Krieger was an experiment to see what could be done with a factory figure. Ron Volstad provides the inspriration for most of Dragons creations so the subject and his gear loadout are already a nice combination. Why fix something that isn't broke? Well when Krieger was released I liked him as is, I'd seen his illustration many times and always wanted to figure just like the artwork and Dragon did all of the hard work for me.

I started out with painting the headsculpt. Most factory finishes don't even come close to a human flesh tone and they are rather monochromatic to boot. I airbrushed a base coat of Vallejo Basic Flesh on the sculpt, Oil paints were then used to colorize his face. While I was at I also painted the hands using the same methods.

My next step was fitting the uniform. Cloth will never hang on these small figures in a realistic fashion so my next step was getting this corrected. Once the uniform is on the figure and prior to adding gear I saturate it with extra hold hairspray. The folds and wrinkles are manipulated until I get the look I'm after. An added benefit to using hairspray is it can be re-wetted and reshaped until I get the desired effect. Addittionally, the cloth will become somewhat stiff which helps with painting highlights and simulated grunge.

The bandolier didn't hang correctly as supplied, the tailoring was not quite right causing it to stand out around the back of the neck of the figure. The prototype layed flat around the soldiers shoulders so I needed to fix this problem. I added a dart to the bandolier just above the top ammo pouch on each side. A dart is nothing more than a wedge shaped fold held in place with stitching. I ran the seam of my dart to coincide with the top edge of the ammo pouch making it virtually invisible.