Hi All,

Managed to finish a quickie project in the middle of my Ramcke Brigade dio. It features a Fallschirmjager from the 2nd Regiment, 1st Fallschirmjager Division. He’s in the 2nd issue smock but with the water drop camo and tropical issue pants. Basically an older DML figure from the Ardennes set. He has a Gen 2 Kar 98K with scratchbuilt sling, scratchbuilt helmet netting, a resin bread bag and water container and a regular DML spade, pistol holster and cloth gas mask container. No surgery was preformed this time.

In case anyone is curious and to spice up an otherwise plain figure, I chose 2nd. Regiment as they have served in many theatres. Besides Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland the regiment saw action at Greece where they were instrumental in capturing the Corinth Bridge resulting in the capture of 12,000 Allied troops, Crete, North Africa (with Ramcke Brigade) and finally acting as the nucleus for the 2nd Fallschirmjager Division. The regiment now a division saw its last action at Normandy, 1944 at Brest under their very colorful leader, Bernhard Hermann Ramcke.

All done in acrylics. It was a quick and fun project and also I just wanted to see how far I could go with my present level of painting skills by using a plastic figure. Besides when my Home Ministry was trimming our Jambu tree, I visualized this figure on the branch.





Had to add an additional collar though as I was too lazy to sand down his neck which was jutting out slightly so I made a collar out of AB epoxy.

CK...you've been so busy bro... and your faster than any of us.
I've seen the figure when i when to CK's house last week. and being observed the dude by my self, i can say that this is a beauty. Although some details cannot be seen in the photo (CK, u should get a macro zoom la bro...). And seing the dude is already on his jambu tree base, i almost terhantuk in the meja...wakaka...the idea was first class!! and u done it good CK, but i may i comment sikit la..the base is to glossy la to me... maybe in the future u apply subtle layer of varnish. But use more shellac. this is my father in law method la... or to try another finish, u can kopek the bark and stain it with wood stain.
jangan marah kawan...

and back to the figure, a bit glossy jugak la especially on the baju. maybe, a little oil wash may bring some small details out.

my 0.002 sen

Morning Boss. Many thanks for kind comments and very useful tips. Stripping the bark and giving it a plain wood finish is an excellent idea. Looks like I may have to go and cut some more branches.

Yeah there are some details that don't show up in the pics. One is the wood grain finish I put on the handle of the entrenching tool/spade in the 2nd.pic . The other is you can just barely make out the eagle marking on his helmet in the second pic. Here's a pic for the 2nd issue front laced boots:


Hmmm...glossy dekat mana Boss? If you're referring to his gloves and gun holster I gave it a slight satin look to simulate leather. The ammo pouches look glossy but its mainly the drybrushing.

CK,

Good one, what is the scale?

Thanks Thomas. I'm still learning. Its 1/35 th.

CK, yeah..the glossy is dekat the gloves and some part of the baju.

i found that the baju almost satin finish but the gloves is a bit glossy la

Hi CK,

Good to see more acrylic painters. Well done on the figure. You can be a bit more daring with the contrast. 1/35 scale is basically equivalane to a vision of real person standing about 10 meters away from your naked eye. It will be difficult to see the contrast if you do not imposed them intentionally. A good way to paint contrast is using overheadlighting method i.e. place your primed figure under a light and observe how the light and shadow fall on to the figure and paint the figure according to the same lighting

Goodluck and keep up the good work
Allan

Many thanks Allan. I've always enjoyed your work at MH. Its my biggest treat not to mention inspirational seeing your work there as MH hardly ever stocks anything new.

Actually I did apply the overhead light method you mentioned as per Paine's book as well. The photos and the lighting do mute a bit the contrasts especially on the pants. However, your advice is well appreciated and I will strive to put more contrasts in.

Maybe its just me but I do find some of the Tamiya acrylics a bit grainy once its dried. I know you use a lot of Vallejo if I'm not mistaken but have you ever heard of anything similar?

Whoa !
You're improving and biting at our heels. Even got a rare response from our top figure painter. An honour. Wah didn't know so many quietly adopt Shep Paine as sifu. We must be learning the same kung fu. Tak boleh...must raise the bar even higher.......

Zaidi's idea about the base is good. Speaking of which, what happend to the ripe jambu ? Send a few over lah. The label very nice. How you make ? PC print ? I can't get this font. The part that impresses me most is the netting. Is this gauze ? Can't find such a small one from produce packing.

No "surgery" but still a "Frankenstien" coz of the equipment you canibalised :-) OK....my 2 cents ( and you did "ask for it" ). Basic, "method modeler" techniques but up there among the good ones. From here you should advance to the "out of the box thinking" modeler and improve especially on how you're going to tackle a more realistic looking equipment paint job. All I know now is that only washes and oils can achieve this. The mess tin on my Florian Geyer comprises the use of both basic dry brushing and oils. Neat eh ? Dry brushing didn't cause the ammo pouches to be glossy. As with everything before you dry brush....let it dry thoroughly first
The smock is good. You patience is better than mine. Oh and all this talk about shaky hands due to choking the chicken is just to throw us off eh ? You sure still have steady hands. Good job. Better watch my back.

Regards
Patrick

Finally some hard criticisms otherwise how-lah to improve. Let's tackle the questions first coz their the easiest.

This will encourage all guys to buy their wives, girlfriends and mistresses more flowers. The netting came the wrapping off flowers bouquet from the flower shop. Netting used for garlic and onion wrappings as mentioned in my "Scratchbuilding Databank" thread has holes more suited for large camo netting.

The printing cannot as far as I know be got from the regular PC. Mine came off the box of the old but cheap Tamiya Fallschirmjager figure set. It also has one for Regiment 1 (to be used for my next jambu branch) and the rare "Kreta" badge given to forces participating in the Crete campaign. BTW the figs have horrible moulding but good poses. The huge plus of the set though is it has a parachute, folded of course. Great for anyone who wants to pose a Fallschirmjager in his element.

Okay will work on the ammo pouches but what I suspect was coz I was painting equipment of 3 different sets of figures I must have experimented by putting a satin finish on one of the sets until I found out the ammo pouches were canvas rather than leather. That's what you get when you're lazy, trying to do mass production work often without enough research.

Don't think the reason was because the paint wasn't dry. If you try that with acrylics it usually takes the base paint off especially when doing washes but your tip is appreciated. Amazing how photos always show up mistakes. Taking photos of figs is a really good way to pick out mistakes and to learn from them. Don't know if it works for AFV's though.

How did you find the wood grain on the rifle? The Home Ministry who stands in as my weapon critic (since she is the only person in the house I can ask anyway) says a few of them look like zebra stripes and some of earlier ones as doggy pooh. On looking at some of them she's right.

Lastly the mess tin was done by spraying it with a chrome silver base after which it was painted with the regular green color. Scratches were then created using a emery board to expose the silver underside.

Great stuff this emery boards. After "requisitioning" one from the Home Ministry and found it so useful I frequent the women personal care section of Guardian to scout for more interesting tools.

Thks again to you and Allan (YongA01).

be carefull Tang....who knows what other things you might find there..herk..herk

Beachy
That was not hard criticism. It has more pluses than negatives coz I was hoping you'd send some of that jambu over and wouldn't dare offend you. Your figure is really good. Sometimes I get the same gloss appearance when I dry brush. It's just that when it works for me I find the that base coat has really cured and that the consistency of the dry brushing paint is just right. I think the latter is more important. This is a trial and error thing and I'm still learning. I do "method modeling" all the time coz it's basic we can't do without. Only special areas require thinking out of the box as how best to make it better.

Stand by for a couple of BAD "method modeled" Panzer crew.

My friend the topic of jambu very, very sensitive at home. I'm supposed to be helping the Home Ministry to wrap up the jambu before the critters get them. But as usual I have to save the world-lah so where got time to do such mundane tasks.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy any hard criticism coz without it I would never improve. Besides how would anyone know his fart smells bad if someone isn't brave enough to say something. Somehow that didn't quite sound right.

Anyway I wouldn't hold your breadth as jambu will likely be in short supply. On the other hand jambu branches, now that's a different story. Gatal lah posted another 3 figs in another thread.

CK, have to kowtow to you. Not only are you up there in modelling stuff, but you managed to get the words Home Minister, jambu, smelly fart and holding your breath in one post and it all makes sense.
Good job done...

bro CK,
as u can see in my fotopages. ive painted my fallschrimjager (well ive tried) with a splinter camo sceme...i think it doesnt work...
and the photos i have are grainy too, maklumlah, old digi camera.. getting a new one soon.
any tips on the splinter camo??

My man Opie. I went to your gallery tapi I tak jumpa your fallschirmjager lah. Could be the old eyes getting bad from painting too many figures. Maybe you can post it here.

I wrote a thread somewhere here on Kaki Model to Jimbo's question on the splinter pattern. But basically its just the edge of the camo patches tend to be a bit chunky just like the edge of a torn paper.

Brown and green take up about the same % around 30-40% each with the remaining 20-30% being tan or beige for Italian campaign and very light green for the European campaigns. Paint the basecolor (tan or light green) first followed by either medium green or earth brown. You can leave the 'rain drops' out but I painted mine using khaki.