Alpine Miniatures 1/16 US Infantry

[Deleted member 6559]

I'm going to stick with 1/16 for my next one so as to keep my hand in at this scale. I've opted for this Alpine figure of a Thompson-wielding US NCO.

On opening the box an incredible chemical waft nearly knocked me out, but once my vision had cleared I found this:



A bit of cleaning up and building to do, but the usual excellent Alpine sculpt. Good value too, as there are two head options as usual - my only qualm is that I wish Alpine faces didn't all look the same.

 

[Jason Crausby]

Looking forward to this Peter... I,ve had it in the stash for a while so I’m going to watch and learn!
Jason

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Hi Jason

The build was OK, but as with most Alpine figures, the resin is quite soft and easily damaged - the Thompson will need a new sight for example. Sanding tended to uncover pinholes, so quite a bit of fiddly filling was required, but the general fit of parts was good.

On to the head, and the usual shenanigans. Both heads had dodgy eyes that defied my best efforts, and indeed you can tell that the box artist also had a bit of trouble. I have plenty of spare heads, but as it turns out no US helmets, so I raided my boxed-up old builds and found this:



I will admit to cheating here as the head was already painted. However I did substantially repaint the skin tones to give it more contrast and softened down some of the detail - still about two hours' work. It is very similar to the kit heads, though the eyes appeared to be more clearly defined. Anyway, saves a lot of wasted effort.

 

[Steve Jones]

That looks a real nice sculpt Peter. Great start with the head. Lovely to see. Hopefully its a bit cooler in the land to the East. We are still mopping up after a months worth of rain in a day down here in Devonshire.

 

[JR]

I'm in Peter.

 

[rtfoe]

".... head options as usual - my only qualm is that I wish Alpine faces didn't all look the same."

Yes Peter, it looks like they used the same male model to pose the different outfits. The poses too don't differ much... the model needs to be more creative in his poses. The rest of the figure is well molded and sculpted which is what you get from Alpine...good stuff actually.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Steve - The modelling and detail is exceptional on these Alpine figures. Warm and humid here in the Garden of England. Looks like we'll get the wind, but avoid the rain.

John - Welcome, welcome.

Richard - What's surprising is that there are a number of different sculptors, though I suspect they use the same basic set of heads. The poses are a bit static as well. However, as you say, it is still very high quality stuff.

 

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

Nice bit of recycling work with the head.

Looks like a full day on the drapery, will you split it?

Top & bottom or front & back?

I guess it will be a waterproof mac and need a slight satin sheen too?

Tomorrow will be my first Saturday at work since returning!

6 of us for 5 hours, 9-2, it's going to be an interesting experience whatever happens.

Have a good day with the paints

Regards

Steve H

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Hi Steve

Yes, I'll probably split the sessions, top and bottom. The mac had a synthetic coating, so I'll leave the inevitable sheen left after drying.

Big Saturday eh?Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

The next stage:



Blimey, this was a slog! As you can see, and extreme amount of detail to pick out on the top part of the raincoat, and it took ages. I used Vallejo Camo Olive Green as a base, and Khaki for the webbing.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

A bit of refining done:



I've just spent an hour tidying up and evening out some of the tones on the coat. I also worked on the face a bit, darkening the areas under the helmet.

 

[Mickc1440]

I honestly don't know how you do it Peter, I swear that if I grabbed that jacket the fabric would move in my hand.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Very kind of you Mick. Thank you.

 

[wotan]

Another beauty taking shape.

BTW Have you heard of this company www.customdioramics.com No idea of the close up quality nor if the postage might be prohibitive, but they do seem to have some interesting products that may be up your street.

John

 

[rtfoe]

Another beauty taking shape.

BTW Have you heard of this company www.customdioramics.com No idea of the close up quality nor if the postage might be prohibitive, but they do seem to have some interesting products that may be up your street.

John

John, I thought they closed shop a while back. They used to have nice diorama buildings.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Deleted member 6559]

John and Richard.

Not heard of that company, but as Richard says, there doesn't seem to be much activity on their website. Unfortunately, buying from North America is far to prohibitive postage-wise these days. Thanks for the tip anyway.

 

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

What a busy top half of the figure!

With the webbing and the arms bent the drapery is extreme, well done, it does look very realistic.

The flatter smoother bottom half should give a lovely contrast to the busy top half.

Looks like it will be another fun day with the paints today.

I am still waiting for the shopping delivery!

It looks like it will be at the end of the 2 hour window just when it would have been great for it to be here for 6!

Then its work at 9, just my luck all rush rush rush this morning

Have a good day with the paints and perhaps some good light with the break in the weather

regards

Steve H

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Hi Steve

I was feeling a bit unsure about the extreme detail on the top half of the body, but I decided to wait and see if the bottom half evened out the impact, which I'm happy to say I think it has - pics later.

Shopping deliveries always arrive at the end of the window in my experience - hope you didn't have too long to wait and were able to ease yourself gently into a day's work.

 

[JR]

Congratulations Peter on the material texture and sheen on the jacket, as soon as I saw it you knew what type of material it was.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

John - Very kind of you. Many thanks.

I've now painted the lower half:



As I mentioned above, I was a bit unsure about the extreme highlighting on the top half, but now the rest is in, the zenithal lighting makes more sense (the light coming from above and slightly to his left). It's something I've always been a bit timid with in the past, so I'm trying not to lose my nerve.

The equipment next, and I may add a few extras from the spares box.