Big Time Painting

So,

A few months ago, my friend Jeff up at my local game store had a few larger (54mm) scale model on his paint desk. I asked where did these come from and he said Andrea Miniatures, which is a company that does larger scale figures for display. Jeff showed me their website and I was totally blown away by what I found.

Now a little back story, when I was much younger, I used to go to my local shopping center/mall and visit a store called The Military Shop in Lakewood CA. I remember that they had tons of models on display and a ton of Historical miniatures on display (as well as a few nude miniature models too). I would spend hours looking at all the models and dreaming of being able to paint just like those.

So when I saw these Andrea Miniatures, I was transported back to my younger days of youth. So I told Jeff that I would order a model to try my hand at painting one of them. Jeff told me, that painting these models helped him immensely with his painting and that I should give it a go.

Well after looking through the online catalog, I settled on a very iconic figure, another from my youth, their 1930 Adventurer, which has a strange resemblance to a certain Doctor Jones from a certain set of movies. (Okay lets just admit it, its Indiana Jones!) 

Doctor Jones I presume?

So after plunking down just this side of $30.00, I awaited my figure. It arrived the following week and I took it home to inspect my new purchase. The figure is 54mm and was rather nice with very little flash on the figure. The only issue was his whip, it was a cast piece of metal and was nearly broken already, so I knew I would have to replace that.

All laid out for inspection.

As you see from the above picture, it would need some assembly but it all went together perfectly. The nice thing is they give you a little instruction booklet for assembly and painting if you have never worked with metal figures before. Only reason I mention this, is that a few of my none gamer friends wanted this same model, so the instruction booklet would be perfect for them.

I think there is something in my foot?

Red mark is mounting for original figure, pin hole I added.

I was not happy with the way the model mounted to the provided base, the red mark on the above picture was were one foot attached to the base. I added a pin to his other foot and drilled a hole to mount him there as well.

All mounted up

Size comparison, on left, 28mm Pulp Figure, on right Infinity 28mm figure.

You can see in the first above picture the model all mounted up on the base, minus his whip. I forgot to take pictures of how I made the whip, but basically it is two pieces of floral wire wrapped together and then bent to desired curves. In the second picture above you can see the size of the model next to a few 28mm models (the scale I usually work with). He is a much larger figure that's for sure.

Base color for the base

Base all finished up after a few hours of work.

I primed everything in a flat white and then decided to start working on the base, I wanted to start with something easy first! One thing I kept telling myself was to take it slow, I am a pretty fast painter, but I really wanted to take my time on this whole kit, the base alone took me well over two hours to do! Why you may ask, well you cant see it, but there are 6 different colors on the base and I use a couple of washes, I waited until each one was completely dried before starting the next color.

Hey I got some sun on my face!

Another size comparison

So once I was done with the base, I tackled the man himself. After priming white, I mounted him onto a piece of balsa wood to make it easier to handle while painting. I started on the face since that would be the real focal point of the model and that this was a very recognizable figure. I will admit, I painted the face about 5 times until I liked what I was doing. The first couple of times it looked like crap and I started over, but once I got a nice smooth base coat down, I started in with washes and lighter tones of flesh colors. The face really drove me crazy doing because I wanted to get it right. Also Jeff came over one night, and said, "You know, its not going to paint itself" and that comment spurred me onto getting the model finished.

Getting closer to being done

Are we ready yet?

 Once I got over the hurtle of the face, the rest of the model painted up rather easily. One thing that I really like about this model was the highlighting on his jacket, the detail really pop and for some reason I just dug painting it!

So after about two and a half months, here is the completed model!

I have to say, this was a real challenge for me and I think my painting has gotten much better, at least my brush control has. I am now looking forward to my next model from Andrea Miniatures and I am leaning towards a certain Hollywood Pirate form a certain set of movies, but we will see. I would highly recommend these figures for any level of painter and if you are not interested in painting, you can even order the models all assembled and painted up for you, so take a look at Andrea Miniatures.

That's a wrap!

TK