About The Build
Manufacturer: Verlinden Productions
Scale: 1/5
Subject: General Robert E. Lee
Kit Number: 2068
Date Built: March 2013
Modifications:
- N/A
Verlinden's 1/5 scale Robert E. Lee was one of my first experiences with a large scale bust. I decided on this project the project along with a companion bust of Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant after watching the documentary series "The Civil War" by Ken Burns which renewed my interest in General Lee, a man I have long admired for his intelligence, loyalty, and battlefield prowess. The kit is a spectacularly molded three piece resin affair with first rate detail, little to no mold lines or air bubbles in the castings along with thin pour stubs which are easily dealt with. I started off by assembling the bust before priming it with Tamiya gray surface primer. In hindsight it would have been far easier to paint each component separately from one another as I ran in to quite a few issues with detail painting, to the extent I had to carefully remove the finished head in order to properly paint the uniform. All base coating was done with acrylics from Model Master and Folk Art save for the uniform which is actually Dupli-Color primer sealer. The face is shaded with Windsor & Newton artists oils while on the uniform I actually tried a new method I had seen in a Youtube video involving shading with ground pastel chalk and it worked like a dream producing nicely feathered edges, far better than anything I had done with oils in the past. I do believe this will now become my new default method for shading large scale figures. The "wood" base is included in the kit as a block of resin with some light grain texture in it to appear as though it were turned on a lathe. I base coated it with Folk Art "Nutmeg Brown" followed by a Burnt Umber oil tint wash which while it was still wet I went over it with a raged brush leaving lighter streaks as to make it appear like stained wood. Lastly the base was covered in two coats of Future floor polish to give it a nice polished appearance. Some issues with painting caused by my own stupidity aside, I found this build very enjoyable and I look forward to assembling more busts and large scale figures in the future.
Finished Build
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