol. Even using a 0000 brush doesn’t seem to help me with these lines. I’ve seen several examples of 54mm tartans painted, all different patterns, but they seem to have the patterns larger than they should be. I really didn’t want to over exaggerate the size of the pattern and therefore I made the job much harder than it could have been. Oh well, I carry on.



I will keep working my way down to the boots and set Hatchet Man aside to dry within the next few days. More to follow and thanks for watching.

Cheers, Ski.

This fine chap is ready for battle. It’s kinda funny, after 17 years of working mid-night shift I still occasionally wake up around midnight and can’t get back to sleep, and I’ve been retired for over three years, sheesh! Rather than lay there tossing and turning for hours it only makes sense to get back into the bunker and “sniff some paint”, and that I did.

I was really tempted to redo the tartan, but after a light and dark wash I was told by my wise council to carry on. I’m glad I did, because I really wasn’t in the mood to do this twice. So, this morning I started working the socks and come to find out it wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined. Ya never know till ya take that dive and it becomes real apparent right quick, wouldn’t ya say?

Working my way down the figure I painted the flesh tones of the legs in standard fashion. Whenever I get this far on a figure, I like to close out anything above so I won’t inadvertently rub off any oils or damage anything done prior. Usually, the nose paint gets rubbed off during handling and gets a touch up, but not much else. That canteen may need attention as well since I’m not exactly sure what markings are appropriate. Hopefully someone will know the answer to that question, because I’m not finding anything concrete that is clearly visible in reference photos.



I used thinned Tamyia XF-7 Flat Red and began to draw out the stripes around the sock keeping in mind that there is a seam in the back. Actually, that was a big help in that I did not have to try to keep the symmetry in mind and the pattern could end naturally at that seam. It’s not really noticeable, but it is there. Then, each diamond shape that does not over-lap was given a light touch of Titanium White oils and then washed out so the pattern looks like a true stitch pattern as seen in the reference photos. I reemphasized the outline of the pattern with a super thin line at the edges of each stripe. Now why couldn’t the tartan stripes be this easy?

Next, I used a mix of Ultra Marine Blue and Cadmium Red oils to create the shadows and a mix of Titanium White and Cadmium Red for the highlights. Lastly the boots and leggings were done in the standard fashion and will receive more attention when the final weathering takes place to mate these figures to the base.



Hatchet Man will now take a side step for the next figure and off we go. If you see anything I may have missed, sing out, I’ll get er done.

Thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

Just a quick update for now. As you can see the process has been unchanged on the Piper from Hatchet Man. It’s moving along much smoother now. The right arm has been painted but will remain detached until the final paint down to the boot. That sword is too delicate to take the chance of snapping.

The tartan pattern took quite less time this go round, but the lines were very time consuming. There is essentially two tartans to paint on the Piper, the pipe bag being the second pattern to place. The usual dark wash and light filter was applied as before.



I’ve got a few more days of rain coming, so I’ll try to finish this one by the middle of the week.

Thanks for watching, all comments welcome. Cheers, Ski.

Holly ghost, outstanding paintwork !

Very interesting to follow how that tartar pattern was painted! Requires patience, a lot and a no shaking hands!

- Kari

Thanks, Kari. you'd think I had my hands in traction while working this, close. The #6 readers and bracing the hands firmly is the only way to accomplish this with any success.

Cheers, Ski.

As one of my favorite bad guys would say, impressive… most impressive
I’ve been following along this project of yours since I first stumbled across it over on Kit Maker. Masterful work.
Between the faces, flesh tones, tartan, unit colors, and over uniforms, I am amazed by your superb work. If I could get my figures to look half this lifelike I would be a happy camper! In the meantime, I will continue with my baby steps in your direction…

Stikpusher wrote:If I could get my figures to look half this lifelike I would be a happy camper! In the meantime, I will continue with my baby steps in your direction…

That's it, baby steps, cause it ain't gonna happen overnight. I have a trusty can of EasyOff oven cleaner on stand-by whenever I'm painting figures. Ya just never know when it will be needed. If you do that, you will learn a lot faster, IMHO.