The Ship Model Forum

Those are very cute and beautiful little figures

Wow! The stripes on the sailors trousers verge on the incredible. Super!

There are hours of work here... Many different colors compared to recent military sailors.

It's superb!

Wow.

These amazing figures remind me of the saying "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

Wow, they looks amazing. I think the effect will be a lot more impressive than in 1/700 as in that scale detail really stands out.

What optimiser are you using? Something heavy duty dentists use (dental loupes?) or something a bit less complicated?

Many thanks everyone!

pascalemod wrote:What optimiser are you using? Something heavy duty dentists use (dental loupes?) or something a bit less complicated?

Not too complicated or expensive: the standard Donegan optivisor, with glass lense. I'm using a n�5 (2,5 times maginification).
https://doneganoptical.com/product/optivisor/

I compared it with cheaper opivisors with plastic lenses, and the glass lense does make a big difference: it doesn't distort the image like the plastic ones do.

I used to do this kind of stuff without magnification, but finally age is catching up with me and my eyes...

I also admire your paintings on those figurines... and they even have a belt... GREAt job

The view isn't everything, you don't need to have ��bar counter malaria�� on your hands either.

It�s a old french expression, ��paludisme de comptoir de bar ou palu de comptoir�� = alcohol-induced hand shaking...

Many thanks Pascal and Triumph68!


Meanwhile, I finished the rest of the figures:









If cut-down toothpicks don�t provide enough of a scale reference, here is my trusty match:




I also started gluing guns and decks in place.

For the lower decks, I placed the ships in the seascape to get the �aim� of the guns right, especially near the stern of Victory:


On Victory, I installed two decks and with their guns.
The middle gun deck:


�and the upper gun deck:


I did not yet install the guns in the waist. I will add those later, because these will be more visible from above, so they require some rigging.

Redoutable has no middle gun deck, being a two decker, so only an upper gun deck was glued in place:


In some places, crew figures were installed behind the gun ports. Not too much (because they are only visible when directly behind the port); just enough to give some life. Mostly they are gun crews sponging or lading a gun or marines firing their musket:




This is what you can see from the outside:

One word: WOW!

Even to the pinstripes on the trousers of the guncrews... amazing!



The figures are all faceless... on purpose? Not even a hint of facial features, like a shadow of the brows or the nose? Given all the details on their clothing it can't be too small for you to paint. I guess you have a reason for this.

Proper crew. Does not flinch at all at a one ton block of Red Phosphorous on the upper deck.
Really nice paint work Merijn.
[quote="marijn van gils"]Many thanks Pascal and Triumph68!




If cut-down toothpicks don�t provide enough of a scale reference, here is my trusty match:

Astounding work, Marijn. You make me feel like a slacker with my usual three-color crew figures!

Many thanks everyone!

Maarten Sch�nfeld wrote:The figures are all faceless... on purpose? Not even a hint of facial features, like a shadow of the brows or the nose? Given all the details on their clothing it can't be too small for you to paint. I guess you have a reason for this.

Yes, I tried shadows of the brows and nose indeed, but they just looked like dirty smudges and darkened the faces too much, even under my optivisor.

Devin wrote:You make me feel like a slacker with my usual three-color crew figures!

And you make me feel like a slacker with your output of finished models!

Especially the first photo demonstrate dramatically both the scale and quality!

marijn van gils wrote:And you make me feel like a slacker with your output of finished models!

Oh, this year is an anomaly. I didn't finish a single model last year, which is why this year I'm able to get the five and counting completions. Plus, I'm not putting anywhere near the effort in that you are.

Wow, beautiful all around, the damage to the hull looks great, but those figures! I thought I went the extra mile adding a black smudge to represent goggles on carrier deck helmets, but this is a whole other level! Great effort and results, bravo.

Thank you maxim and sgtryan13!

Devin wrote:Oh, this year is an anomaly. I didn't finish a single model last year, which is why this year I'm able to get the five and counting completions. Plus, I'm not putting anywhere near the effort in that you are.

Devin, just take a compliment when you can get it!

But the point is of course: it is all about how one enjoys to model. If you don't enjoy putting the same amount of effort in, that doesn't make your modelling any less worthwhile.

Pinstriped trousers & shirts??
But no mustaches or beards?

Just an idea, Marijn, if you want to have some facial "details" (apart from what you have tried).
EXCELLENT!

Cheers,
Rui

This is the dilemma we are all faced with: there are details one would not see at normal viewing distance, but when taking close-up photographs, one notices their absence ...

I found Canaletto's paintings very helpful in painting small figures. If you have a close look, they are just a few blobs of paint - but well placed. From a normal viewing distance his people look very animated. There is however, a small hitch, these are two-dimensional paintings, where viewing angle and lighting direction have been determined by the painter. On a model the viewing angle and the direction of light will change with the circumstances. Still Canaletto's almost minimalistic rendering of people gives ideas.