Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb 8th, 2021

[Bagge]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Thanks James and Junior,

Now all I have to do is paint them!

Bob

That's where i would give up
Building figures and so, that i like, but when it comes to painting, then it's a very long process for me, i'm glad to see that some of us are able to do that and with such an amount of figures Very nice work Bob and i really looking forward to see next post

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Thanks James and Junior,

Now all I have to do is paint them!

Bob

That's where i would give up
Building figures and so, that i like, but when it comes to painting, then it's a very long process for me, i'm glad to see that some of us are able to do that and with such an amount of figures Very nice work Bob and i really looking forward to see next post

Well, I'm not exactly excited about painting them, but, I have painted close to two hundred each for a couple of dioramas in the past, and most likely more than a thousand figures over the last 30 years. I will paint them assembly line style. Faces and hands first, then uniforms, clothing and then detailing. From start to finish, I think I can average 5 or 6 a day once I have got it going. I already have 50 painted, so if I worked every day, say 6 hours a day, I could finish them in less than two months. In the span of this diorama, that's not a lot of time. I started this in 2003, nearly 10 years ago. Of course, I was running VLS back then and had little time to actually work on it until the fall of 2007. Since 2009, I have tackled at least one major project a year that took time away from this. We'll see.

Bob

 

[AndyFettes]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Bloody hell

Im watching and waiting

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Bloody hell

Im watching and waiting

Bloody Hell, huh? Is that good or bad Andy?

You may be watchin' and waitin' a long time Buddy!

It seems like every time I finish part of this, I realize I have that much more to do.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Dragunov]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Thanks James and Junior,

Now all I have to do is paint them!

Bob

That's all?? :woohoo: But serious, how long does it take you to paint an average figure?

Erik

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Thanks James and Junior,

Now all I have to do is paint them!

Bob

That's all?? :woohoo: But serious, how long does it take you to paint an average figure?

Erik

Hey Erik,

You know, I have never painted one figure in my life. Probably the minimum I have painted was for the M-32 B1crew. three figures. I think that took me about 8 hours altogether, I had some problems with the eyeglasses on one figure that took up at least an hour, so, I will guess about two hours normally per figure, doing them one at a time. If I do them in a production line, I can probably cut off at least a half hour per figure, so, I'm thinking roughly an hour per figure once I get started. 280 figures = 280 hours. If I could get on them and stay with them with no interruptions, I could paint them all in maybe 3 months, averaging about 25 hours a week.

Here is the three man crew that took 8 hours. The commander is blown up to about 1/16th scale

Here it is normal 1/35th size

[

The three man crew.

[

Bob

 

[Adam Baker]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Just gorgeous work Bob. Im blown away every time I see one of your builds.

 

[Rudi Richardson]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Whether painting 300 figures for Warhammer or a large scale diorama, it's always impressive to see this assembly line style of painting. I've read of a few folk breaking painting in batches of 5 or so figures at a time, thus still ensuring quality while working in quantity. Do you follow a similar process, Bob?

Rudi

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Just gorgeous work Bob. Im blown away every time I see one of your builds.

Thanks Adam, I appreciate that!

Bob

Whether painting 300 figures for Warhammer or a large scale diorama, it's always impressive to see this assembly line style of painting. I've read of a few folk breaking painting in batches of 5 or so figures at a time, thus still ensuring quality while working in quantity. Do you follow a similar process, Bob?

Rudi

Hey Rudi,

Haven't heard from you in awhile!

I tend to paint them in types as opposed to a set number. For example; I'll do all my truck crews in a batch, then I'll paint all my 101st Airborne figures in a batch, the headquarters staff in another and so on. Sometimes it will be as few as three or as many as Fifty. When painting this number of figures, if I tried to maintain the quality of a Euromilitaire or the Chicago Figure Show entry on every figure, It would take a lifetime. Some single figure entries in those shows take a year or more to complete.

From doing this for so many years, I have learned how to cut corners while losing the least amount of quality possible. I have my composition thought out long in advance before I pose and convert, so when I paint, I know which figures will be in the foreground or will be involved in the most drama, which will be in the middle of a crowd and those which will be in the background, far from the viewer. My dioramas are so large, I use their very size to manipulate the quality. I know the areas where the viewer cannot get any closer than four feet. One thing, since I photograph these and they are published, those lessor quality figures can't be real dogs, otherwise they will be glaring, but I've learned many tricks to fool both the eye and the camera.

The result is that the viewer's eyes are drawn to the highest quality figures first giving the impression they are all the same. It is sort of cheating, but if you think about it, modeling is really all about cheating. Creating an illusion to fool the viewer. We don't recreate the real scene, we create in miniature what appears to be an actual scene of buildings, people and equipment, when in reality, it is only a heap of scraps of plastic, resin and epoxy.

Good to hear from you again.

Bob

 

[Rudi Richardson]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Hiya Bob,

Yeah, I get what you mean in terms of the batches per type. Makes sense given the colour palette at the time applicable to the type of figure.

What you say about fooling the eye makes 101% sense

Rudi

p.s. thanks for the welcome back I've made a small post in the scifi forum

 

[lupanzer]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

...excelent as always!...it looks very impressive

Regards!

Luiz.

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

Thanks Luiz!

I'll soon have a post of the Rolling Stock. I haven't had a post there in some time! Working on the Rail road gun!

Bob

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated April 12th, 2013

I am finally back on Logistics. Been doing some figures painting. I started this time with Easy company, 101 Airborne. I posted this group some time back.

I decided to have a go at the ones in overcoats first. I'll start with a shot of each figure and then some group shots. These are blown up to around 1/12th scale. Below the first one is the same figure, actual size.

[

These last few blurred for some reason.

]

Then as a group. These will be in single file marching on either side of the tank column intermingled with the other 23 that are wearing field jackets.

That's all for today.

 

[Adam Baker]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

Excellent as always Bob.

 

[moon puppy]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

Can you bring his beard on around under his lip, looks kinda weird like he's shaved there.

The texture of the overcoats is just amazing, looks like real cloth.

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

Can you bring his beard on around under his lip, looks kinda weird like he's shaved there.

The texture of the overcoats is just amazing, looks like real cloth.

You're right Son, But I believe that's because he is blown up to maybe ten times his actual size. Check out that figure in actual size.

Dad

 

[White_Wolf]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

Great stuff as always, not to repeat all the well deserved compliments

Quick question - on the guy carrying what I assume to be a case of red wine bottles, have you used decals for the case or have you printed out the labels yourself?

Cheers,
Laurence

 

[bob letterman]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

Great stuff as always, not to repeat all the well deserved compliments

Quick question - on the guy carrying what I assume to be a case of red wine bottles, have you used decals for the case or have you printed out the labels yourself?

Cheers,
Laurence

Nope, Some Archer decals. They are the wine bottle labels set. I think possibly a bit over scale, but they worked well on the crate.

Bob

 

[White_Wolf]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

They look great to me

Flirting with the idea of wheter I can print labels myself, on proper decal paper of course. High resolution laser printer, got a hi-res jet at work, worth a shot if I can find good quality decal material to print on.

Thanks for the answer

Laurence

 

[chukw]

Logistics, The Figures Updated Feb. 9, 2014

I love their reactions to the case of vino- perfect! You are indeed a master storyteller, Bob!