Thursday 18 December 2014

From KevinH - 28mm WWII US Paratroopers (30 Points)

I picked up a portable "photo booth" last year.  Unfortunately, it came with the new "twirly" bulbs, and they've made my pics look pretty crap - even with some Photoshop tweaking.  I'm a bit sad about this...  I think I will go back to my old method of snapping pics.  I've still got regular bulbs, so I might try swapping out the "twirly" bulbs for regulars in the booth...


So - my first post (outside of the Fortnight post the other day), will be for some Bolt Action/Warlord "US Airborne" models, in 28mm.  I painted five Riflemen in the last Challenge, and I'm determined to get more of these guys done this time!  Here are a couple of "Officer" types, a Bazooka team, and an LMG team (Light Machine Gun, for the uninitiated)..

(please excuse the shoddy pics - I will endevour to do better next time.  Those pics from last year's Challenge look SO much nicer...)


Here are the Officer figures.  The first has a pistol and Carbine rifle, the second has an M1 Garand rifle.  He also has a pair of binoculars, so could double as a Forward Observer, I guess.

 

This is the Bazooka team.  Is it just me, or does that Bazooka seem a bit tiny...?  As much as I love Paul Hicks sculpting, there were a few things that didn't turn out so well - this Bazooka being one of them.  He also seemed to do rather small MP40 sub-machine guns on the Germans.


And lastly, the Light Machine Gun team - moving to a better firing position.

You'll be seeing more of these figures over the coming weeks.  I picked up the "Lt. Winters" special edition figure Warlord produced a few months back, plus I've also got two Airborne jeeps, a Mortar team, and a Pack Howitzer team, as well as a few more Riflemen.

After painting the first few in the last Challenge, I've gotten over my 'hang-up' of trying to paint these guys!  So I look forward to continuing the efforts.  The same could probably be said about all the British Airborne figures I have - but those damn Denison smocks really DO give me a mental block!

Thanks for looking!

From Curt:Nice work Kevin! You've done a great job on these sculpts  though I think your lighting is stealing some of the show from us. (FYI: I've found wamth-adjustable LEDs work very well for booth photography.) The bazooka may look a bit small but it actually wasn't a very large weapon as it only fired a 2.36 inch rocket. Here are a couple period photos of two variants of the bazooka:


I think Hicks' sculpt, while perhaps a bit foreshortened, is not far off.
Again, great work Kevin. I look forward to seeing more of these along with your Lt. Winters sometime in the coming months.

36 comments:

  1. Nice paras Kevin.

    As for Denison pattern camo, it's not too bad to do - I painted a section for AlanD a couple of years ago, so can send you my paint scheme if you want.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tamsin - I'd be interested to see what you did for he Denison smocks. I did find a painting guide from a club in S.E. Asia (don't have the link, off-hand) that seemed workable, but I thought their colours looked a bit too bright. That's part of what bugs me about the smocks, the colours are so close in hue and value, that on figs like this, they appear to blend into each other.

      Delete
  2. Curse those twirly bulbs! Your figs look great even so sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael! I knew these new bulbs were going to be a problem when they first came out. I don't know what I'm going to do when the 200W Incandescent in my painting area finally decides to chuck it in... :-(

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the Bazooka pics, Curt - maybe the sculpt isn't so far off. I always thought it looked bigger in Band of Brothers, like a 3" diameter, or a bit more even. But that might have been a prop, not actual hardware.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYFU4hXDg4
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYFU4hXDg4

    ReplyDelete
  4. ps: I'll have to check out those warmth-adjusted bulbs you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent work - I really like the .30cal machine gun team on the move

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, jmilesr - it's one less "prone" team to vex GregB! ;-)

      Delete
  6. Very nice work on these guys. Looking forward to see some more of their kind. And let me assure you I'm totally with you on the Denisons... I still have some unpainted ones flying round here from last years challenge as they drove me nuts. I really like German camo but that Denison is just well... demanding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Moiterei_1984. As I mentioned on Tamsin's post, I think it's the fact that the colours are so similar on those Denisons - hard to get decent contrast, but still maintain the proper 'look.'

      Delete
  7. Very nice work Kevin!

    I'm still a fan of halogen bulbs, but then again I don't have anything as sophisticated as a photo-booth!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I despise those twirly bulbs. Somehow those things are supposed to make our planet greener. I think they make our lighting wretched.

    The figures are nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Really nice work - even with the substandard lighting, those are fine minis - I like em a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice work mate. yeah lighting can be a pain we all suffer from. And for that you have my sympathy. Always good to see some paras take to the stage/tabletop

    ReplyDelete
  11. These are good, shame about the lighting, you will just have to paint up some more :-)

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your good work still comes through despite the lighting issues.

    On some cameras, there are different settings depending on what type of light you're using. This video's got some good tips:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxUeYXfeI4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the video link, David - is that your channel? I like Tabletop Minions - lots of good info! As for my camera, I did make some modifications to the setting when I started using the portable booth. My first shot or two had a decidedly BLUE cast two them. That FOLDIO booth, and the daylight adjusted LED's sound like a great idea too. It would be really handy to span pics with my phone!

      Delete
  13. Great work Kevin - well done.

    ReplyDelete
  14. They're excellent. Love the green you have got them with.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I think they all look grand, Kevin! I can't mock your photos either! I use my "smart phone" which probably isn't smart. My old Olympus did great photos, but that was last century and Kodachrome is no more!
    I'd imagine the bazooka is pretty close. I'm modern scout infantry and space is a premium commodity. It is even more precious for airborne. I as a rule never argue with 1st Sgt, but I would have a few choice words if I had to jump or hump with a 5" 54! I hate it when I have to hump spare mortar rounds! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I certainly can't argue with someone who has real life experience! Thanks, David!

      Delete
  16. They look good and the photos aren't that bad. Three things I do, cover the lamps in baking parchment (to diffuse the light), EV of +1 or higher or a dark background, I set my the white balance to incandescent as it looks better to my eye than auto or fluorescent. Happy painting and photographing.

    ReplyDelete