42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Battle

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SteveSki
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42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Battle

Post by SteveSki »

Greetings everyone.

Being new here I will start by posting what I've been working on since mid-Feb of this year. It might take some time to get the entire SBS poste in, "old school". I've never fancied layering acrylics because I've never been able to get my technique down to within acceptable results, and besides, they remind me of the old "enamel" days of the late 70's and early 80's. I started working with oils in the late 80's, early 90's and have never looked back. I will use acrylics for base coats and highly detailed items, but not as a general medium. I prefer to blend, not layer. Everyone has their own preference, oils are mine. As long as we're "sniffin paint and gluin our fingers together", we're good, right? Ok, here goes,......
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SteveSki
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54mm Resin, Sculpted by Vladimir Danilov, offered by Castle

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Like a fish out of water I am completely out of my element starting this set. The Battle of Waterloo is not my normal area of study, nor are the bright and brilliant colors something I’m use to painting. In fact, I’ve never done anything so elaborate or complex as this set of figures in such tight proximity to each other, or this color scheme. The sculpting is really impressive, to say the least. I can only hope I do it justice in the end.

So, rather than dip my big toe in the pool, I dove right into the deep end, head first. What else was I gonna do? I felt drawn to this set as soon as I saw it offered. It was a serious toss up over a few days of angst as to whether I would build a 1/35th scale UH-1N with a weapons load crew or this set of “Black Watch” figures at Waterloo. I had both scenarios laid out on the bench as I pondered each. Once my mind was made up it was straight off to research, and thankfully, Alexandre Khokhriakov and Castle Miniatures themselves provided plenty of study material.

I figured if I could knock out a decent rendition of a Denison Smock camo pattern, I should be able to handle the Black Watch Campbell tartan, and the battle flag, and socks. Well, we’ll soon find out, won’t we? HA! I’ve watched a few gals paint flags for miniatures on YT, they’re incredible. These gals got talent, so I will be using their work as reference material on that portion of this build. This is all new to me!

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Eleven figures complete this dynamic battle scene, all cast in resin. I was impressed with how clean these figures were and the lack of any major issues to deal with. A little time spent carefully removing any seem lines or slag is all I’m finding necessary to get these figures ready for the brush. I decided to keep some kind of order with all these little parts by using a half pint mason jar crate with some added foam padding at the bottom of each divided section. I numbered these guys as they were being cleaned up and worked, just to keep track of who gets what part. So far, so good.

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After cleaning three figures I decided to get started on the flag. I wanted to work the emblems and details in between the figure clean-up, (oils take time to dry), so I can spend as much time needed to get this flag correct. There’s going to be a lot of freehand work here and quite a bit of trial and error as well. I’ll seal the oils on this flag in a few days when it’s complete, then start laying out the emblems on both sides. This is gonna be a hoot, I can already tell. Wish me luck!

The basic layout of the colors was not too difficult, but only a matter of keeping every section in proper proportion. Tamiya’s model tape really helped work around those curves. I used Vallejo’s Model Colors; Red, Blue, and White acrylics for the base tones. Next was the standard oil applications of shadows and highlights. There are still a few areas of the white stripes that need attention, but this first side is pretty much complete. You can see the new palette of colors I have spread out for this project, mostly Windsor Newton oils.

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I’m actually pretty excited to be working this set, it’s a challenge. How do we expand our talent, challenge the norm, work it and keep learning? And there you have it, and therefore,……….. I forge onward :-D

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

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mustang1989
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

Post by mustang1989 »

WOW!!! Now THAT'S a great intro / build post right there Steve!!! Great to have you on board my brother. You're gonna do swell here. :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout:

PS. I'm at work right now but will come back and read this entire post of yours.
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SteveSki
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

Post by SteveSki »

mustang1989 wrote:WOW!!! Now THAT'S a great intro / build post right there Steve!!! Great to have you on board my brother. You're gonna do swell here. :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout: :shoutout:

PS. I'm at work right now but will come back and read this entire post of yours.
Thanks, Brother! Now, I knew your reply was quick, but that was super-fast. I'll get er up to date, ASAP. Thanks again for the help getting up to speed here.

Cheers, Ski.

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LyleW
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

Post by LyleW »

Good morning, Steve! Sorry it took at bit to get you up and running, but, what a start!

Looking forward to more of your work And learning about you, too.

Welcome!


Lyle
To make each build less crappy than the last one. Or, put another way, "Better than the last one, not as good as the next one!"..
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SteveSki
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

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Good morning to you as well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thanks to you and Joe, I'm up and running, and thanks for taking the time to do that, I greatly appreciate it.

It will take a bit, but I'll get the entire thread updated and current. After that I'll be roaming around the neighborhood checking out the works :wink:

Thanks again, Lyle. Cheers, Ski.
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keavdog
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

Post by keavdog »

That is one ambitious project! The flag looks great and looking forward to following along. Tartan x 11 :wow: wow
Thanks,
John

Ain't no reason to hang my head, I could wake up in the mornin' dead.
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SteveSki
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Re: 42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Bat

Post by SteveSki »

Thanks, John.

Those tartans/kilts were a hoot, which you will see soon as I update this thread to current status, but it was a tempting challenge, to say the least. I was literally impressed with the sculpting and that's what made me take that leap out of my comfort zone. Some of guys were thinking I bit off more than I could chew, me included, but they've been great moral support all along the way. It's all starting to flow nicely now and I'm having a boat load of fun. Updates on the way.

Thanks again, John. Cheers, Ski.
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SteveSki
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Still Working the Flag, Cleaning Figures

Post by SteveSki »

I finished oiling the other side of the flag. It’s not real clear, but the shadows and highlights have been completed. I gave the flag three days to dry, then applied a dull coat to seal the work. I will begin playing with how to paint the emblems on the flag today. This is going to stretch my abilities, but I’m game.

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While waiting for the flag to dry completely I continued with prepping the figures. Next up, the Bag Piper, oh boy! There are so many delicate parts on that pipe I really have to take my time. This is gonna be a hoot, cause I’m really not into replacing broken parts.

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I’ve decided to try and place a printed decal over the flag and mark the key points for reference. Not sure how this will work, but I’m going to get it figured out. If you’ve ever watched these gals paint flags, you’ll be amazed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfazmzG5yBY Olga Kropotova
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQjlR- ... RNg/videos Julia Moshura

My wife watched these videos and said “Women put on war-paint every day, of course they can paint like this.”
I recon she’s right, HA! These gals have an incredible talent, to say the least.

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I will post more photos of the flag progress,…………or not. Lol. More to follow soon.

Cheers, Ski.
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SteveSki
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Flag Details

Post by SteveSki »

Well, after playing around with the printed decal I decided the only way to get this done was to trace out a thin sketch of the details free hand, in white acrylics, and get started. The decal proved cumbersome and would not cooperate around all those fine bends and creases.

The first photo is the outline laid out, the following are progression photos starting with the gold colors and then the black circle. There’s still a bit of clean-up around that circle, then lay in the letters, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I will go over the gold one more time, it appears a bit faded. I used AK’s 472 Gold for that portion.

After the gold was laid in, I started on the flowers. As you can see, I’m nowhere near the delicate and nimble painter Olga or Julia are, but I’m going to run with it. This wasn’t as difficult as I had expected. It looks more dauting than it really is. I recon if I made this a practice, I might actually get good at it, HA,……………..ok, back to work.

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Painting the right side of the flag only took about three hours, so I let it sit over might before continuing on to the left side. Finding a really decent flag to use as reference was not easy at all, so there is a bit of artistic license being used on the actual design. I really could have used an up-close photo of the emblems. The flowers appear a bit bright right now, but I will tone those down just a bit with an oil wash or feathering. They make a good contrast right now, so I won’t get too carried away with it.

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Next up, the Sphinx and wreath, lettering within the circle, and finish any details missed. Thanks for watching.

Cheers, Ski.
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