I was scrolling through the H3 Models catalogue of excellent 3D printed, 1/16 figures, when I stumbled upon Steve McQueen. It was a very pleasant surprise!
As I’ve always adored the movie, ‘The Great Escape’, I was intrigued by the possibilities.
It took me a while to decide on exactly what to do with the guy. But I finally settled on a little scene suitable for the classic Captain Hilts character.
I mounted the two figures on a cast resin base gifted to me by Steve Munsel of Value Gear fame.
The German officer is also a very fine H3 sculpt and print.
He is admittedly, a senior officer of the Heer, rather than the more appropriate Luftwaffe commander. I contemplated converting the H3 figure, but decided against it. The hat (a separate piece) could have been modified. But the uniform jackets’ collars are very different (Heer vs Luftwaffe), and with it buried under the coat, I didn’t want to tackle that work.
There’s not a lot of action, but I think the confrontation matches the movie’s tension.
I’m stumped for a title for my little vignette (neither a diorama, nor a figure). ‘The Great Escape’, ‘Cooler King’, ‘Stalag Luft III’, ‘Stand off’, ‘Trouble’, or ???
This is the first figure I’ve painted where I had a specific person to produce, and it was a real challenge. I am NOT a portrait painter. Painting a specific face is a challenge I wasn’t prepared for. Much more difficult, and I’m not impressed by the result.
For the record - one of my reference photos.
The image I built in my head of the vignette, included a lot of barbed wire (suitable for Stalag Luft III). And at this scale, that meant very real stuff – a lot of it.
So, I set up a factory and built around 40 lengths of real barbed wire.
Made up of my favorite ‘wire’ – solder (hollow core) in very, very thin diameters.
For the barbs, .015” and for the main wire, two strands of .022”
I wound up spending more time manufacturing barbed wire than I did on painting the two figures. My factory has decided to discontinue that product!
And you HAVE to add the little details…
As you may know, I spend most of my time on dioramas, but i do larger figures, and even larger 1/10 busts on occasion, just for the change of pace, and to improve my figure painting skills.
Give it a try..
Ralph
