Tuesday 9 October 2012

Charging Soon Towards You!


After several weeks of work,  I'm proud to showcase Alpine Miniatures latest 1/16 scale offering of a WW2 US Marine from the Pacific Theater of War. Aficionados can outright distinguish this an unprecedented release for Alpine Miniatures - one of dynamic animation - from their standard upright contrapposto figures.

Interesting to note that this figure also marks the entry of sculptor Dmitry Shevtsov's into Alpine's ensemble of sculptors. The pose and animation is spot on and rendering of folds and intricate details resonates with the high quality we have come to expect from Alpine.



Though satisfying, the duck hunter camouflage pattern was particularly tedious to execute. It is convenient to assume this pattern consisted of random amoeba shapes but close study reveals distinctively unique patterns repeated throughout. Maintaining the consistency of shapes and sizes whilst painting pattern thus took its toll of on my concentration as often went back and forth to correct the shapes. I can't say that they are perfect but at least I can claim that I done by humanly best.


All interfaces of the component parts were refitted with magnetic locks making them detachable during the painting of hard to reach areas. The carrier block for the rifle and bayonet was removed towards the end to mitigate warping and breakage.

Overall this assignment was the most demanding I had for this year - given the intricacy of the sculpt and complexity of the camouflage pattern. Nonetheless it was quite rewarding to know that I tried my best to render this commonly overlooked camouflage pattern.

Cheers,

Calvin



5 comments:

Schedler Vincent said...

Fantastic work Sir
Congratulation
Greetings from Belgium

http://figurinepassion.blogspot.be

DUFF said...

This is great work! I am stunned!

Bandit 32 said...

excellent work, greetings from Nevada.

Unknown said...

Calvin, this is Awesome! I like painting US Marines and Army figs in both 120 & 1/35 scale.I was hoping Alpine would do more in the Marine and Army figs after speaking with Taesung Harmms at a show in Ct some yrs ago.I recently finished a Marine sculpted by John Rosengrant and used Vallejo paint for the first time on a figure using your techniques and was pleased as to how it came out. I was wondering what colors you used for the base coat and on the camo since it looks like you have it down right to the T. I used many references and mix colors to get as close as i could. Thanks, Michael

Calvin Tan said...

Hi Guys,

thanks for the generous compliments.

Michael, glad to know that you've found my methods useful. For your information, I used Jo Sonja acrylics for the painting of the Duck Hunter camouflage. I've gotten a couple of inquiries for my color mixes and so I'll be planning to post the color mixes sometime this weekend.

Cheers,

Calvin