54mm Charge of the Scots Greys

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks very much ,Peter.
Maybe the practice is having some effect- I should probably paint more frequently.
It's just that it doesn't come as naturally to me as the 3 dimensional side of things.

[JR]

https://www.afvmodeller.com/product/135-resin-sculpting-mannequins/

Thanks Simon.

[JR]

Nice Neil, love the colours, how do you get on with white, I seem to remember having to put on many coats to cover the plastic. Is it thin coats ?

[Neil Merryweather]

Nice Neil, love the colours, how do you get on with white, I seem to remember having to put on many coats to cover the plastic. Is it thin coats ?

thanks John
The white was a nightmare actually. I used two coats here and I'm not really happy as I can never get rid of the brush strokes.
In fact I was thinking that next time I'm going to use Humbrol enamel,like in the olden days!
I struggled with the flesh as well. fortunately the photo doesn't show it but he has a few really bad warts!

[Tim Marlow]

Try VJ ivory as a first coat Neil, it covers better than their white. Great work, by the way, a real masterclass.

[SimonT]

Hi Neil, looks like he is playing leapfrog in that shot above :smiling3:

All coming together nicely

Not really qualified to give painting advice given the state of my crappy figure, but, I think it could stand the shadows and highlights pushing a bit further and adding around edges of turn backs etc to give him a bit more definition

[rtfoe]

Hi Neil, wonderful painting so far with the base colours. I would follow what Simon suggested and perhaps reposition the eyes looking down towards the front as he finishes the leap.

Cheers,
Richard

[Neil Merryweather]

Try VJ ivory as a first coat Neil, it covers better than their white. Great work, by the way, a real masterclass.

Thanks Tim I certainly will give that a try. And thanks for the very kind comment

[Neil Merryweather]

Richard and Simon, thanks for the kind comments but I am leaving it well alone for fear of wrecking things!
I'm not really sure where his eyeline is until I get him on the horse, but I'm not changing them because A) at least they're both looking the same direction and B) in the painting he is focusing much farther away on the troops ahead, and that was actually my intention.( Of course, I'm only claiming to follow the painting because it suits me this time:tongue-out3:)
Thanks both for your continued interest

[adt70hk]

Neil

Amazing work there. Very well done.

Andrew

[papa 695]

Great work looking great

[Neil Merryweather]

Thank you ,Andrew and Ian.

Well, “pride comes before a fall”, as they say, and my attempts at painting the Scots Grey horse did not work out so well.

For a start, I put too heavy a coat of white primer on, which obscured a lot of the detail. But being a lazy person I ignored that and carried on with the airbrush(inspired by Richard’s fine job), forgetting that I really don’t know what I’m doing. Annoyingly, as often happens, it was quite passable at one stage and then I decided to ‘improve’ it, which, of course, did the opposite!

I had the idea of lowering the pressure to create some fine dots…….

Well, it did create fine dots, but it made the horse look as if he’d been either pebble dashed or carved out of a block of granite!

So here he is in all his hideousness, before he went in the Dettol bath!





And for some unknown reason I didn’t do his face at all!

Ho hum:rolling:.

So it will be a little while before there is anything new to report here, I’m afraid.

That OOB Spitfire is really beckoning!

[Tim Marlow]

I feel your pain, horses are very hard.....I’m by no means an expert, but I do find having a picture of a particular animal to hand does help me. Gives me something to copy LOL....

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks Tim.
It was my poor airbrush technique that was to blame.


Here is a small update with regard to the Dettol bath.
I've only done it a couple of times and I wasn't prepared for the result, so I thought I would report for the sake of anyone else who has never tried it.
I left the horse soaking overnight in neat Dettol ,and in the morning all the Vallejo acrylic had lifted nicely away. I ran it under the tap and scrubbed with a toothbrush but I was left with a very sticky grey residue all over the model and the toothbrush. What the Dettol didn't seem to touch was the Halford's rattle-can primer.
I was thinking of other paint strippers for models and I was about to go for the Mr Muscle foaming oven cleaner (which I have used only once and wasn't impressed),when I thought I would give IPA a try (Isopropyl Alcohol- not India Pale Ale).
I just wet the toothbrush with it and scrubbed and well, it worked a treat, and the job was done in 10 minutes.
One other interesting (and irritating) side effect is that one or other chemical has attacked the milliput, which I always thought was more or less bulletproof, solvent-wise!
Apparently not. Whatever it was has got underneath the filler and made the thin areas lift off and made the surface very granular.
So I've got a bit of work to do,rather than just a repaint.
cheers
N

[Steve Jones]

I'm so sorry to hear about all the troubles Neil. Its such a terrific project I hope it all comes together for you soon.