Since my last entry about this kit I've done a lot of reworking and finessing the areas already painted as well as making good progress on the backpack and the head.
After spending more time blending in the colours of the straps I set to work on a rethink of the laces because I wasn't happy with the way this area was evolving. As a result I tried a complete repaint involving stripping back the previous paint job and then starting again with a layer of black. You'll recall that I observed early in the build that some figure builders do this but I wanted to get a good white layer because of the opacity issue. Well now I can see the reasoning here. It's much better to do this with a pre-shaded starting point. Over this I used white as a highlight and a combination of this and 990 Light Grey for shading. The result is better than before, with a more subtle sense of gradations of colour and shade.
From here I did some work on the yellow collar. I was very wary of this because yellow is difficult to shade, but using a mix of 915 Deep Yellow and a drop of 872 Chocolate Brown I did a very heavily thinned layer of shading which seems to work. For lighter areas I mixed Deep Yellow with 837 Pale Sand and again only did one layer of this. The result is greater definition without washing out the sharpness and vibrancy of the original yellow.
By this stage I was happy with the uniform so I moved on to the backpack. Instead of using Black for the pack I did a 50/50 mix of Black and 872 Chocolate Brown. Painting in Black on its own doesn't really work in this scale, plus of course as a base colour it doesn't really give you anywhere to go in terms of lowlights. For highlights I added a small amount of 845 Sunny Skintone, which gives a greyish colour. This was used sparingly because it really does contrast with the darker base. Once the kit as a whole has been given a layer of matt varnish I'll revisit the black of the backpack with a layer of Klear so that it has a gloss/satin effect.
The rolled up great coat was done in 869 Basalt Grey, with initial highlights done by adding Sunny Skintone. Returning to this later I felt that, while it gave a dusty effect which I liked, it didn't provide enough contrast, so I used Basalt Grey with 990 Light Grey for further highlighting and the base colour with a spot of 822 German Camo Black Brown for lowlights.
On the box art the straps for the backpack appear to be some kind of grey colour, possibly with a blue tinge to it. With this in mind the straps were done with 964 Field Blue, but further research made it clear that these straps were supposed to be the same white effect as the straps on the main uniform. As a result I followed the same process as the laces and used a mix of white and Light Grey for the lowlights and white for the highlights.
That brings us to the head, which is quite complicated because of that impressive head gear. The same black and chocolate brown mix that was used for the backpack was used for the feathers, cockade, etc, and again I added Sunny Skintone which was applied as a form of dry brush over the highest elements. This worked very well and I'm really pleased with it.
For the hackle or plume I used 817 Scarlet and at this stage it is worth recalling that this figure has to be a member of the Light Company of the 92nd (operating on the left of the line) because of his hunting horn badge and the configuration of his shoulder wings. This would usually mean a green hackle but the Light Company of the 92nd appears to have been awarded red hackles in recognition of their service in the Pyrenees campaign and since our figure is supposed to be at Waterloo, two years after the Pyrenees campaign, this is the colour I've given him.
Having done this and a layer of Off White for the band where the dicing will go, I painted the face. This was done using exactly the same combination of colours as the Tanker, including the same colours for the hair. Again this seems a bit dark to me so I'll have to experiment with an alternative base colour which is lighter than Brown Sand.
Finally, we have the dicing. I've done a chequered effect before, on the nose of a P-51 Mustang, but successful though that was it only involved two colours, yellow and green. I don't know about you but masking alternate colours really messes with my head but as an added complication the dicing for our highlander's hat has a white and red cheque with an alternating green square in the middle band of colours. In addition, the curve of the hat as well as the overhang of the feathers provides further difficulties for masking. I approached this with a degree of trepidation but also curiosity to see if I could make it work.
My first step was to measure the width of the band with a set of digital callipers and then divide by three for the horizontal strips, giving me a guide of 2.6 mm for cutting strips of Tamiya masking tape. Because the dicing is in squares, this gives the vertical measurements too. I masked off the top and bottom horizontals, using the edges of the band as a guide, and then painted a continuous red line all the way around. Once this was dry I removed the tape and then used used shorter 2.6 mm strips to mask off verticals. One of these strips was used as a guide, so I fitted the first vertical, placed the guide strip alongside it, then fitted the next strip, before removing the guide strip. Working around the head band in this way meant that the gaps between the strips remained consistent. Once the masking was done I painted vertical red lines and allowed these to dry. The masking tape was retained in place and I then masked off the top and bottom horizontals again, leaving the centre squares exposed where the reds intersect. These exposed squares were then painted 950 Black and once this was dry a layer of 970 Deep Green was painted on top. Once this was dry I removed all of the masking tape to reveal the central line of dicing with alternating red and green, along with the correct alternating red and white for the upper and lower horizontals.
In order to provide highlighting I added Deep Yellow to the Deep Green and used this to highlight the upper right triangle on each of the squares. I did two successive highlighting stages in this way. I then did the same with the red squares by using 909 Vermillion and 915 Deep Yellow, then the white squares using 951 White for the highlight and then White with 845 Sunny Skintone in the bottom left triangle. The masking for such an exercise is always a 'heart in mouth' moment but in this case it seems to have worked.
Finally, you'll note that I appear to have solved the problem I experienced with matt finish of the tanker. Partly this was about using an old bottle of Tamiya X21 Flat Base, but I've realised that at times I was also using a bottle of Vallejo 061 Thinner rather than 524 Thinner or water. With the latter, plus Matte Medium (which is excellent) and X21 Flat Base, I'm getting a dead flat finish.
With the end in sight for this most excellent kit the final steps will be a layer of matt varnish for the whole kit, oil washes, metal paint, Klear on gloss areas and final construction. I'm hoping to get these stages done over the next few days.
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