Lexingtons last battle, 1//700

[Quincy]

Holy crap.

This is gonna be mind-blowingly awesome when you're done. Just...just wow.

Yeah! What he said!





Bob pink

[MartinJQuinn]

1402 figures? Holy crap.

She is coming along nicely. Like the pin wash on the island. Really makes the detail pop.

[Devin]

While I love the work on the Lex herself and think the construction, paint and weathering are as close to perfect as human hands can attain, the figures really blow me away. I'd actually build 1/700 scale dioramas if I could do figures like that.

[blacman]

It might seem that I haven't been doing much lately, but I have been rather busy.
I just got back from a one-month family holiday abroad, during which I made another 802 figures (I made 803, but one pinged away into space�):


close-up (heavily enlarged, and with the light hitting many figures from the wrong angle):

Unbelievable .... all of them in 1/700 ?

| -- chapeau bas -- |

I keep following....

[Stefano Salesi]

That's CLASS.

literally. you did an incredible work with all of that figures....and the paint job on the Lady Lex is stunning.
your diorama will be a show-stopper...

[GazzaS]

Fantastic figurines! They look better than those I've done in 1/350.

Every time I come to this section I end up wanting to gouge out my eyes and chop off my useless fingers! Once the envy and self-disappointment goes, I'm inspired to do better.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks for all the nice words guys!

She is coming along nicely. Like the pin wash on the island. Really makes the detail pop.

Thanks Martin! The "secret" with the pin wash is that it is not really a pin wash. Instead of letting heavily thinned paint flow around the detail, the shadows are actually painted on with less diluted paint, blending edges carefully with a clean brush moistened with white spirit. That way, more contrast (= darker shadows) and control (paint only goes exactly where I want it) can be achieved. The disadvantage is that it takes quite a bit more time to do. Great technique for small scales though!

Concerning the figures: I do have quite a bit of experience with painting and sculpting larger figures, and that helps a lot. In fact, I developed the techniques I used here about 6 years ago when doing this 54mm - 1/700 scale scene:








No, I don't have very large hands! They're even rather small�

I started the Lexington diorama that time too, but abandoned it after realizing the figures would take too much time at that level. Last winter though (5 years later!), I got hooked on it again, and luckily managed to speed up the figure production a lot by extended series production. By doing them in batches of 100 to 200 and standardizing some things, I now spend about 8 minutes in total on making one figure. If you do the math, 1400 figures still makes for a lot of hours, but for me it is manageable this way.

Cheers!

Marijn

[J. Soca]

Outstanding and mind boggling!!



Jose

[Goodwood]

Are you a jeweler or watchmaker, perchance? Perhaps a brain surgeon?

[Cliffy B]

Are you a jeweler or watchmaker, perchance? Perhaps a brain surgeon?

Cardiac surgeon for fleas!

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks Martin! The "secret" with the pin wash is that it is not really a pin wash. Instead of letting heavily thinned paint flow around the detail, the shadows are actually painted on with less diluted paint, blending edges carefully with a clean brush moistened with white spirit. That way, more contrast (= darker shadows) and control (paint only goes exactly where I want it) can be achieved. The disadvantage is that it takes quite a bit more time to do. Great technique for small scales though!

Wow - very interesting technique. Obviously, you've mastered it!

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

Are you a jeweler or watchmaker, perchance? Perhaps a brain surgeon?

Cardiac surgeon for fleas!

No, I'm an archaeologist. And no, that doesn't involve so much fine detail work as most people believe (most excavation work is done with shovels and mechanical diggers)!

Wow - very interesting technique. Obviously, you've mastered it!

Like everything, it is not hard to do in itself, but takes some time and practice. I've been doing it quite some time, since around 1999, both Mario Eens and me developed it out of pin washing by gradually making the paint less diluted, letting the paint flow around less and less, and doing more blending of the edges. This came from being inspired by the strong shadows on the armor models of Mirko Bayerl who first showed his models to world on the 1998 Euromilitaire show, and out of unhappiness with pin washing to get the same effect. Mirko used repeated pin-washes, slowly building up the effect. Mario and me found it a bit inefficient, and still lacking some control so we developed our own way. Nowadays, this technique is used by most high-level armor modelers in Belgium, and many abroad. Can't take credit for that though, as probably most learned it from Mario Eens's articles, and many of them developed the same technique independently too. We usually call it "lining the shadows" or simply "shading".
You see, there is history in everything, even modelling painting techniques!

Cheers,

Marijn

[Jenny]

This is just amazing , why did you paint all those ants for though ?

Looking forward to seeing more progress soon

Jenny

[PetrolGator]

Lexington: Wow. No words. I can't get 1/350 to look this good.

Figure: I was convinced that the sculpt was bigger than a bloody hand.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks!

Looking forward to seeing more progress soon

Well, ask and thou shall receive!

Meanwhile, I highlighted all details:





Also on the hull, details were highlighted. By painting a thin highlight on the edge of the half-closed doors for example, the thin-nes of the closed lower part is simulated. The same is done with all portholes.


By painting a thin highlight line on top of the reinforcing plates, a tromp-l'oeil effect is achieved, making the plates looking like they lie on top of the hull. Additional chipping was also added, especially at the bow.


Some heavy chipping was painted above the place where one of the torpedo's had hit. The AA gun platform was damaged by this. I will still bend it upwards a bit after I install the 20mm guns.


And finally I painted the fire hoses:




Edit: I notice that Photobucket keeps making my photo's smaller (all but the first two in this post!), even though they're not too heavy at all. For full size, you can click on the photo, which brings you to Photobucket, and then clicking two times on the enlarging icon at the bottom right of the pic.

Cheers,

Marijn

[Jenny]

Well I notice how you have painted very fine vertical and horizontal panel lines , is their a secret to how you have done these so straight ?

Jenny

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Jenny!

No secret at all, mostly patience.
The trick is to use very diluted paint, and using several passes to build up the full opacity of the line. Since I don't draw the line in one go but in several quick successive passes, I can correct while doing it: if the first pass creates a slightly unstraith line, the following passes can compensate for it. This also helps to keep the effect very faded in an irregular way.
And of course, if I'm not happy with a line, I take another (clean) brush and correct or remove it with some white spirit (I paint the lines with a mix of Humbroll black 33 and raw umber oils).
This sounds complicated written down, it would be easier to just show it of course...

I don't use pencil like many others do, since I don't flatcoat my models but like to get and keep them matt from the beginning. Anyway, I get better control and finesse with a brush and find it easier to keep the effect subtle.
I also don't like to use tape like others do. Placing the tape takes also quite some time and is not always easy to do round details and curves. But mostly, I wouldn't be able to keep the lines nicely faded towards the tape side, which is essential in keeping it subtle.
Therefore, I paint them on completely freehand. Of course, they are not perfectly strait, but I think good enough to deceive the eye.

Cheers,

Marijn

[LE BOSCO]

HI Marijn

I 'have no superlatives to describe your work......
.and a great thanks for sharing your "recipe" for painting
I like the people like you ,that not hesitate to sharing their techniques
bravo
cheers
nicolas

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Nicolas!

Me too! In fact I see no reason not to share. If I share with others, maybe others will share with me too? Anyway, it is fun to discuss modelling and share ideas and techniques!

Cheers,

Marijn

[hypno7]

WOW Marijn! I missed you latest posts. The painting and weathering is really beautiful. Not to mention the figures... Insane...

I also appreciate a lot your sharing of techniques. I will have to try some ...