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

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Thanks, Johnny!

Thanks, CM.

Not a dumb question at all. The “only” reason for using acrylics on this pattern is the drying time and accuracy with small sections. Oils would end up becoming meshed and blurred. Now, where I made a major mistake was trying to filter with acrylics on a section that already took me hours to work. I have already run a few washes and filters on this tartan with oils and strangely enough, it came out as expected, perfect. Lesson being, never switch horses in the middle of the race, HA! Sometimes I do stupid stuff like that. My wife says it reminds her that I’m still a kid, HA!

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Officer Ready for Duty

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.

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:scream: marvelous :+1::+1:

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Very impressive - I am envious of your skills .
Thanks for sharing this with us.

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Yep not surprised you plaid insanity…you still sound remarkably sane Ski, crazy brilliant work :medal_military: :tumbler_glass:

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Ski he’s stunning!

Don’t worry about the tartan either. Like I said before, the colours you’ve chosen pop and it gives the effect you’re looking for. Just google “Blackwatch Tartan” and you’re gonna get all sorts of variation and nonsense.

I’m stoked to see the rest of the mob now.

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That is simply superb … he looks amazing from every angle. And you shouldnt worry about the tartan, there are so many variations and subtle colour differences. Beautiful painting.

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Outstanding job ski!

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Tank, RDT, Tim, CM, Johnny, MetalHead, thank you Gentlemen!

This seems to be getting a little wee tiny bit easier the further I go. I’m looking at that flag and reminded that I still have to paint the other side, HA! Ah, it ain’t gonna get done lookin at it, right?

Thanks again, Yall!

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Hatchet Man in Progress

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.

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Those facial colours and tones are superb … Amazing

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Thanks, Johnny!

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How on earth did I miss this? Cracking work there, Ski! That axeman is one scary looking fella. Following this now!
G.

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Thank you, Lazarus.

It’s not hard to miss sometimes, there’s a ton of incredible work on this forum, tons! I’d be here all day and still not catch it all and that really ain’t so bad, lol.

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Hatchet Man Almost Done

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!

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

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Battle of the Tartans, Part 2

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.

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Wow Ski…just wow, fantastic work. I’ve donned my helmet to say this….if I’d had to face the horror of those pleats I might have pasted pleat-folded paper pre-printed with the tartan pattern over the resin. But I’m just lazy that way, it’s a privilege to see this quality of painting so I’ll just stfu :zipper_mouth_face: :tumbler_glass:

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Amazing work Ski! One thing (among many lol) that I have so much trouble with is painting the hands on figures. Faces are tough enough but hands are so much smaller and you’ve done a great job with it!

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If I remember correctly (probably not at my age), one of Bill Horan’s books had a tutorial on painting Tartan. Can’t get to it at the moment. The Grand-Gremlins have dragged me on holiday with them, so all talk of modelling is Verboten!
G.

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Hey Bro, I was tempted to use a can of Tartan paint, HA! Now wouldn’t that have been nice? Thanks, Tim!

I know whatcha mean, MH, but ya gotta keep trying, it’ll come along eventually. Thanks, Brother!

Talk of modeling is verboten? Aah, ya got the Bros here for when ya get back, no worries, lol. There are quite a few tutorials out now, but just like riding a bike, ya gotta do it to learn it. This has been a challenge, to say the least.

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