USMC Iwo Jima Part 2 - Work in Progress...

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

No resting time in the jungle... after reading the book by Sledge like a whirlwind i really got stuck into this theme... wow, i have to paint and think on the USMC all the time... here are the next steps that will bring a complete step by step guide of this model in the end.

today's inspiration

Explanation about my painting:
Short Explanation about how i paint on this model. I really try to catch my inner feelings and imagination i have of this USMC on Iwo Jima. For me it is not the most important thing to catch the right production colour of new Marine Uniforms. Important to me is that there is to see that these guys had to suffer every single day in the Pacific, sometimes short of supplies and for sure no soldier that has seen some battles and survived has 8 new uniforms in his backpack to be dressed for dinner every day... that is what i try to catch.

Questions i got at the moment to those of you who maybe can help me because of their knowledge:
Are these colours i choose completly wrong so far? It is still the work to find my way into the bust and there is still a lot to do - is the way good or bad? I somehow have the feeling that these dogtags are so wrong sculpted also the way they are keeping in place on his neck - there was a chain so far as i can remember, or not?

Here follows the acutal progress:

Working on the clothing was the next step - the face for the moment is at rest as i am always making progress everywhere to see to have the option of having the final result in mind. I have used glazes of Vallejo's Air Yellow Olive + Citadels Camo Green + Catachan Green + Graveyard Earth, totally mixed in a storm of mixing joy... + a drop of chaos black into this mix for the shadows. Placed shy first lights with a tiny addition of Kommando Khaki - also i made a sketch of the fabric pattern of the clothes which you can also see here with a brighter tone than i have used for the areas.

 For the leather parts i have used a was mixing the colours at the miniature itself using the following, Citadel's Schorched Brown, something bright from the Andrea Flesh paint set i still had on my wetpalette, a drop of black for the shadows and yellow olive by Vallejo Model Air + somewhere in between was for sure a mixture where the nice brown from Andrea's Skin 1st Shadow jumped into it...

For the belts and the backpack i have used Graveyard Earth for the basic which i did bright with some bright skin colour again  and sketch the shadows with a drop of my leather colour mix in it. Wow, that sounds like paintin, huh?

I did paint the working socket in pure black to have a better view on the bust itself without distracting white primer...

My wetpalette looked like this, but i have made this photo after i did paint the basecoat for the helmet and sleeping bag, so i hope it is not too much... tourquise marks the spots i have used for the clothes, orange/yellow marks the spots i have used for the leather and the belts... working my way from detail to the end... please remember this is Work in Progress so it is dirty and i guess it will stay dirty but with a bit more charme in the end, haha...

Next i've went for the helmet's and sleeping bag basecolour with sketched shadow and lights... using everything that has been on my wetpalette already... mixed in some green here and some brighter tone to make it brighter there and some darker tone to make it darker here and there... hard to explain but it isn't that important at the moment as those are basecolours...

Still everything is mostly base colour and it isn't covering everything, that ain't a problem as this happens later on... important to me was to catch the colour i feel for the helmet and the sleeping bag, camouflage comes later on and covering colours will work out the contrast of light and shadow soon... i missed a belt here on the left... hihi... painting fever is great!

So far... happy painting to you all... bbrrrzzzzllll! Semper Fi!
Regards
Roman