Hptm. Walther Karjus--Prepwork III

Save for two more sub-panels to be lined on the coat tails, the TDL has been completed.

Once those are done (later today? - DONE), all that will remain is the final once-over before pri- ming. I am hoping that the figure will be primed and on the painting bench by the end of next weekend at the latest.

UPDATE 01.04.17-- Final clean-up has been concluded, and the figure is now ready for the final once-over and priming. . . hopefully tomorrow.

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

“Nochnoy vědma” (“Night Witch”)--Starshina Natalya Gagarina

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

Hptm. Walther Karjus--Prepwork II

When we last left off, Karjus had been mostly assembled, pegged, and mounted on his work base. 

Which brings me to my TDL (to-do list). I will hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my sample casting: these mods are personal preferences to make the figure "my own".

There are seven salient items on my TDL:

• The Blue Max (Pour le Mérite)--As best I can tell, Karjus is wearing a Blue Max (this is corroborated by Guillaume Menuel's conceptual sketch). As this is an "alternate history", he may very well have been awarded the coveted PlM at some time. But the historical Karjus was never awarded the Blue Max. Thus, I intend to carefully shave the decoration off. DONE
• The Iron Cross (EK1)--The level of detail, etc. is simply "fair", at best. Decorations in miniatures less than 1/16th/120mm are an absolute bear, so this is not a dig at the sculptor (the PlM was masterful!). Fortunately, I dug-up a fret of 1/32 scale photo-etched Iron Crosses (by Nimix), that will provide an excellent replacement after suit- ably backdating. DONE
• The ribbon bar--The conceptual sketch clearly shows a ribbon bar above the left breast pocket: this was left off the master sculpture. Given that Karjus is wearing a jacket with the buttons concealed by a fly, the ribbon bar would be the only place you would see the EK2 ribbon. I intend to also show the ribbon for the Knight's Cross with Swords of the House Order of Hohenzollern. DONE
• Abzeichen--I intend to add a organizational emblem on the left arm. DONE
• Reworking the join of the left forearm--As noted previously, the left forearm is a flush, flat-on- flat join. I intend to extend the arm slightly, and hollow-out the gauntlet cuff for a "plug-in" connection. DONE
• The fly of the jacket. Scribe the seam down the left quarter-panel of the jacket. DONE
• The lining of the coat--The coat's lining as sculpted is limited to the front quarter pa- nels and the collar. While this may be perfectly legit, it doesn't ring quite true with me. So I intend to add a woolen lining to the visible interior of the coat-tails. DONE

UPDATE 26.02.17--While working on the coat's lining, I decided to rework/convert the collar lining to fur. This adds a diversity of texture; enhances the flow around the face/head; and enhances the essentially achromatic palette.

The TDL is now closed!

Stay tuned!!!

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

Hptm. Walther Karjus--Prepwork I

As I mentioned in my introductory posting and review, assembly has been completed except for the left gauntlet/forearm. Save for cursory clean-up and the due diligence of dry-fitting until satis- fied, this was essentially "plug and play". The left forearm will be somewhat less straightforward, depending on your preferences. I personally do not care for flush, flat-on-flat joins on layered items, so I will extend the arm slightly, and hollow-out the gauntlet cuff.

Taking a break from Natalya this evening, I proceeded with pegging the legs on Karjus. I don't believe I've ever mentioned it before, but I usually make my pegs from a single large "non-skid" paper clip. I prefer "non-skid" paper clips since the serrations provide the super-glue "teeth" to which it can adhere--think of it as miniature re-bar. I coat the distal portion of the wire in the glue, and smoothly insert it in the drilled hole.  

Karjus is now on his work base.  More to follow!

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: Finishing

I have just finished laying the basecoat for the remaining leather items; i.e., gauntlets and flight helmet. That means that there is no primer or acrylic uc now visible on the figure! In short, I am on the home stretch!!

And as most of you know, the hard work now begins. . . Final integration is a long row to hoe, and there is little room for carelessness, indifference, or complacency. 

But enough of that! The leathers will be completed tonight, and tomorrow I will begin the minutiae: the goggles, final highlighting of the jacket lining, boot eyelets, etc. etc. etc.

I will update the progress as is my wont on the final stretch, using "diary entries". . .  

FOLLOW-UP- 

• Phase 1 of the groundwork is now complete. 
• Phase 1 of the boot eyelets is done.  
• Tonal contrasting is all-but-done on the breeches.

17.02.2017 - 

• The breeches are done. 
• The visible portion of the rank insignia (custom-made decal) has been applied. 
• The rudder has been permanently attached and weathered.

18.02.2017 -  

• The goggle lenses are done (nb: clear Elmer's and 5-min epoxy).

19.02.2017 -  

• The goggles are done!

20.02.2017 -  DONE!

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

Ltn. Walther Karjus

Accompanying Natalya on her trans-Atlantic flight was Leutnant Walther Karjus, aka "The [Iron] Claw" (LUFT 3203). . .

This casting is EXQUISITE! If the seam-lines were elusive on Natalya, they are virtually non- existent on Karjus!! Beautifully sculpted by Nino Pizzichemi, Karjus is comprised of 4 perfectly rendered components. 

Save for the left gauntlet/forearm, assembly has been completed. And to date, this has been a filler-free exercise, as might be expected.

More to follow!
 
“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: The Rudder (2)

As I said in my last posting, it is time to start catching-up the rudder to the rest of the figure. . . 

In my initial rudder posting, I provided some of the backstory and the rationale driving this project. The rudder belongs to an Imperial Japanese Pfalz Dr.I. After immersing myself briefly in the early history of Japanese military aviation and the colours and markings of the same, I came up with my 'design":

Now you know what the "medium sky blue-grey" is all about. It was one of the first unit identifiers used in the IJAAS, and it was used by a sentai stationed in the northern sectors in the ‘30s. The kanji is gi (as a contraction of giri: ”to serve one’s superiors with a self-sacrificing devotion” or “the burden hardest to bear”). It is one of my favourite Japanese values. 

As much as I would have liked, free-handing the brush-effect of the kanji twice(!) is beyond my abilities, to say nothing of patience. So I took a slightly lower road and made some custom decals. These are now printed and sealed, and will hopefully be applied over the weekend. 

The golden Imperial chrysanthemum on the top section of the rudder is much less straightfor- ward. I am still working-out the best way to execute this . . . 

More to follow. . . 

UPDATE 10.02.17. . . The quandary of the Imperial chrysanthemum is no more! And the solution was actually quite simple. After sleeping on it, and mulling it over for most of the day, I decided that the best option would be applying decals over paint, printers' ink to be precise. So I painted the top section of the rudder in pale gold (which most closely matched the Japanese gold leaf that I have), and printed the red foreground on clear decal paper. Application of the solution will be much more challenging than devising it!

I hope to begin decaling over the weekend. . .

UPDATE 13.02.17. . . Decaling of the port side (away from viewer) of the rudder is now done! Half way there!!

UPDATE 16.02.17. . . Decaling of the rudder is DONE! 

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: The Jacket

The figure is now all-but-done. I'm not quite ready to designate this project as completed, but it is very close to that.

The jacket is now painted. The miniaturist has the option to do it as leather or cloth, and in the colour of his/her choice: I went with a pale, warm olive drab that will be revisited for final weather- ing and staining once the colours settle and the paint begins to dry. 

So far so good. . . everything is coming together quite nicely! I now need to spend some time on the "work-up" of the rudder. . .   

More to follow. . .

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: The Rudder

I took a brief break from the figure to let the colours settle some, and focussed my attention on the trophy rudder that is very much the co-protagonist of this 'vignette'.

As I mentioned in my introductory posting to this project, the control surface in question belongs to a  Pfalz D.VIII. But giving some thought to the circumstances around which our Nachthexe would have acquired such an item led me to enhance the backstory. . .

Natalya has been stationed on the [Far] Eastern front; i.e., Manchuria. Her squadron has been charged with harassing and inflicting as much damage as possible on the Unryū ("Cloud Dra- gon"), the Imperial Japanese zeppelin, by any means available to them. Her squadron was equipped with the single-seat night fighter variant of the Avro 504K/U-1, and while hopelessly outmatched by the zeppelin's on-board squadron of Pfalz Dr.I triplanes, they were ready to give their all for the Motherland. . . 

As best as I have been able to determine, the the Dr.I and the D.VIII had the same rudder. This being the case, I decided that Natalya's "trophy" came from one of the Japanese triplanes sta- tioned aboard the Unryū. This allowed me to introduce some colour into an otherwise largely monotone palette.

The rudder will have two themes: the golden Imperial chrysanthemum on the top section of the rudder, with the remaining rudder painted a medium sky blue-grey. I will withhold the reveal until a later update; but for now, the rudder has been painted in oils in a proprietary mix of Cerulean Blue, Neutral Grey, and White.

More to follow. . .   

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: Leather

With the face effectively done--as always, subject to finishing touch-ups once the colours settle-- it was time to move down to the leathers. . . 

Phase 1 of the boots is done. This was largely done with the palette used for the face. Integrative touch-ups will follow once the breeches are done and the figure is permanently mounted on its display base; but for now the tonal values and transitions are set. 

Once the boots are dry, I intend to transfer the figure to its display base DONE!, and complete the figure in situ.  

Stay tuned!

UPDATE 07.02.17. . . The breeches are done! All that remains of the leather-work are the gaunt- lets, the flight helmet, and some trim on the jacket. . .

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003

"The Night Witch"--Painting: Flesh

The face and the decolletage create a lozenge of flesh on the ventral upper-half of the figure. The challenge in this phase of the project will be to convey the pallid translucency of sun-deprived flesh in a realistic and aesthetically/artistically pleasing manner. As with Durham Red last year, there really isn't a lot flesh to paint on this figure, but what there is better be done right! 

Phase 1--the eyes and framing of the face with the visible black locks--is now done. Where most will be troubled is the fact that there is not a whole lot of eye to paint: be prepared to adapt to the limited space!! I've approached these eyes "old school": no distinct chromatic iris, and simple outlining (think heavy eyeliner).

More to follow!

FOLLOW-UP. . . Phase 2 of the flesh is now done! Phase 2 is the the basic application of oils--in this instance a controlled layering (read: glazing) of a limited cool palette took using linseed oil as my primary medium and thinner. I think a couple of more sessions to define the structural planes and selectively "highlight" details ought to just about do it. . . 

As a sidebar note, I have already begun painting the exposed lining of the jacket. As with the flesh, this is more at glazing shadow values, and then integrating with slightly-thinned oils. Final highlighting will be done when the oils are dry. . .

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003