Nocturna Gatekeeper

Warden of the Tower

54mm Nocturna GateKeeper

After much deliberation over the colour scheme for this guy and what techniques to use (NMM or metallics) I found he wasn't getting done so I stopped thinking and just painted. Went for metallics, using a combination of Citadel and Vallejo metallics. The armour is basically Vallejo gunmetal blue mixed with black and progressively highlighted with Vallejo steel. Guilding is a mix of Citadel Dwarf Bronze, umber and black highlighted with bronze and gold. Weapons are a Citadel Leadbelcher and black mix highlighted with chainmail, with Vallejo smoke washed over.

US 101st PIR 82nd Airborne Normandy

For Sergeant X, with Love and Squalor.....

US 101st PIR 82nd Airborne

Nocturna Miniatures 70mm

This is about 95% finished now with maybe some spot highlighting to be done here and there and tidying up around the edges of the base. The title " For Sergeant X, with Love and Squalor" comes from a JD Salinger short story entitled "For Esme, with love and squalor" and centers around a relationship between a young English girl who meets and American soldier (Sergeant X) in a tea shop while he is based in England awaiting the D-Day landing call. She promises to write him a letter, which she does, but he does not receive it until 1945 while still stationed in Europe but suffering post traumatic stress and mental breakdown following the horrors he endured in Normandy. The letter helps him to begin to rebuild his shattered mind. This is my little homage to one of my favorite author's books and to men who suffer the less romantic depiction of war.

All done in Jo Sonja and Vallejo acrylics.

Stalingrad Miniatures Germans at rest

Operation Barbarossa

The calm before the storm

Here's the third WIP sat on my bench and still at the configuration stage really. The idea behind this one is to have the group of resting soldiers relaxing in front of a zeltbahn tent. The tent will be a wedgie so only half of it will be visable.

I've bought a J's Work laser cut zeltbahn tent to use as a template and created two sides of the tent in thin pewter foil as I want one piece folded back as an opening with the sleeping figure inside. Making it out of foil will also enable me to create some more realistic creases in the cloth. Toying with the idea of making the scene at dusk with a campfire in the middle and painting the glow of the fire on the surrounding figures...we'll see how that goes.........probably be a while till this ones finished.

Nocturna 501st Airbourne

501st Airbourne

Here's my next WIP, another Nocturna figure. This time the 70mm American para. Had to replace the gun barrel and sight on this as I could not get the resin to stay straight, no problem with a piece of Griffon Models hollow brass tube. I've primed the whole thing black and when fully assembled I have oversprayed with grey from an angle at the top right and to the front of the building ruin to catch the natural highlights that would have been hit by the sun in the same position. This I will use as a guide to try and create a natural lighting effect.

I think the photo is a little overexposed an shows up brighter than it really looks.

Here I've begun work on the face and hands.

This photo from the "lighter side" view

 

This photo from the "darker Side"

And the hands.

Nocturna Gatekeeper WIP

The Gatekeeper

I have a few WIPs on the go at the moment, this is the first one, a 54mm Gatekeeper from Nocturna Models.
I've scratched up a base using platicard covered in magic sculpt for the steps, a 32mm waste pipe for the central pillar and Iv'e added a Photo Etch gate with the idea that he is guarding whatever may be behind the gate at the top of a spiral staircase.

 Here with the pillar coated in Mr Surfacer and sanded nice and smooth and the gate loosely hanging on the hinges.

Ive also added a bunch of keys from the PE set (well he is a gatekeeper) and begun the work on his flesh and hair.

Here he is roughly in the position he well stand.