Welcome To My Russian Figure Page.

This kitbash is based on the DiD Rurik Russian figure virtually as it comes from the box, the only extra parts that I will use are a Dragon Russian gas mask case and a knife. What I do like about this figure is the different trousers that are supplied, which does give me a choice of what to use.

Headsculpt

With this headsculpt I have tried another method with how I carry out the pastel washes, because after ruining the Hans Pifer head I found out that the tissue I was using to wipe the heads with may have been too harsh. Especially with the heads made by Dragon as I think that the paint used is of a thinner coating, and the rough treatment I gave them with the pastels and the tissue they may have helped to remove that paint. So for this DiD headsculpt as an experiment I have used my paintbrushes instead to see if I can get the same effect as before. And I have found that I can get a softer pastel coloured look to the headsculpts.

Step One

I painted all over the face and the neck with some Model Color Matt Medium No 540, this is to get an even flat finish to the headsculpt, which also helps to get the pastels to work better on the head. This can just be seen in the pictures below left, the first one is the un-painted head and the second after the paint has dried fully.

Step Two

I then apply a coating of water (which has a few drops of Matt Medium added to it) and the brown pastel chalk. To do this the pastel is wiped onto a sanding block to get the dust (third picture below) and then I add the water into it to get a kind of thin watery paste. This is then wiped over the head including the neck as shown below right.

Step Three

This is where I have changed my method of removing the excess water and chalk mix, because for this kitbash I have used a large soft fan brush to gently soak up any water. I also found that I had to use some tissue to clean the brush whilst I was doing this as in the picture below left. Then with a combination of letting this dry, then using some water over the top again, I can alter the darkness of the brown pastel chalk on the head. So that the beard detail can show up, and I can also get a different effect to the skin tone.

Step Four

It is difficult to explain just how exactly I get the effect as shown above, but with the water which has the Matt Medium added to it, I think helps immensely in helping the head to keep the flat look it has. Plus I think it also helps the pastels to bond to the head better. (Note: This does not seal the pastels onto the head completely, so I recommend careful handling of it) For this next step, I turn over my sanding block (as I have Brown dust on one side and Flesh colour on the other), and again I just rub a Flesh coloured pastel stick onto it to get a small amount of dust. Which I then drybrush (using no water) over the face to add the highlights.

Step Five

It then just use a dry fan brush again to brush lightly over the head to blend everything in. I also discovered that if I use a very small paintbrush and wipe the brown colour around the eyes, and then brush off gently with the fan brush, I can get the pastels to bring out the details better both above and under the eyes. And when I am finally happy with the overall effect I leave the figure aside to dry.

Step Six

In this final step I use a fine pointed paintbrush and some clean water, which I use to remove the pastel chalks from both the eyes and the lips. This is left to dry to make sure that the eyes in particular are clean, and then I use some clear gloss varnish to paint them and also in between the lips. Again the figure is left aside to dry.

I have also made a PDF of this section. Note: For information purposes as pointed out by Paul, the pastel chalks I am using are from the Faber-Castell Artists range. The brown is No 280 and the Flesh tone is No 132.

Uniform

With this figure and the uniform I wanted something different from the usual pastel chalk weathering, so I bought some oil pastels as I have seen used by other modellers. And as an experiment I have used a Faber-Castell Brown Oil Pastel number 176, in combination with two chalk pastels by the same maker numbered Black 199 and Brown 280.

To add the dirt to the uniform I first took the jacket off the figure as I found it easier to work with, I then rubbed over the edges with the Brown 280 chalk pastel, I rubbed this in and then gave it a very light dust over with the Black 199 chalk pastel over the top. I then used the Brown 176 oil pastel over the top of this, and again I rubbed it in. The with some more rubbing with my fingers on the edges it brought out the shine as shown above. This then gave me the in-grained dirt look that I wanted. This was also added to the collar edges, cuffs, underarms, elbows and the edge of the front of the jacket.

I then used some Light Sand and Mud Tamiya weathering powders brushed lightly over the rest of the jacket, to add highlights to the parts that have not been touched by the pastels. I also did the same to the trousers which have already been treated with some diluted PVA glue to set the folds.

Equipment

With the pouches as shown below I have repainted them all with a diluted mix of some Green and Brown artists acrylic paint, which was mixed together in a saucer of water to get a Dark Green colour. And because of the material that they are made from, I have got each one as a different shade of the Green. As I much prefer to have this variation with my figure's pouches, since in real life this was a common occurrence depending on where the items were made.

The centre picture is the Dragon gas mask case which has had the same repainting work done on it, and again because of the material it is made from this is another variation of the Green colour.

Russian PPSH 41 Repaint