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Wes Hawkins, Kit-Assembler of Note
profile by David Merriman
A number of months ago I had occasion to see the work of John (Wes) Hawkins on display at the 2002 IPMS Nationals, held here in
Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was a passing glance, I'm afraid, as I was fully engaged orchestrating the conventions Seminar program. Wes and my paths had, at that time, not yet crossed. Interestingly,
Wes is serving in the Air Force, and is stationed at the Langley AFB in Hampton Virginia, about thirty-minutes from my place.
Not long after the Nationals Wes gave me a ring and we chewed the fat,
talking about our model work. He had a few nice things to say about my contributions to the CultTVman site, and I hit on the idea of taking some shots of his work and sharing them here with the Guild.
But, before we go on, Wes asked me to make special mention of two gentlemen who were very generous of their talents and time. These guys, like most good model builders/kit-assemblers will drop what
they're doing and will help anyone expressing a sincere desire to learn the craft. These two guy's, Eric Johnson and Mike McCowen, introduced Wes to some of the tricks of the trade. They also provided
the encouragement and support needed to get Wes over those initial frustrations and set-backs all newbee kit-assemblers encounter with those first few kits.
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Meet Wes Hawkins, a local (the Tidewater area here in Virginia) Air Force Sergeant who specializes in assembling kits of
animals, monsters and people and giving them near perfect paint jobs. Here we see Wes holding his Horizon vinyl Raptor model. A subject as dynamic as a Raptor on the prowl literally screams for a base
that will place this type critter within a natural looking environment. Wes captured this well using simple garden/decorating supply house artificial long grass and moss ground cover
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Wes inserted a pair of taxidermy 'eye's into the vinyl kit Raptor's head, giving the display a much more personal, menacing
feel. Note the careful and subtle use of counter shading and marking. Wes works with both double and single action spray-brushes and his poison of choice is water-soluble acrylic paint.
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Careful pick out work with small brushes and washes did much to give a disgusting reality to the mouth - the business end of any
Raptor. Combine a finely sculpted kit such as this with an excellent paint job and you get a 'ready for action' looking display.
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Wes did two things with the ground cover here: he suggests a wet tropical type terrain and, by the tall size of the grass, tells
us that this Raptor is relatively small ('small' on the T-Rex scale, that is).
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At least four coats of paint went down on the Raptor (not including the initial primer) by air-brush: a light base coat, the
basic body color, of light brown, the dark brown 'striping', and finally, following various washes to pick out the scale and wrinkle patterns, a heavy coat of clear semi-gloss overcoat to even out the
sheen of the Raptor. Traditional paintbrushes were used to pick out the teeth, claws, tongue and other items of high color contrast.
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This shot of a completed Predator assembled and painted by Wes Hawkins shows what can be done with a well sculpted figure kit in
the hands of a skilled painter. This resin kit is (was?) produced by Argonaughts and is 1/5 scale. What at first appears to be an insurmountably difficult to paint project is revealed to be a doable task
when a rational painting methodology is worked out before hand and executed with care.
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The idea is to work from the deepest inlayed areas first. Then to apply the different colors, starting from those deep hard to
get at cavities, and then working outward of the subjects surface till finally you are painting the easy stuff, those items that stand highest on the subjects surface.
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I would define the paint application as going down in three distinct phases: First, the base color, a light tan - like the color
one might see on the underbelly of a crocodile. Second would be the dark horizontal and vertical slashes of dark brown that adorn torso, legs, arms, hands, and head. Finally, the 'clothing' and
equipment. Note that the work starts with a general overall coat of the light tan basecoat, applied with the airbrush. Then, the dark brown stripes applied with hand brushes.
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The high relief and off-model clothing and equipment receiving a foundation of flat black, followed by a dry brushing of Model
Master Steel. Very effective. This figure was a training aid of sorts for Wes: Eric Johnson - who gets the credit/blam for getting Wes into the figure painting game - assisted with the flesh tones and
guided Wes along until he got the subtleties of Eric's method down. And that, boy's and girl's is what collaborative model building is about: learning from each other … a process that's going on at this
very moment, by the way.
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Here the completed model is given a heavy 'wet' coating of clear semi-flat paint to bring all items that make up the figure to a
uniform sheen. The pink of the inner mouthparts would go down before the teeth, the outer mandible items are picked out with a paintbrush.
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Keep as many of the kits parts separate items that make up a figure separate for as long as possible - the 'dreadlocks' off the
sides of the Predator's head are much easier to handle and paint as discrete sub-assembles than if they were prematurely permanently bonded to the figures head. Same with the knife and spike accessories
- work them off-figure, attaching those items only after all painting chores have been completed.
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No better example can be found of the virtues of working from-the-inside-out than this expertly painted figure, The Mummy
Zymosis figure. This beautifully sculpted resin kit is produced by Alternative Images. We think the scale is 1/5. The high relief shards of banding, the deeply recessed folds of dried flesh … how to
paint them without messing up the adjacent areas? Solution: paint the hard to get at places first!
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But, there's an exception: The application of washes - their job is to seek out and occupy crevices (sunken skin texture, around
toe/finger nails, within the creases of clothing folds, etc.). Washes are applied second to last, just before the final dry-brushing operation. Other than that exemption, you paint from the depths first;
and then move on to the 'mid-level' relief items; then working the surface areas, in this example, the wrappings; and finally, some dry brushing.
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Wes has no real allegiance to any one type system, or brand of paint - he'll use anything he finds appropriate to the task. His
major undercoat and picking out work is done with the quick dry, water-soluble acrylic paints. Washes can be formulated from ink, acrylic or oil. And he's not afraid to experiment and mix unrelated, and
sometimes incompatible, paint systems (inks with acrylics, oils with acrylics, for example) experimenting to achieve new and exciting effects.
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Of course, paint selection is only half of the battle - it's the tools you chose to lay the paint onto the model that has so
much to do with the ultimate success or failure of the paint job. Here Wes dabs a bit of acrylic paint onto the tip of a brush as he prepares to 'dry-brush' the surface of his Mummy to highlight some
banding.
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The key to this figures striking 'reality' is Wes' care to keep the color disparity/contrast between the different elements of
the figure (flesh, tendons, teeth, eyes, wrappings, etc.) low. The overall impression projected by this display is of a washed out, faded, bleached … oh, what would you call it? Yes! A Mummy. |
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Remember, this entire model figure, base and all, started out as white polyurethane resin parts. See how rich of detail and
pronounced of form this base has become through the skilful application of paint, washes, and the use of stippling, dry, and streaking brush techniques? The broken vase with the white powdery material
that it obviously once contained is the icing on this cake here.
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Wes has done such a fine job picking out the excellent sculpted in details and depth of the base piece that I've actually spent
more time studying this finished kit part than the Mummy figure itself. All this makes me a student of Wes Hawkins (if you're going to learn from someone, learn from someone who's work you respect and
admire). Here's a creepy side-note: Wes says that the 'dust' spilled around and over the broken vase piece is actual granite dust - gotten from an outfit that cuts tombstones. No shit!
That
concludes the first part of this two-part article. Next time we'll take a look at a Frankenstein diorama Wes completed that work in time to take first place at the IPMS Richmond Old Dominion Open
recently.
Oh, by the way, at that same show, Wes' Predator took, Best Hollywood Entry, a special category. For pictures and a good overview of what that convention looked like, log onto
www.pcmodeler.com A big thank you to Mark Fergel for providing the service.
A side note, a question really: How do you measure 'success' in the field of model/figure building/assembling? Wes
defines it this way: Getting an offer from a kit manufacturer to do build-ups in support of their sales campaign. In my book there's no finer form of recognition or endorsement of ones skills than to
have a manufacturer actively presenting your work to the buying public. And Wes is currently doing just that. Scott Kelly, of Alternative Images, has him painting up figures that will appear as box art
on some of their kits. Way to go, Wes!
read part two of this article
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