I've never been that caught up in figures as have many. I mean, I like them and I do build them from time to time, but I just don't have the ingrained talent that many figure builders/painters do. However, some of them have the benefit in that you don't have to do much to them other than clean them up and then paint them. That is the case with this one, and since my build program had fallen to such a level that I wasn't going to be able to complete an airplane kit in time, I decided to give this figure a try.

First thing I did was to clean up as best I could any mold seams. Now it isn't as easy to do as one would thing since this figure is only and inch and a half tall (that is about 4 centimeters to you 'powers of ten' folks). Once I had it pretty clean, I sprayed the entire figure with Floquil Reefer White. Lacquers are excellent for a primer and the white was needed for some of the colors. Once that had dried, it was time for the rest of the painting.

Most will tell you that one should go from light colors to dark when painting things, so I decided to give it a try in that order. Now let me tell you about the paints. I used two manufacturers for paints. The dark colors (like the black, dark grey and gunmetal) are laquers. The black and dark grey are Floquil while the gunmetal is Testors Metalizer. All the rest (well, most of them) are Vallejo acrylics.

I first painted the flesh areas of the face and bust with Vallejo standard skin shade. Next the top of the jump suit was painted using Floquil Weathered Black, which is a really dark grey. Boots and gloves were Floquil Engine Black. The jump suit is supposed to be one color, but all that black just didn't strike my fancy. Besides, black is a bear to get to looking good so I used Vallejo Vermillion for the lower part of the suit. With that big belt, it could be a two-piece outfit!

Next the gun was painted gunmetal with Testors Metallizer. The clip case was in Testors Aluminum and the side pistol case in Testors Leather. Turning to the belt, that was done in Vallejo Florescent Blue, though it didn't turn out as bright as I'd thought it would. The eagle on the buckle is Testors Aluminum.

Going to the head, the hair was painted in Vallejo Beige while the lips were done in Vallejo Rose. I also put a bit of color in the cheeks with the Rose. Chain around the neck is in Aluminum with the Iron Cross in Engine Black. I used Vallejo Deep Yellow for the collar

For the base, I used Tamiya Hull Red and then did the 'grass' in Colors of Eagles RLM 82. This was then drybrushed with Vallejo Florescent Green. The biggest problem were the eyes. I had a terrible time getting any sort of dots in there to look good. Doing eye whites is more than I can handle in this size. The end result isn't one I'm really happy with (OK, it sucks), but I just couldn't do any better as each try to 'fix' things just ended up worse.

With all the colors on and (hopefully) well dry, I took a bit of Aluminum and drybrushed the gun. some Vallejo white was used sparingly to drybrush the boots and upper suit as well as the hair and some of the face. The last step was a wash using dirty thinner (yeah, not very hi-tech, but it does work and the acrylics/lacquers won't easily wash away using it). I thought about drilling out the gun barrel and may do so once I finish photographing it, but the tip of the gun has been bent around quite a bit so I worried about it breaking off.

Heading to the local Hobby Lobby, I found some 1 1/2 inch wooden squares, which seemed perfect for a figure of this size. A big glob of superglue on the wood and the figure is held in place. No need to spend major money on a fancy wood base when it (allegedly) doesn't count in judging, right?

Overall a nice change from the norm. Though it was the better part of a week for this figure, most of the time was spent waiting for the paint to dry! I'd say that actual work time was probably less than 4 hours.

October 2003
#1286 in a series

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