Red reflecting light - when figures are finished

In most of the cases when I present a figure, especially one with red clothes I get the same reaction from fellow modellers – “The red should be more modulated” or “there are not enough lights on that red” or “you should apply who knows which technique no.23” or just plain and simple, “let me know when you will finish this figure”.
First of all, there is not such a thing like finishing a painting. There are not a number of screws that you should put in place and when you finish them it means you have finished the work. Sometimes, parts of an artwork are left unfinished by artists with a purpose, but it’s not the case here. I remember I saw in progress work of some much respected painters thinking they should stop much earlier than they actually did.
Now in the particular case of red, we are talking about a color that due to the fact that is reflecting light so powerful tends to “eat” the fine graduations of light. A matte red surface will not reflect light as other colors, but with a higher intensity of that red. This mean there will be not pink or even orange, but just an intense light tone of red (scarlet, vermillon). You can see that in real world and also in paintings. In fact I guess the problem is that as long as painters try to reproduce a real world image, most often modellers are replicating other figures, painted by other more experienced modellers or are applying a set of techniques that have become a rule, a trend for anyone that want to count in jury’s eyes.
Bellow, see how different tones of red is reflecting light in real life, in paintings and in figurines.

Buy yourself a tube of light cadmium red or scarlet. Yes maybe it's not on the list at your course (class), but when you leave there you are allowed to think with your own brain.
The same logic applies to faces. It seems that the vast majority of figurine painters are applying a set of techniques and a way of working the different plans of light and shade, as has been explained by some renowned painter. While this might be o.k. for bigger surfaces, in the particular case of small wrinkles and accidents of the surface, namely veins, scratches or scars, treating them with the same technique will inflate those details making the figure to look like a ceramic doll, with salami like limbs. It may be a question of taste but I try hard to avoid this.
To illustrate my opinion I took some arbitrary examples from the internet belonging to artists I don’t know. I will not post an image of one of my figures because I’m not trying to say that what I do is perfect, just that maybe I’m following a different ideal than others.

The only painter that didn't comply with the trend and did a wonderful job in my opinion is the author of the soviet soldier bust.
Stop puting those lights under the wrinkles starting down from the nostrils ! There should be shadow there, or at least a dimmer light. Same at the bags under the eyes. If you treat every wrinkle there with shadow and light, every kid will end up looking 90 years old. Wrinkles are volumes not colors.

Spring changes

An old friend of mine..... Well he is not older than me. What I meant is that I guess he's knowing me much than anyone else. Well, Andrei has listen to me how I was complaining about not being able to manage all my different works and parts of my life and personality and in the end he told me: Why not putting all together in a single place. In fact all those things are describing you as you are.
This might be a relief. Maybe I will disappoint some of those who are visiting this site, but on the other hand I guess you will pick out just what you are interested in.
Anyway, I hope that this will at least ensure a better pace of posting.
So, hold on ! You will see here all kinds of models, figurines as usual, dioramas, paintings, fishing and thoughts. Hope I will like it. Because if I will like it, there is a good chance that you will like it too.

Prussian Infantryman 75mm Bestsoldiers

I had some time just for my figurines so I started in a hurry to put together and paint this last acquisition. Why not completing the bunch of old ones ? Who knows ?!... I will get to them too, eventualy.
As for many of their kits BS offers 2 heads. The one with the helmet is closer to the image in my head but unfortunately it's not so well rendered as the one with the kepi.



In fact the original picture that inspired the model is of a sergeant with kepi.



BestSoldiers provide an extra helmet to be hanged by the dagger handle. I thought a long time if it's worth to transform the head with better anatomy, to receive the extra helmet. To much of a surgery and that to the cost of loosing one option in the end.
The anatomical proportions are good but the different parts of the figure are not coming together so well. There was also places where I had to sculpt to get to a credible look.
For the missing baionette scabbard I found a replacement that I mildly sculpted from a piece of white metal (a former horse harness I guess).

The base was very simple, giving the possibility to add whatever details you want. In the same time the small surface prevented me to over-detail it (this time, at least). I opted for a ruined village environment, bearing in mind that the Franco-Prussian war was fought in a populated Europe of the mid 19th century.
For the first time I give it a try with the very expensive Valejo black primmer. It's qualities doesn't impressed me too much, functionally speaking. It was useful on the figure overall but where carnation was to be painted it was worse than anything else.
Furthermore I wanted to (re)experiment with Humbrol basecoats, for face and hands, which was airbrushed. The result was OK at one stage, but in the end I didn't like the cyanotic effect. This is still apparent on the finished figure, more so if it's sided by a conventional primed figure.



In fact I had to rework the skin two times to get a satisfying result.
The rest of the figure was painted in my usual manner, with acrylic base coats and oil modulations of shadows and lights.
As I said in the beginning, the great thing is that you can display the finished figure with both heads.

Winter time figures

At the end of each year, a friend of mine is making a trip home and he is always using this opportunity to collect his finished figures and bring me a pile of others.
This year I finished the following:
Soviet WWII Staff officers with courier and driver. They are produced by ICM Holding and where a pleasure to assemble.
Thus gave me enough time and nerves to paint them.



SS Italian youth
A white metal figure from Hornet.
Although details and pose are ok I didn' like it's proportions. It can be explainable due to the jumpsuit, but I'll prefer it with a more slender silhouette.


PMC fighter.
First I was puzzled by this acronym. In my country PMC means Civil Working Personnel. Then I find out on the internet that is about private armies and it means Private Military Corps.
The owner wanted it with a Hashemit scarf around his head. So be it !
It's a 1/35 resin figure. I don't remember the producer's name.


Soviet desant team in Afganistan.
Well this was a treat. Apart from the good sculpture and careful injection, there was a great amount of useful options such as weapons in hands, weapons free, different models of weapons. It reminded me about the set of german mountain troops used in the diorama two years ago (you can see it here too).
I hope they will end in an inspired diorama.



French Cuirasier in Alger.
Another resin figure. Not so impressing. I guess it's a gift from an armor modeling related magazine. The sculpture resembles to other that I worked in the past. As a general characteristic they are very thin. As if they was caught between two lorries.

Soviet radiation detection operator

This is a Studio 51 120 mm scale figure made from resin.
It was inspired by this image, I guess

It was a pleasure to build and paint. Detail is well rendered and the separation on parts was well thought to ease the painting work.
I remember the days in the army of the Romanian Socialist Republic when to wear one of this outfits during drill was the utmost punishment. After a few years at the shopping channel (same republic - another regime) they try to sell a wonder suit said to help you lose weight thru prespiration. The same Mary but this time in an alien chrome finish.
Well from what I remeber that the initial slate green was yellowed because of long time storage. The smell inside was beyond description.
I tried to render the yellow weathewring, and keep it discrete in the same time.
For the goggles I prepared some transparent disks but due to the fact that I punched them out with an eyelet, they became convex. Cristal Kleer was unusable in this case because the superficial tension would drag it to the eyes (inside the mask). So I chose to let him without glasses to allow view access to his blue eyes.
The bag on his hip would be for the big filter of the older type of mask, that with the corrugated hose. But it's OK like this too.
I painted it just with acrylics, altering the color on the spot where I need it.