ChuckD Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 15 hours ago, Citadelgrad said: I hate to nit pick, but that forearm to the right is WAY out of scale. It's your diorama, but I don't see how that's going to work. The flesh tones are actually quite good, but that might be 1/35 scale. Let's be honest here, after the holidays that forearm (and everything it's attached to) is a little over scale. Brett M, Shoggz and Citadelgrad 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jep1210 Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 "Sword of exact zero", great reference. ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 Hello, all. Back with another small update. After watching some tutorials on YouTube and doing a few practice pieces, I was able to sculpt a right hand in the pose I needed. It looks a little rough in close up photos, but I think with a coat of paint it'll look great. For a first "production" effort, I'm really happy with it and I've found myself consumed with videos of how to sculpt figures from scratch. God help me... As you can see, he's now grasping the canopy rail naturally as you would as you're heaving yourself down to the wing. So with that tackled, now it's just a matter of posing the left arm and sculpting another hand. As the above photos show (at least to some degree) the left arm is now far too bent. It needs to be straightened out so that the left hand will fall naturally on the fuselage just forward of the canopy. So, I took out a razor saw and cut a small slit in the crook of the left elbow, held the figure under a hair dryer for ~20 seconds, bent the arm to where I needed it, and let it cool. Much better. A little filling with magic sculpt and it looks quite nice. With the foot on the fuselage canopy rail, the right hand on the canopy itself, I believe the left hand will be open with fingers splayed a bit just to help him guide himself as he drops from the cockpit to the wing. I'm hoping that I can finish up the other hand tomorrow morning, then, once the putty cures, get it mounted and get the figures primed, cleaned up, and ready for paint. JeepsGunsTanks, ARay87, mc65 and 19 others 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Looks good so far Chuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 Success! Left hand sculpted successfully! It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and now I really want to try my hand at more challenging sculpts. As if I need another skill to build. Inspiration is a hell of a thing. In any case, you can now see that Lt. Ray is using his left hand's fingertips to steady himself as he jumps down onto the wing from the cockpit. He fits the scene perfectly now. While not a perfect match for the reference photo, I think this is pretty darn good. Guys, I gotta admit, I'm really happy with these results and I expected the hand work to be much more difficult. I know they're not perfect, but as a beginner, I'm about as happy as can be. Now on to the other palm tree. Landrotten Highlander, CODY, Panzerwomble and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzerwomble Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 I tend to roll with "inspired by" rather than "actual scale replica" these days ...tooo many rabbit holes which suck the joy away in my humble opinion . I did a lot of recreating Battle of the Bulge famous pictures , but most of them, apart from that "one camera angle" , I found don't make great models / dioramas. I wouldn't get too hung up. ChuckD and ARay87 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 Couldn't agree more. <3 And with palm tree #2 complete... The vegetation is done! Next to move on to tidying up the base and getting some texturing and painting done. mc65, Greg W, scvrobeson and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Impressive looking. Cheers, Michael ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy 1 VX 4 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 What kit did you use for the trees or did you scratch build them? They look great ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 4 hours ago, Vandy 1 VX 4 said: What kit did you use for the trees or did you scratch build them? They look great Thank you. I more or less followed Luke Towan's tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKG9rcb_Y4 I varied in that I wrapped the trunks in layers of 1.5" wide masking tape to help give them texture and strength. This is a much larger scale than what Luke works in, so I had to add some heft to them. Cutting the fronds was the most annoying part. To get them to come cleanly off the cutting mat, I had to set them to run suuuuuuuuuuper slow and do 2 passes through the cutter. A set of 12 fronds - all that would fit on one sheet of paper - took 65 minutes. Each tree has 38 fronds, so you do the math. That was just to cut them, then I still had to super glue a wire to the back of them and paint them. They turned out really really nice and I'm very happy with them, but I shan't be doing another one again for some time if I can help it. Interestingly, whatever materials Luke uses behaved the opposite of mine. He put a sheet of laminate on a sheet of paper then ran it through his cutter. I used oramask 813 on a sheet of paper. He then glued the stem to the laminate as he specifically said the leaves would bend towards the laminate side over time. On the first, taller tree, that's what I did, but my leaves bent towards the paper, so that tree has leaves that are bent upwards from the stem. On the second, shorter tree, I glued the stem to the paper side and got the result I was after. They both look great, and I think it adds a little visual interest anyway, so whatever. Lesson learned. Anyway... Today was a good, long day at the bench. I bopped back and forth between working on the figures and the base. The figures are still very much a work in progress (only the flesh tones are done), but the base is finished! Though not present in the photos, I added a little grass for visual interest. I did it in such a way that maybe the SeaBees missed a swatch or two as they were grading the runways and taxiways. I don't intend to glue down the Corsair so that I can use this base for as a photo base for any single engine engine Pacific warrior. Yes, I've tried squeezing the A-20G and Lightning in... they fit, but only just barely. Anyway, here you go. And a couple placeholders... If all goes well, I should be able to finish up the figures this week and turn my attention to the Corsair proper next weekend. mc65, Dpgsbody55, Landrotten Highlander and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 Hello, all. I'm back with another update. It is with great pleasure that I inform you, the figures are done. I make no pretenses to be an expert figure painter and certainly not anything like an expert sculptor. But, every figure is practice and I'm fairly happy with how these two turned out. I definitely see some things I would have sculpted differently, but those are all lessons to apply to the next project. Anyway, here a few shots. The scene is starting to come together! The crew chief... ... who started life as this: And, our intrepid pilot. Remember, this is what he looked like before: Yeah, now on to the final stage: the Corsair herself! Landrotten Highlander, JeepsGunsTanks, LSP_Kevin and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Great job on the plane. Your work on the figures is spectacular! This is going to be a really sweet diorama. ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckD Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Anyone have any ideas what color should be used on the inside of the sliding canopy? Googling, checking old build threads, and scouring my reference books is turning up very inconsistent and non-authoritative results. The interior of the windscreen appears to be black based from everything I can tell, so that's what I've done on this build. But, I'm stuck on what color to use on the interior of the sliding canopy. JeepsGunsTanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyrosjzmichos Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Not sure how I missed this but it's really lovely work so far Chuck! ChuckD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Effik Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 On 2/4/2024 at 6:39 PM, ChuckD said: Anyone have any ideas what color should be used on the inside of the sliding canopy? Googling, checking old build threads, and scouring my reference books is turning up very inconsistent and non-authoritative results. The interior of the windscreen appears to be black based from everything I can tell, so that's what I've done on this build. But, I'm stuck on what color to use on the interior of the sliding canopy. Hey Chuck, bit late to the party, first off hats down to your work so far, glad my build inspired to do yours! I used interior green on the sliding part and black on the front windshield. I saw some photos that one of my friend shoved me back then and they were painted this way, but i cant find them anymore sadly. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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