Wednesday 18 February 2015

From MartinN - More 28mm Greyscale Viet Minh (31 points)

I'm still recovering from a nasty flu which knocked me out for over a week. While being quite pleased with my progress over the Challenge so far I find it always rather hard to get the juices flowing again once I hit the proverbial wall.


By now I'm feeling pretty comfortable with greyscale so I painted up the last of my Viet Minh to get back on track again.



As Curt already has pointed out my interpretation of greyscale probably has more of a heavily desaturated look than true black/ white approach. But as I'm still looking for a way to make the opposing forces look slightly different to each other I might still try a 'proper' greyscale on the French paratroopers.


By now most of you will probably be aware of me being a big fan of Mr. Hicks' work. The only thing I'm almost always struggling with is the faces. He has a certain way in how he sculpts faces which makes his work instantly recognizable but that doesn't really fit my painting style. I still get the faces done up to a standard I'm happy with but it's almost always a chore.



As I already said at the top these six guys are the last of my Viet Minh force so far. Unfortunately Redstar Miniatures don't supply the Viet Minh with separate heads whereas the French come with an abundance of different head options. So as long as they don't add more poses to this range I'll probably have to make head swaps if I want to expand the force.



So all in all todays submission should give me another 30 points. In combination with my 'Hot' themed entry this should see me exceed my 750 points target.


From Curt:

I'm just loving this project Nick. Greyscale is one thing but I have to say that I still prefer your desaturated approach to these figures - I think they  look terrific (especially with the corresponding groundwork - brilliant).  

In regards to the absence of head options with the Viet Minh I have to agree with you, I wish they had the extra sprues that the French figures have. Nonetheless, from what I understand from chatting with the RedStar fellows is that they have big plans for this range, so we should be seeing dedicated sapper teams, anti-aircraft crews, gunners, etc. This is pretty exciting stuff for those of us who are into this period. Now it's just a matter of getting enough of Paul Hicks' time to get the work done!

I'm giving you an extra point for the mortar as I very well know how much of a swine it is to put together with the crewman also holding it.

Great job Nick!


23 comments:

  1. I have to learn how to do this it looks so cool.

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    1. Me too! They're marvellous!

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    2. Same here! These beautiful figures have inspired me, if I have time towards the end of the challenge, to try painting some greyscale figures of my own. Anyone have any pointers or tutorials to link to?

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  2. These look really stunning (and kind of spooky as though they are lurking in the twilight !)

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  3. Wonderful! Wonderful wonderful wonderful. Can you share some tips?

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  4. I find these astonishing. Your muted use of colour is fantanstic and these submissions are my favourites of the whole challenge, and that's a pretty high bar.

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  5. The subtlety of this style of painting is so deceiving - by that I mean it must be even more difficult to paint than in full color.

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  6. Incredible work - outstanding. This is great stuff.

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  7. Very nice. looks like fighting at night. cheers

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  8. Very nice! I like the palette and the crisp brushwork! ;)

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  9. Incredible work once again. I'm glad I don't post on the same day as you; it would definitely show how bad I am.

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  10. The models are amazing but I have to say that it's the ground work that really makes them look like a black and white photo. Great stuff!

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  11. The models are amazing but I have to say that it's the ground work that really makes them look like a black and white photo. Great stuff!

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  12. I REALLY like your version of Grayscale

    Ian

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  13. Lovely work! Your way of doing greyscale is just amazingly beautiful. Marvelous how colourful it can look with so few colours used.

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  14. Oooooh those are pretty. This is what I wanted to do to my zombicide zombivors, but didn't pull off.

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  15. They are wonderful, very nice in their desaturated painting. A great source of inspiration.

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  16. Absolutely beautiful.

    I absolutely think the muted hues make it work better than a strict grayscale. They look very battle worn, muddy, dirty, and tired.

    I'll ad to calls for the color palate.

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  17. I have to say, these greyscale/ desaturated figures are real show stoppers.

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