Napoleonic Pinup Girl

[Glen]

The Finale.


The knots were a bit problematic in that I have few Napoleonic uniform references and there didn’t seem to be much on the interweb on this specific uniform. Everything I found was an artistic interpretation of one kind or another. They all agreed that there were two small loops at the top, to larger loops below, and a single large loop at the bottom. Most also agreed that the design was composed of alternating yellow and black segments. Where they differed was the size and shape of the loops and whether it was yellow or gold threads. I kept it simple – yellow tape, small upper round loops, larger round lower loops, and a large bottom loop. Painting them was something else; inconsistent line widths and densities and different sized loops. Lots of corrections. I used the same HD Mustard Yellow as I used for the facing colors on the jacket.

The gun stock is Woodstain Brown with a basic highlight and shadow, the aforementioned Brass mix and highlighting, Adamantium Black (a metallic black) with a Honed Steel highlight for the barrel, and a Leather White sling.


The canteen was painted using the Aged Bone triad (still not sure if Bartek was going for a depiction of a metal canteen or a canteen cover of some kind. The straps are the Shield Brown triad.

The pouch in her hip is also the Shield Brown triad. The art appears to depict the rifle stock canteen straps, and the pouch as the same or very similar colors, so I went with what was in the art.

The scabbard was painted using Walnut Brown and Intense Brown, but the art shows it being very similar to the gunstock, canteen straps, and pouch.


The Shoes are a basic dark gray – Stormy Gray and Pure Black with Stormy Gray and Cloudy Gray highlights and Pure Black shadows. Keep enough black in the painting and the shoes will still read as being black.


That’s basically it. At this point the piece is more-or-less done, but I set it aside for a while and then go back and look for flaws. There’s always some degree of touch-ups to do.


Brian/Joerg: you are welcome to use the finished image on your sites if you want to.


Hope you enjoyed it!


Glen

[Glen]

Basic Pants.

The pants are a 2:1 mix of Sapphire Blue and Cloudy Gray. It seems to match the blue-gray I see in Bartek’s art. I added a bit of Ritterlich Blue to shade and a bit of Sky Blue to lighten and both were applied as glazes in ever-increasing to layers to get darker or lighter as needed. The side stripe on the pant leg was painted using the facing color combinations.

Next: The Finale: knots, equipment, weapons, and shoes.

[Glen]

Thanks, Joerg!

[Joerg]

@Glen, I always admire your painting 

[Glen]

The Jacket and Belts

The jacket is overall Misty Gray with Misty Gray and Stormy Gray mixed together for the shadows and Misty Gray and Pure White mixed together for the highlights. The last highlights are Pure White. The buttons were painted using the hat plate mixes. You can see in the pics I went ahead and painted the rifle’s brass fittings as well.

The yellow facings, cuffs, and epaulets were painted the aforementioned HD Mustard Yellow with Sun Yellow highlights. Note there is a small brass button and a bit of white lace on the left arm cuff. A small bit of Burgundy Wine was added to the Mustard Yellow to indicate the shadowed areas.

The belts are Leather White (although it may read as a really light tan on the Reaper site, it’s really a slightly warm white to my eye). A glaze of Weathered Stone was used for the shadows, while mixes of Leather White and Pure White were used for the highlights. Like the jacket, Pure White was used for the final highlights.

And I must say I made outstanding effort to resist adding a small glaze of darker white and a white highlight to pop her nipples through the jacket…

Next: Basic Pants

[Glen]

Thanks Roger! Another installment tomorrow...


Glen

[Roger]

Keep up the good work Glen, I'm enjoying your progress.

[Glen]

The Hat and Hair

The hat is fairly simple – Stormy Gray as a base for the black fur and visor; an undercoat of Pure Black, Clotted Red, and Tarnished Brass for the front plate (all in a 1:1:1.5 ratio), followed by straight Tarnished Brass for the highlights; Stormy Gray and HD Mustard Yellow* on the pompom; and the Leaf Green triad for the sprig of leaves.

The Stormy Gray fur was further lightened with Cloudy Gray and Misty Gray and darkened with Pure Black. It’s important to keep about 50% of the cap fur black; otherwise it will read as a gray.

The undercoated hat plate should have a dark brass look to it before being highlighted with the straight Tarnished Brass. Small swipes of paint were used to depict the eagle heads, wings, a crown over the eagle, and some additional detail off to the lower corners. None of these are readily discernable as representing what they’re supposed to be. Call it impressionism…

The fur colors were also used on the visor with a brighter, harder edged highlight added a bit off to the left side (as viewed).

The black portion of the pompom was darkened with a dot of Pure Black (no surprise there…), while the Mustard Yellow was highlighted with a Sun Yellow swipe across the upper left corner. I’ve found that very small details often don’t need the traditional levels of base, highlights, and shadows. Usually one or the other will suffice.

The sprig of leaves were further highlighted using a bit of Linen White added to the Pale Green.

The hair is a combination of Chestnut Gold (darkest shadow) and the Amber Gold Triad. Linen White was used for the highest lights. The pageboy hair style is fairly easy to paint; just remember to keep your paint strokes in the same direction as the hair strands.

*HD is High Density; a series of acrylic paints that have a higher pigment count than the MSP series. The overall coverage is faster and denser. The paints are completely compatible with the MSPs. Go here for a list: http://www.reapermini.com/Paints/hd

Next: Jacket and Belts.

[Glen]

You're welcome Brian and thanks for posting Bartek's art; I seem to have forgotten about it completely...

Skin Tones

The skin-tones were painted with my usual mix of Tanned Skin : Rosy Skin, Tanned Shadow : Rosy Shadow, and Tanned Highlight : Rosy Highlight – all mixed in ratios of 1:1. I added small increments of Burgundy Wine shadow mix to further darken the shadows and small amounts of Linen White to lighten the highlight mix.

The first task was to define the shape of the eyes using the base skin tone to create the partially painted eye lashes. The upper line starts inside just a bit away from the nose. It then arcs over the eyelid to slightly beyond the outer corner. The lash line (Walnut Brown) is allowed to get thicker as it goes from the inside corner to the outside corner. How thick? Easy. It’s your call. I make them thick enough to depict Elvgren-esque pinup eyeliner and mascara, but not so thick that it looks like stage makeup. You’ll know the difference when you see it.

The lower lash line is a bit different in that it has less of an arc and is thinner and less opaque than the upper line. I start with a skin tone glaze about a third of the way from the inner corner and arc slightly down out to the outer corner. I glazed over the Walnut Brown to reduce its intensity, then defined the lower edge with the more opaque skin tone. Alternatively, you can mix some Walnut Brown with base skin tone and create the lower lash line before evening it out with a straight skin tone along the bottom. I do both; mainly when I lose focus on what I’m doing. I’m old; it happens… The attached pic will give you an idea of what I’m doing.

That’s about all I do for eyes on 45mm flats and 30mm rounds (which generally have larger and more defined eyes). The larger the figure, the more detail you can paint in – upper and lower lid lines, tear ducts, lashes, eye shadows, irises and their musculature, glints, etc.

Being a female pinup, the facial shadows were kept to a minimum and the transitions were kept very soft – no sharp creases or high contrasts. There’s really not a lot to talk about here as the only areas needing skin tones are the face, upper chest, and hands. For the most part, Bartek keeps his Napoleonic pinup girls fully (or reasonably so) clothed.

Bummer…

Next: Hat and Hair.

[Brian]

Thanks for this Glen, and here's the Bartek drawing the figure is based on 

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[Glen]

Painting the Lips and Eyes
A sharply pointed brush is mandatory. I’m using W&N Series 7/00.
The lips are two basic colors: Blood Red on the upper lip and Fire Red on the lower. A smidge of Misty Gray was added to the center third of the lower lip as a first highlight, and then a dot of Misty Gray added to the center. The Gray is too stark in this scale (my opinion), so the dot was over-coated with a glaze of the Fire Red to tone it down.
The eyes started out as over-sized disks of Misty Gray and Rosy Skin; just enough RS to tint the Gray. This was followed by a dot of Cyan Blue. Following the art, I moved the irises off to the side and pretty much ignored the eye engravings. The eyes were then blocked in with Walnut Brown, a very dark brown that is almost a warm black. It’s my ‘go to’ color for generic dark mascara.
On figures…
Working from the inside out allows you to focus on one perfect(ish) line rather than trying to match up two lines. Basically, it’s ok to color outside the lines, because the next line is going to neaten things up. And the next lines are skin tones.
Next: Skin Tones.

[Glen]

This is Pinup #4 in a series of five (so far, but more are on the way). This piece is based on the pinup art of Bartek Drejewicz: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.613809442043725.1073741830.324861424271863. It is a 45mm cast in one sided white metal. It is available from 2D Miniatures (http://www.2dfigurines.co.uk/) and Joerg Schiebe (http://kulturserver-san.de/home/scheibezinn/)
First and foremost, let’s get one thing perfectly clear: this is a fantasy piece. Some uniform and equipment details will differ from the real world. Case in point: high-heeled shoes… and cleavage. Lots and lots of glorious cleavage! Though touted as Austrian, she is actually Hungarian – the other half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s dual monarchy – at least according to my interweb research. Additionally, some of the figure details may differ from the original art; case in point – the sprig of leaves on the cap.
The Figure:
The figure is reasonably well-cast, but appears a bit thinner than the artwork; less hip width and a smaller (dang!) breast size. There was a bit of minor pitting over much of the piece, but this was fixed with fine sandpaper, a primer coat, and another swipe with the sandpaper. Easy. There were also some small, but still noticeable, casting voids on her right breast, hip, and legs. If you are using acrylic paints, then you will need to fill the voids (if you’re using oils, then maybe not). The voids were easily filled with thick primer. One dab, let dry, second dab, let dry, sand down. Done.
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[/size]The embossed eagle on the cap, the grenade device on the cross-straps, and the knots on the pants are fine, barely discernable lines. In some areas, the lines fade out completely. The canteen has a different shape being a bit less round and more angular.There is one noticeable difference in how the sprig of oak leaves is depicted. The art shows a single sprig with three thin branches and some leaves. I don’t think this could have been properly and consistently cast, so the figure’s leaves are tightly clustered right up against the hat. Rightly so, I think.There is a gap between her hand and the musket which shouldn’t be there. The art shows the musket’s shoulder strap running under her hand and connecting to a loop on the front of the trigger guard. The strap effectively closes off this gap. A small dab of putty pushed in from the rear and sculpted to match the painting (more-or-less) was an easy fix.Other points to note: the eyes are two different styles/shapes, the collar is missing, the epaulets are reversed (or seem to be), and the trouser cuffs are different – just wrinkled ends on the art, but appearing more like rolled cuffs or short gaiters on the metal.Once all of the little fixes were made, the piece was given a thin overall coat of brushed-on Floquil Model Railroad gray primer. Most of the subsequent painting will be done with Reaper Master Series Acrylic Paints (http://www.reapermini.com/Paints/corecolors).More every couple of days or so. As always, questions and comments are welcomed.Next up: Face Painting - Those lips, those eyes…