More than eyes can see…Eduard P-51B pilot

[quang]

Out of curiosity… I’d like to share with you some close-up photos of the 3D-printed pilot included in Eduard Hybrid P-51B. I’m discovering details I didn’t suspect as I couldn’t see them with my bare eyes. Note the lifelike expression on the face 🤩

 

 

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Yeah, stunning detail. He has got sort of boyish look to him, pimples and all .

 

Edited August 28 by Martinnfb

[csavaglio]

The eyelets on his boots and laces caught my eye when I first looked at it. 

[Tecnikit]

Those of us who have ever taken or working making portraits know the key techniques.

 

This was a design exercise I did many years ago to obtain a natural-looking face from a standard commercial mannequin.

 

 

On the left, a lifeless face, and on the other, all life and energy. It requires a lot of work.

 

Although there are already people selling quite well-made models. Then... you can wear them.

 

The other option is to use a wide-field scanner.

 

I've seen people selling toy soldiers with a perfect level of realism. You can tell they're scanned because it's impossible to achieve that level of perfection repeatedly.

 

When drawing from real models, the most difficult aspect is what's called "movement"—the fluidity, naturalness, and balance of the person's posture.

 

And unfortunately, nowadays you can feed a photograph into an AI, and it fills in the blind spots to create a 3D model.

 

This last case... no effort = no art.

 

Javier

 

Edited August 28 by Tecnikit

[williamj]

That is a very nice pilot figure . Extraordinary detail.

[DugyB]

Interesting pics,  thanks for posting. My first impression is that he looks like he’s skylarking, or day dreaming to you non military types. To me he doesn’t look articulate or dynamic enough. Left elbow on the cockpit window seal etc, right arm could have been printed separately as either giving a thumbs up, wave or even a two finger victory salute. Must be a fault of mine from my post diorama days, wanting to tell a story or simply to  look more interesting. The detail on him is very nice though, I was thinking about using a spare aftermarket seat and displaying him outside the model separately…. 🫡

Edited August 29 by DugyB

[quang]

2 hours ago, DugyB said:

My first impression is that he looks like he’s skylarking, or day dreaming to you non military types. To me he doesn’t look articulate or dynamic enough. Left elbow on the cockpit win

I can see your point but a figure doesn’t necessary need to have locked jaws, steel eyes and a gung-ho attitude to portray a soldier.
The most commendable feature of this sculpt is that it accurately reflects the youthfulness and the original civilian nature of the ‘citizen soldier’ which formed the vast majority of US enlisted men in WWII.
Also remarkable is the accurate depiction of each piece of gear worn by a typical US fighter pilot in the ETO in 1944 meticulously described in the final pages of the book included in the ‘royal’ edition.

 

We’re rightly enthusiastic about the 3D prints included in the Eduard boxing. We all ooh-aah on the wheel bays and the cockpit but we forgot to mention the humble pilot figure which to me is truly a watershed in figure sculpting and production.

[Royboy]

The problem for me is matching the aircraft model to the amazing detail of the figure! Eduard's new philosophy of ultra detail presents all sorts of issues for this old modeller? I've bought the model, it's incredible, but I have doubts that I can now match the demands of matching my previous skill sets to these new models. Perhaps I should now stick to the kits I know I can at least do a reasonable job on! Fantastic times we !ive in though. 

[Oldbaldguy]

Stunning.  But painting this figure is going to be a bear.  The coats of paint are going to have to be very thin or all this magnificent detail goes away.  If this is becoming the industry standard, then we are going to need either a tutorial or a figures WIP section on LSP to show us hackers the way because I have no idea how to do justice to this.

[Sturmbock]

6 hours ago, quang said:

I can see your point but a figure doesn’t necessary need to have locked jaws, steel eyes and a gung-ho attitude to portray a soldier.
The most commendable feature of this sculpt is that it accurately reflects the youthfulness and the original civilian nature of the ‘citizen soldier’ which formed the vast majority of US enlisted men in WWII.
Also remarkable is the accurate depiction of each piece of gear worn by a typical US fighter pilot in the ETO in 1944 meticulously described in the final pages of the book included in the ‘royal’ edition.

 

We’re rightly enthusiastic about the 3D prints included in the Eduard boxing. We all ooh-aah on the wheel bays and the cockpit but we forgot to mention the humble pilot figure which to me is truly a watershed in figure sculpting and production.

I share Quang's opinion regarding the figure's expression. There are so many figures across virtually every area of military modeling that always display the same stereotypical traits! Especially with vehicle crews—but also with pilot figures—one might get the impression that war is just a John Wayne movie... whereas the posture of this figure, and the expression it conveys, has a certain reserved, introspective, perhaps even pensive quality. After all, for this young man, the next mission could well have been his last; in war, it isn't always just "the others" who die. I think that is the kind of story or theme a figure can tell when placed in the context of a diorama! But that’s just my humble opinion.

[Oldbaldguy]

21 hours ago, Tecnikit said:

Those of us who have ever taken or working making portraits know the key techniques.

 

This was a design exercise I did many years ago to obtain a natural-looking face from a standard commercial mannequin.

 

 

On the left, a lifeless face, and on the other, all life and energy. It requires a lot of work.

 

This last case... no effort = no art.

 

Javier

 

While I certainly agree with pretty much everything you said, I am compelled to say that I find the girl on the left more appealing than the one on the right.  I think it's an individual perception/expectations thing.  Were the girl on the right portrayed as a natural redhead, then I'd buy the "full of life expression" being better premise.   To me, the Eduard pilot looks like a young American college kid loaded down with gear, wearing a flight suit that is too big for his youthful frame, plopped into a state of the art fighter wondering how it was he got there.  I imagine that was a pretty common sight back then.

[Thunnus]

For comparative purposes, here is an old skool injection-molded figure from a Hasegawa kit....

 

 

 

No separation of components (harnesses, hoses & buckles) as you can achieve with 3D-printing but on the other hand, you don't have to deal printing artifacts.

[geedubelyer]

2 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

we are going to need either a tutorial or a figures WIP section on LSP to show us hackers the way because I have no idea how to do justice to this.

 

Not sure if it's necessarily your thing OBG but I have gained a huge amount of knowledge by watching videos from guys who paint table top fantasy wargaming minis. 

Their techniques can be applied to scale figures and can really help detail pop. 

It's a completely different discipline to what many of us are used to but also, relatively easy to get passable results. 

 

HTH,

Guy

[Kenneth Joy]

I would absolutely love to see what Taesung Harmms from Alpine Minatures could do with this...

[Citadelgrad]

3 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Stunning.  But painting this figure is going to be a bear.  The coats of paint are going to have to be very thin or all this magnificent detail goes away.  If this is becoming the industry standard, then we are going to need either a tutorial or a figures WIP section on LSP to show us hackers the way because I have no idea how to do justice to this.

Use vallejo and keep them thin.  For light colors, just accept you need 2 or 3 coats.  Reds, yellow, etc over dark, you need to first put down a deck tan coat and the colors will pop. 

 

Its a skill but its not as difficult as you think before you start.  There are several threads on figures in the non lsp area now, and one of them is mine.  Mine is a true painting thread, the others are more results,.like rfi, but look at what you can do with some practice.   This detail will make this figure easier to paint, not harder.  Its counterintuitive but if I can do it, anyone can.