42nd Highland Infantry Regiment "Black Watch" at the Battle of Quatre Bras in June, 1815

Can’t wait to see your tartan!

:beer:

Me too!! :tumbler_glass:

After this flag, I’d say that shouldn’t be too difficult, then again, … :wink:

Coming real soon, Brother!

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Flag Details

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.

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.

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

Cheers, Ski.

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Sphinx, Wreath and Letter Definition

This is just a quick update on the smaller details and minor adjustments to the lettering. The left side of this flag is complete for the time being. I know the lettering and other features appear rather bright right now, but they will be toned down later.

The AK Gold was a royal pain to work with. Not only are the fumes toxic, but the paint dries faster than I’d like it too. With such a small amount of paint on the brush workability time was too short. My 3M respirator filter is really difficult to work around, the filter impedes the brush when working that close. So, acrylic tones in the golden yellow range became the logical solution. I went over the leaves and other details with oils as well for more tonal definition. I will continue cleaning the remainder of the figures until this sets up for a few days, then work the right side of this flag.

Quick note: The sphinx and white “X” within the blue emblem were shaded with oils to coincide with the existing shadows in the appropriate places.

Thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

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Very impressive - I am envious of your skills .

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Ski that is stunning. Shame about the AK gold being such a bugger but I think your backup plan has worked beautifully.

Thanks, RDT, you are too kind, Amigo!

Well, my Candian Brother, I can think of a few better ways to get a buzz, HA!, That stuff was giving me a headache, not good. In the paint booth, ok, but not in such detail and tight quarters can it be tolerated with any decency.

Thanks for hangin out!

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Primed And Ready To Go!

Over the last week I’ve been cleaning up the rest of the figures and getting a primer coat on them using Floquils Primer Gray. I’ve been using this Floquil primer for decades, so when I heard the news back in 2013, if I remember correctly, that Testors was going to discontinue its Floquil and Polly S line of paints I hit every hobby store I could to snag the last few bottles of this primer. I have three brand new bottles from that scavenger hunt, so I recon I’m good to go since my last bottle has lasted for years. Like anything else in this hobby, we always hate to see good lines go away, Floquil being one of them.

I prefer this primer over any other primer I’ve tried in the past because it’s easy to control with a brush as long as it hasn’t started to dry out. Trying to airbrush these little guys would have only created a build-up in all the wrong places and ruin the incredible detail. This primer is actually pretty thin straight from the bottle anyway.

Since I really don’t fancy fabricating broken parts or fighting tight spots when painting, some of the arms and gear will be removed when I start to paint the tartans and other fine details. Somewhere in the process I’ll get back to finishing the flag. I’m already rummaging through my odd chunks of wood in the shop for something that has character for this base.

I had my mind set on a gorgeous piece of drift wood that has been hanging out in the shop for the past 20 years only to be over ruled by my wife. She still has something in mind for that chunk, so I’m still looking, HA! Actually, that chunk of drift wood had some incredible details that would have accented this set of figures nicely, but it aint’ worth the tussle later, if ya get my “drift”, HA!

Here’s the entire crew ready for the brush.

Ok, back to work, we are running out of time, cause Spring is coming up fast. More to follow soon.

Cheers, Ski.

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Let’s Face It!

Having not done 54mm, or 1/35th scale for that matter, in over ten years I don’t think I’m too far off. Let’s face it, this is the first time I’ve ever, ever painted eyes in this scale. I was going to place in a pupil, but decided against it. In this scale I think it’s a bit over the top and you’d only notice them in photos, not the actual figure presented before you in a vignette.

Naturally the face looks shiny and will dull as the oils set up, no worries. I did notice this face is a bit on the “tan” side of the tone spectrum, but he’s going to be on the ground in this vignette, so I will leave it as is. I’ve still got a bit of touch up to do on this face, teeth, ears, etc., but for now I’ll set this one aside and work the other ten.

Also, you will note the eye you see on the left is not exactly as the right. I had to trim some of the resin and clean up the eye lid a bit to make more room. It was very tight quarters in there, to say the least, so I got it as close as it’s going to get this go round.

So far, I’m happy with this face, I’ve only washed it off once, so that’s a good thing. And, as you can imagine, with spring coming up fast I’ve got fruit trees to trim and everything else that goes with this time of year. This is crashing my momentum. Happens every year, oh well, I’ll keep going as long as I can.

Thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

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A disembodied screaming head. Thanks for the nightmares… :rofl:

Nice work, as always.

:beer:

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Ya, well, ya know, it had to be that way, HA! :rofl: :wink:

Looks excellent Steve. Awesome job so far!

Thanks, MH!

Bag Piper Face Work

One thing I’ve noticed since getting back to this smaller scale is the fact that if I didn’t have super small brushes and a decent pair of readers I’d be in trouble. I’ve been able to get some seriously small details taken care of without too much difficulty. So, when time comes to get back to them big boys, Large Scale figures, I won’t have any excuses for overlooking any minute details, none whatsoever.

Moving right along, the Bag Piper’s face is pretty much set for now. There are a few areas I will adjust, but for right now I’ll let him set up. These eyes are so big I just may have to put pupils in, or maybe not. These are super close-up pics, so it looks a bit odd right now.

Ok, nine more to go before we tackle those kilts. Cheers, Ski.

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Head #3 and Clean Up on Bag Piper

Figure #3 was a lot more fun than the last two. Reason being, I’m in the slot and I see improvements in the skin tones and blending. This is the main reason I prefer to keep the momentum going when doing a set of faces. I don’t have to go back and relearn whatever sequence and techniques were followed in the past. I know, it sounds strange, but this Sport is seasonal for me, can’t get around that.

I’ll do any touch-ups in the next few days after the oils set up, but I think #3 is good to go for now.

The Bag Piper needed a bit of reworking, especially that cauliflower left ear. I caught that after taking the initial photos. The nice thing about this resin set is that the resin is not super stiff and can be reworked easily. I also went back over the left eye and reduced the size of the iris, but now the right eye looks too big, HA! I’ll get to that one eventually as well.

Outside work has already started, so I’m trying to keep the momentum going as long as I can, wish me luck.

Thanks for watching and more to follow. Cheers, Ski.

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Those faces look sharp- lots of character ! Great job!

I don’t normally follow figure builds but Jesus, that painting on the faces is superb… And the Regimental flag is well, beautiful really. A work of art on its own :+1::grinning:

Thanks, MH!

Thank you, Johnny! I worked that flag first to get the pain done and over with, but I still have the other side to do, lol.

Thanks for watchin, Gents!

Dynamic Duo

The standard bearer and one of the riflemen have been painted over the past week as time permitted. The standard bearer’s eye sockets had to be cleaned out and refilled with Tester’s tube putty. Fortunately, the resin is soft enough to work small areas without destroying larger sections. This is my third time reshaping a set of eyes, but it’s not a big deal. These figures are incredibly well detailed, but even then, some areas like the eye sockets may need a bit of clean-up after the primer coat, much easier to identify.

It took me awhile to get the correct tones around the rifleman’s eyes, he was giving me a hard time, lol. I may do a little more touch-up, but for now, he’s ok. The standard bearer was a smooth process, no major issues.

As long as I can sneak into the bunker at least a few days a week, I should be getting to the tartans in short order.

Thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.

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