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Adolfo Coelho
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USAF Memphis Belle Crewman, WWII, 120mm Verlinden figure

July 31, 2018 · in Figures · · 13 · 6.2K

Another resin figure, this one is a crewman of the famous bomber, the 1st one to have successfuly finished 25 missions (which allowed the crew members to "retire", back to the US; some did it, but others volunteered for other war theatres) .

This one was far more complicated than the USAF Fighter Pilot posted before, as it has a lot of details, different colors, etc. Nowadays I don't think my eyes would allow me to go into such small details!
I never finished the Mae West, there should have some black letters, but there was no Internet in those days so I didn't find out then what were those letters. Now it's much easier, we just have to search for epoch pics online and there it is all we need to know.

Anyway, I particularly like this one.
The eyes could be better, as for the non-shaved bear that is intentional. These guys often had very long missions.

Cheers!

Dolf

Reader reactions:
6  Awesome

13 responses

  1. outstanding painting.

    • Hi Paul! @jjetmec

      Thanks a lot!

      As I say, this one was not a real piece of cake, it took me a long time to finish it and try to do my best!

      I confess I'm happy with the final result 🙂

      Cheers!

      Dolf

  2. Dolf...that is completely outstanding sir...your into the major leagues there my friend...I'm on the "B" team and I know it you old fox you ;o]

    • Hi Bob! @p38j

      There’s an old saying here that goes something like “the chicken of your neighbor is always better than yours”…

      IMHO, all your figures I saw are on the top major league, mine are on some “B” team compared to yours… lol…

      This Memphis Belle crewman, as I say above, is probably, among all the large size figures I’ve done so far, my favorite, and probably the one I made better, true.
      Mainly because of so many little details, different colors, etc, which, apart from the letters I should have painted on the Mae West, are for the most part successful.

      Your figures are all of them a success! ?

      Thanks a lot for the compliment anyway!

      Cheers!

      Dolf

  3. Very impressive. I like the way you added a slight lean back to balance the weight of the parachute in hand. Details are magnificent.

    • Hi Peter! @tecko

      Thanks! Yes, this one has a lot of fine details.

      I doubt my eyes now would be able to do such things (even using close view glasses, and magnifying glasses lol...), for instance the dashed lines on the parachute harness... or on the headphones top headband...

      Cheers!

      Dolf

  4. Impressive accomplishment, my friend.

  5. Thanks again Jeff (@mikegolf) !

    This one is my favorite, of all figures I did so far 😉

    Jacket + pants + belts + leather parts on helmet, all painted in oils.

    Cheers!

    Dolf

  6. 'Dolf, one of these days I'll use some acrylics (on models) and oil paint. THEN maybe I'll understand what you mean when you specify "all painted in oils." I've never painted any models except with enamel paints, and mostly the old Pactra paints with some of the old Testors in the little square bottles and a few times with Humbrol canned colors. All these Air {whatever} and Vallejo & Model Master paints are new to me . (I've been told that the Model Master paints are basically the old Testors and that Testors bought Pactra years ago, so they will be fine for me and my ancient, prehistoric knowledge! LoL!)

    @dolfdylan

  7. Jeff (@mikegolf)

    Except once, I've never used acrylics, so I can't say much about those, except what I read from others (as you, I'm also "old school", and have always used enamels. In my case mainly Humbrol, but did test a few Testors and others) .
    I read that acrylics usually have a strong smell (not necessarily a pleasant one), and that in cold weather they tend to freeze (in Canada for instance it seems that dealers don't ship them in Winter because of that) .
    But I've already seen very nice paints of figures and busts done with acrylics!

    Oils: these are the favorite type of paints for figures and busts painters.
    There are a lot of different techniques. I'm now learning about all this, as it is new to me (even though I used some oils decades ago, but mainly for imitating leather, and for that Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber are good to work with) .

    More by email.

    Cheers!

    Dolf

  8. Thanks for the explanation, 'Dolf.

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