Luftwaffe Afrika Korps Pilot progress

I am working on the Young Miniatures bust of the Luftwaffe Pilot. I have given the body and the head a full base coat and have started work on the body detailing. The base colour for the shirt is Andrea Beige whilst the life jacket is Vallejo Model Color Buff. The slight differences bring out the detail on both of these items nicely. I have given it a first pass at shading and detailing. Now that I know what it really looks like - I always have difficulty seeing the detail in an undercoat - I will get on with smoothing out the shading and adding some highlights.

The shading, by the way, is Vallejo Umber Transparent Wash. This fills the dips nicely and can be blended using clean water. I am tackling the head over the next few days - gulp!

There is a compass hanging on the life jacket. In the photo on the box, this is nicely detailed. One would have hoped to get a decal for this - but no such luck. I have put one together using iDraw on my iMac. I have had to draw it very large and then reduce it for use. It is actually only 7/32" - 7mm - across on the model so I have had to simplify it.

Cutting it out and glueing it on will be a bit of a challenge!