I have a couple of the
ICM 1/35 Soviet Motorized Infantry (1979-1988) figure sets, so I thought I'd start one to practice my figure painting. Here's the box top:
The figures are really well molded. They have prominent seams and some flash, but they're easily removed. The faces are very well sculpted (as good as some resin heads), although the expressions are somewhat neutral. I have a set of New World Miniatures resin heads that have pretty animated expressions and some Verlinden 1/35 hands, so the project expanded into a "lets practice figure surgery as well".
I picked the guy writing in a book. Drilled a bigger hole in his neck, chopped off the hands and put him back together. Here's the resulting "Rivet Counter":
I think the "meat" parts (head and hands) came out OK. I switched to Testors Acryl light skin as a base skin color, because I kept rubbing off the Vallejo skin paint when I applied a wash. I used various Vallejo flesh paints over the Testors.
The uniform was a bit of a fail; it looked great after I applied some Tamiya weathering powders, but I had the great idea of sealing it all up with some clear flat, to which I added a drop of sand color. This was a mistake, since it dulled the finish badly. I tried to salvage what I could. It's good enough.
While technically a Soviet soldier from the late 70's, I think this guy is generic enough to fit in a wide range of scenarios that require a snarky, sarcastic rivet counter. I can't believe I started this yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty quick build for me. Next up is the guy who looks like he's hailing a taxi.
