Pathfinder

Excerpt: Under the cloak of darkness of 6 June 1944, elements of the 101st Airborne Division decended over north of Carentan; their mission, to seize and hold the vital routes inland through swampy country behind 'Utah' beach. Leading the way are the pathfinders, courageous individuals who will soon be the first men of the Allied armada to set foot on France....

In the second of a series of busts by Wolf Miniatures, a fine study of a typical soldier on that faithful day is superbly crafted. Assembly was straight forward with an occasional filling required at the neck area.

In dealing with busts, the focus is centred on the face and thus it provided me an excellent exercise for facial rendering. I used an undercoat of Tamiya Flat Flesh on the face. Once set, a dark shade of Burnt Sienna oil paint was applied over the shadow regions; for example beneath the nose, lips and the eye sockets. Next, the mid-tone is applied using a 1:3 mix of Cadmium Red and Yellow Ochre oil paint on most of the surface. Highlighting is done by adding small amounts of white to the midtone mixture. To aid the spreading of the oil colours, one could add a little W & N Liquin to improve the paint consistency. Once when the paint has set, the above process is repeated to further refine the details.

The uniform is undercoated using Humbrol 93. Shading was done with a translucent glaze of Matt 110, 93 and Raw Umber oil paint. The bleached webbing was undercoated with 121 and shaded with glazes of Raw Umber and Humbrol 72. The grenade was painted with a basecoat of Humbrol 108 and drybrushed with Humbrol 151. The tuff of the 'apache' hair was basecoated with a dark brown and drybrushed with a 1:1 mix of Humbrol 110 and Testors's Military Brown. The bandoiler and scarf were both undercoated with a 1:2 mix of Humbrol 155 and 151, then drybrushed using Humbrol 108. FAD was first painted with a 1:3 mix of black and Humbrol 72 and subsequently shaded with Raw Umber.

Finally details like the 'Screamin' Eagle' emblem and the Stars and Stripes patch were painted in and given a light wash of Raw Umber to mute their freshness. To add attitude and character to this 'John Wayne' figure. War paint was applied using oils. A fine touch was added to simulate the shaven portion of his head by stippiling Raw Umber oil paint over his hair line.

Amid all this fiesty, the US para took about a week to complete, mainly due to the slow drying time of oil. I would like to dedicate this to a good friend of mine, Kenneth who from the beginning provided me with a wealth of information regarding this subject. On a final note, (IMHO)the best pork minced noodle in Singapore is at the food court of PARADIZ centre ....Yum Yum

Compiled by Calvin Tan

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