I’ve just started this bust from Legion Miniatures. As you can see in the pictures it is of a gold prospector in the 1800s complete with a few tools. It is a beautiful sculpt with plenty of character.
Here you can see the various parts. A few small mould plugs and the odd seam line was all the work that was needed before giving it a test fit.
Next stage is to prep all the parts for priming.
Thanks for reading.
Looks like a very nice figure!
Maybe it’s the pictures, but it looks larger than 1/10 scale!
You could be right there- busts can be weird that way!
Super cool! Can’t wait to see how it comes to life.
Looking forward to this! Very lifelike already now without paint!
In painting busts the first thing I tackle is the skin and eyes.
Below you can see the eyes are done and the base flesh paint is on.
I’m using Reaper Miniatures paints, their Bronzed Skin trio set for this. I’ve used quite a few different brands of flesh paint over the years and these are the best I’ve come across- the fact they come in these sets of three (and there are others for lighter skin tones) makes everything just that bit easier to do.
Below you can see the 1st highlight and 1st shadow colors have been added to the skin. For this I thinned the relevant paints 50/50 with the base color.
Below you can see the difference between the unblended side of the face (on the left side of the photo) versus the blended side. Still, this is very far from finished- much more work to do!
Thanks for reading.
He’s looking great. Great pics and tips!
Very impressive. I am loving seeing more work like this on the forum. Thanks for sharing!
After smoothing out the transitions in the face I moved on to the arms.
At this stage I take stock of the progress- often when smoothing the transitions between the 1st highlight and shadow you will shrink those areas of light and shade in order to smooth the skin. This is beneficial if you are seeking quite youthful, smooth and unblemished skin. For older skin (or for more contrast) you might need to go back and re-apply some of those shadows or highlights. For this I work cautiously and slowly via glazes of my 1st highlight and 1st shadow colors. I mostly kept the highlights drawn up toward the high points of the face where I felt some contrast was lost. For the shadows I didn’t do too much but I did start to add in the beginnings of wrinkles- most notably on the lower neck and around the sides of the eyes.
Right now I’m doing a similar job as I’ve just described on the hands and arms. I’ve also begun the second highlight color on the face- once again applied quite sparingly with a glaze.
Thanks for reading.
So here we have a bit more progress.
Below you can see how I have deepened the shadows on the left side of his face (on the right of the picture) versus the as yet to be worked on opposite side of the face.
Now you can see both sides have been worked- with some added highlights here and there.
It was then time to add in the areas of high blood flow on the face- which appear more pink or red- typically the cheeks, forehead, parts of the ear and nose. I have also concentrated a little more red around the eyebags to suggest fatigue and around the nose to suggest both sun damage and heavy alcohol use.
I also used the same red color on the hands- mostly around the knuckles and fingers.
I decided to add some moles/age spots to both the arms, hands and face.
In addition to adding the skin blemishes I tried to impart weathered and damaged skin around the knuckles and fingers- Gold prospecting would have been a very hands-on job and would not have been gentle on the skin! I can’t say I’m entirely happy with the effect though.
At this point the skin on the face is more or less finished- the lips and hair will be next. On the arms/hands I have to do the veins and nails before then tackling the arm hair.
Thanks for reading.
Amazing work. I’d take a class from you. 
I really like the worn, chapped fingers on his right hand – they look like my hands after a November day splitting firewood!
That is very nice of you to say my friend, thank you!
Looks beautiful so far! And I must compliment you on your work area set up… I have the Hobby Zone modular organizers myself!
Thank you very much! I’ve been steadily adding the Hobbyzone modules here and there- really nice products- I kind of wonder how I did without them now!
This is looking fantastic and thanks for walking us through your process. I was quite into figures some time ago and recently finished one. I feel I need to re-learn everything 
Thank you for the kind words bud! There are really a lot of different ways to tackle a figure model- my process will not be right for all. Takes practice and a fair bit of experimenting to find what you might be comfortable with.
Getting the hair, beard and lips all painted up was the final stage for the face and head which is now finished.
Then I turned my attention back to the arms to do the veins, nails and the hair on the arms.
I’m not overly happy with the way the arm hair has turned out. It did not get off to a great start- messed up the direction of growth so it was different on one arm to the other! Thankfully the paint was quite light at that stage so easy enough to correct. Looking at the finished arms, I think my paint strokes are too long and too uniform- I am going to have to get a bust with bare arms to practice this technique on. But for this bust that is the flesh and hair all done.
I’ve started work on the hat and the leather parts of the trouser braces so I will get some pictures of that shortly.
Thank you for reading.
Really nice. I see what you mean about the arm hairs, but I think it works. An artistic choice, not an error!
So much personality in that face.
Thank you so much my friend! The arm hair is something I have tried on a few occasions but I think I need a sort of ‘no pressure’ area to practice the technique in more depth- a bit like the way some modellers keep a ‘test’ mule’- like an old kit that you can try different weathering or airbrush techniques on.
