Fantasy Barbarians and more, I guess

[Mike]

This was just a distraction for the last couple of days. Sadly, my little fur buddy (feline), Sheldon passed away very early this morning. I buried him this late afternoon. After all I've been through since last June this is one of the last things I ever expected to happen. He will be greatly missed.

So in my classic way of dealing with grief I distracted myself. The figure is some unknown (to me) Fantasy Barbarian of some sort a friend of mine printed. She gave me two but the second one had a misprinted left arm and I might try sculpting one later but its relegated to the spares bin for now. You see, my friend is a beginner with figure painting and she's bang on with her palette choices and blocking, but she's still too afraid to step out of her comfort zones and experiment and try new ideas just yet. The plan, before it became a grief distraction, was just to show her how much better her figures can be with two simple and time tested techniques; dry brushing and washes. Those are the only tricks I used on this figure, just to prove my point. All acrylic. Nothing fancy.

Anyways, here are some crappy pictures I took.

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I did try to show a Starfield effect on the most extreme tips of his cloak. It didn't turn out as brilliant as I'd hoped it would but I did get one decent picture of the effect. In most of the pictures it just looks like dust speckles. I was going for a twilight kind of idea with the night sky seemingly appearing in his cloak magically. I promise it looks better in person.

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

And then some bad phone camera shots for the finish:

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr



Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

And a few more pictures with less lighting... for whatever reasons.

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Fantasy Barbarian by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Well. Now I think I need some more.

[kyledehart5]

I am very sorry about your loss. That is the worst part of pet ownership and never gets easier.

Distraction is always a good idea. Figure is super cool!! Nicely done

[Tobi]

You did a very good job on this figure. IMO dry brushing and washes are the most mighty tools when it comes to figure painting up to 1/35 scale. Larger than that and it stops working.

[Leon]

Really nice work on the figure!

[lyle]

So sorry to hear about Sheldon. Pets are so much a part of the family.

Very nice work on the figure.

[406 Silverado]

I'd still be trying to figure out what color to use first on something like this. I really envy folks who can pull figure painting off this well and you've sure done a good job here Mike.

[chromdome35]

Wow, this looks really great!!! Kudos to you!

Very sorry to hear about the loss of Sheldon. Pets leave pawprints on the heart, treasure the memories.

[brandonk]

Sorry to hear about losing your feline. I hate losing my animals, it really takes its toll. Great distraction there and the work is typically top notch. I love it!!

[dukemaddog]

My condolences on you loss. Excellent work on that miniature. That is a great distraction and exceptionally well done!

[Mike]

Thank you guys. I just emptied his water and food bowls and it felt kinda final.

In other news I decided to add and arm to the second figure that had the horribly misprinted arm. Cleaning up the sculp was the first priority but since I'm not the greatest sculptor I needed something to work from. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had some pieces from a Vampire figure my friend had given to my wife, which was apparently broken when she moved out and all I had left were some bits that didn't make it to the bin. Well my luck was with me for this one and I had a lovely left arm holding a sword. I cleaned it up a bit and made sure it matched up as best as I could get it to.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Once attached in a somewhat believable position I first tried to use Bondo to sculp a new arm from his shoulder to the elbow so it matched the figure better than the skinny arm did. That didn't work. I scraped out all of the Bondo and pulled out the good old reliable Milliput.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I just had to remember my anatomy lessons from Art 2 when I was in school for my Bachelor of Arts degree. One of these days I'll get more confident in my abilities to sculpt, but it is not that time yet lol.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

So far, so good.

[kyledehart5]

Alright. That’s super cool. Nicely done adding that arm.

[buddho]

Mar 25, 2024 17:36:33 GMT -5 Mike said:

Thank you guys. I just emptied his water and food bowls and it felt kinda final.

In other news I decided to add and arm to the second figure that had the horribly misprinted arm. Cleaning up the sculp was the first priority but since I'm not the greatest sculptor I needed something to work from. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had some pieces from a Vampire figure my friend had given to my wife, which was apparently broken when she moved out and all I had left were some bits that didn't make it to the bin. Well my luck was with me for this one and I had a lovely left arm holding a sword. I cleaned it up a bit and made sure it matched up as best as I could get it to.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Once attached in a somewhat believable position I first tried to use Bondo to sculp a new arm from his shoulder to the elbow so it matched the figure better than the skinny arm did. That didn't work. I scraped out all of the Bondo and pulled out the good old reliable Milliput.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I just had to remember my anatomy lessons from Art 2 when I was in school for my Bachelor of Arts degree. One of these days I'll get more confident in my abilities to sculpt, but it is not that time yet lol.

Fantasy Barbarian 2 by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

So far, so good.

That was the hardest part for me, emptying Binkys food and water bowls. I am.very sorry for your loss. 

Your figure paintjng is extraordinary, so well done. The second figure is coming along well. Looking forward to the painting.

[Mike]

Thanks, guys. Buddho, I swear I can hear him still wandering around the house. He went out horribly. In the last hour he ragdolled. He couldn't even keep his head up. I watched in horror. I couldn't help him. He yowled. It was heart breaking.

My friend has printed this up for me today. She's printing the stand for it now. When I asked for something bigger, that she thought was cool, I didn't expect this.

Great Marmadon by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Great Marmadon by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Great Marmadon by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Yes, it has a saddle lol.

[handiabled]

Wonderful work on the figure, I am so very sorry about your loss. My Samson (Belgian Tervuren and my right hand) went before I could get him to the vet last year. My daily routine is still messed up since. Losing a member of the family is so very hard. Try not to dwell on the last day but the good ones you had with them.

Your friend has some wonderful printing skills!

[Steve Zuleski]

The paint work is looking really good, and sad to hear about your buddy.

[Mike]

Thank you for all of the comments. I still miss him very much and there hasn't been a day when that wasn't the case. All it takes is thinking of him out there in the back yard under the ground and I want him back. So thank you for all of the honest sympathy. I really do appreciate it.

I've been off my game lately and I took a step forward today. It's not the other Barbarian figure that I was working on, but something else. I finally found a figure I assumed might have been stolen, yet as I was moving boxes into a spare room to tidy things up I found it. My 1/35 Alpine Miniatures German Tank Commander that was supposed to be for my King Tiger. I had previously Sprayed a base cote of Dark Yellow over the entire figure and put down a base flesh color. Today I decided I wanted to use some oils over acrylic and see how well it would look on such an amazing sculpt.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I really wish I had not glued his head on before painting, but I think I did okay. The camouflage pattern is going to be the real challenge with this one.

[handiabled]

Great to see you back at it Mike! This looks fantastic so far, I'll be watching this with interest!

[Leon]

Off to good start Mike!

[lyle]

Hey, Mike! This is looking good!

[406 Silverado]

That figure does indeed look like a good sculpting Mike and you're doing a brilliant job of painting it all up. This is the area of modeling where I feel like I'm the weakest in but I learn with every one I see painted up. Beautiful work bud.

[Mike]

Thank you.

I'm working on blocking in the main uniform in a light olive color and I've done a bit of touch up around the figure so far. This is a really nice figure to work with. The camo pattern is a bit tricky, but I'm going to try to relax, just go with the flow, and see where it leads me. The colors are what's important I think.

[jeaton01]

You do nice figure painting, Mike. I wish I knew what you meant by blocking.

My advice is get another cat. Trouble is if you like them too much they are a constant worry.

[Mike]

Apr 8, 2024 15:06:32 GMT -5 jeaton01 said:

You do nice figure painting, Mike. I wish I knew what you meant by blocking.

My advice is get another cat. Trouble is if you like them too much they are a constant worry.

Blocking is simply getting clean lines between your colors. You "block" them in. It's just terminology, nothing you don't already know how to do. 
I will get another little buddy eventually. Sheldon was a gift from my ex to replace my last cat, Mojo. She was an amazing character in her own right. I've got a thing for Black cats I guess. 

[Mike]

Now for an update on the Alpine figure. He's turning out quite well. I only have one gripe about my own work and that's because the pallette I chose turned out more like the modern colors for the ol' trusty Woodland pattern the U.S. military used before this weird digital crap they're using now.

There's still a couple of things I will re-examine later. I'm ready to call it a day with this one.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
I started, as I said above, with a light Olive color. You'll see as I proceed that it just muddled in with the other colors.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
Tire Black for the first camo color.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
U.S. Light Green for the second camo color.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
Earth Brown for the third color and I don't think it was quite red enough.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
I was adding dots and little splotches where it seemed likely. I also changed the light olive to Khaki for better contrast.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
I gave the figure a layer of satin clear, gave it an Umber wash to pick up the contrast in the shadows, and gave it a brushing with Tamiya's Sand weathering powder to pick out the raised details and folds.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
Another layer of Satin tied it all together nicely.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr
This is after I started adding the details and such.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Hat details added, Shoulder boards... are still a bit confusing. After looking up the shoulder boards on Google I didn't find a good example to base these on. Best I could find was the white with pink trim and I don't think they look right.

Now, the reason the figure is still in satin at the moment is that my matte keeps fogging on me. Anyone got a fix for this issue? Is it air pressure? Old paint? I'm not sure why it's doing this to me now when it was fine last time I used it.

Edit: It was a simple pressure issue. I figured it out lol.

[buddho]

Beautiful job on the figure. I love Alpine Miniatures.

[Mike]

Thanks Buddho. Today I think I need to liven up some of those colors. They're just not right. Too dark. Looks too much like a modern palette.

Edit: I raised the overall contrast by going over the brown, green, and khaki with Rust red, Interior green, and dark yellow. This still isn't what I pictured in my head, but it's much closer to what my vision was.

I had to snap a picture of the the figure with a couple of others for contrast and scope.

1/35 WWII German figures by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

After this picture (above) is when I decided I needed more contrast to bring out the khaki areas. The Dark Yellow did the trick.

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

1/35 Alpine German TC by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

I'm more satisfied with the overall look now.

[Steve Zuleski]

That tanker looks great, Mike, keep rollin!

[Mike]

I am, I am! Lol

Pulled out another dust collector, the Panda Hobbies M1 Abrams, and found an old Tamika XM1 tank commander to use with it. A couple of them, actually. I just have to scrounge up an arm for one of them.

[Mike]

Well this is what I was working on this evening. Let me introduce you to Biff Tankerman. lol

This is the TC figure that comes with the Tamiya M1 Abrams kit which is actually an XM1 pre production model, but that's not what's important here. I needed a suitable TC for the 1980-ish time frame and there's not much on the market for that particular time period. Valkyrie makes some really nice figures but like every other option I've seen they all seem to be wearing winter field jackets. I'm not sure why late 70's to early 80's tank crews are always in the cold, but it is what it is. So, since this is a Tamiya Figure there's a certain amount of undercutting and seam removing to get to the usually excellent sculpt underneath, and so I began scraping, cutting, reshaping, and finding a few accessories along the way. I found a set of goggles, a sidearm, and the correct mic for this fellow.

I'm going to guess that there are more than a few of you old cold war era heros in here and you'll notice I have him kitted out with a .45 because not all armored units were issued the M-9 until a year or two later than they were supposed to be standard issue. My Dad still has fond, and not so fond, memories of the worn down old 1911 he was issued in 1974 that he called his "rattle gun".

Anyways... I do prattle on a bit sometimes. Pics are below.

Biff Tankerman by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Biff Tankerman by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Biff Tankerman by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

Biff Tankerman by Mike Brindos, on Flickr

He's really beginning to take shape well. Good lines to start with and I've mostly had to clean up around the helmet to make it look separate from his head. The epaulettes were mostly missing so I carved them off and replaced with thin card stock. His right boot was missing most of the sole but both boots still need a bit of reshaping.

I'll get some more done tomorrow. Thanks for taking a look at another of my little distractions.

[handiabled]

I missed your last update. The woodland camo work on the alpine figure is outstanding