Making Miniatures

Neapolitan Line and some Poles

2012-01-19T11:35:00.000Z

Rounding of our trip to the South of Italy for the time being we have the 1st line Regt of the Neapolitan Line.

This unit of Connoisseur figures I had painted to a fairly basic but acceptable standard, then I reworked them a bit to enhance some of the detail (faces, lining etc). It was a relatively quick and cost effective way to get another nice unit on the ground.

The second unit featuring today is the the 1st Regt or the the Vistula legion. These Elite figures were painted for me by Dave Docherty of "One Man and his Brushes" fame. I've also more recently had Dave do the 2nd Regt to go as a pair with this one, and I'll feature these as well in due course once I've got them based up.

Next time, continuing the connection with Murat, the other half of my German Brigade, the boys from Berg.

Neapolitan Command

2012-01-05T14:21:00.000Z

One thing I really enjoyed about the Gilder style layouts from days gone bye were the lovely command vignettes.

I've been keen that as I build this army up that I create suitable command bases which replicate this look.

So here are a couple which I've created for the Neapolitans:

First up a suitable dashing general who is my re-creation of General Guglielmo Pepe, and a suitable adc type to convey his orders in the uniform of the Velites a Cheval of Murat's Royal Guard.

Both figures are Willie with minor conversion work, mounted on Foremost Horses.

The second base is a Vignette of Foot guard command to go along with the Battalion I painted. The dismounted figure is a Bicorne with a head swap from a Hinchliffe foremost figure. The mounted officer started of life as a Willie Grenadier a Cheval, and was tweaked a little. Again horses are foremost.

Apologies for the slightly ropey photos. bright low winter sun not ideal for capturing these at their best.

Next .... some line

Neapolitans

2011-12-27T17:37:00.000Z

So here is the first of my Neapolitan Units, and lets start with the main men, The Royal Guard Grenadiers.

For those familiar with such things, Murat had somewhat of a liking for light crimson, or what I like to call pink, and it features in some way with many of the napoleonic units assocaited with him.

This unit is one I painted myself, the castings are mainly hinchliffe foremost range chasseurs of the guard, and a splendid figure it is too. I've done some conversion work on these using a few firing line heads and other tweaks. The officers, standard bearer and drummer are mostly bicorne with head swaps back to hinchliffe to make them a better fit with the other figures and the sapper, and two other officers are hinchliffe, with a wee bit of tweaking.

Anyway, quite pleased with how they turned out.

Baden

2011-12-11T10:15:00.000Z

These two units started of life as the first and second Battalion of the Leib-Infanterie-Regiment Großherzog (1st Regt) from Baden. They were an ex WHC centre pair, that were fairly beat up by the time I got hold of them (broken muskets etc). I repaired all the damage, then decided to make one of the battalions into the 2nd Regt (Linien-Infanterie-Regiment Erbgroßherzog). I also did some conversion work to make the flank companies by adding plumes to the helmets and epaulets. All the figures then got a refresh on the paintwork, including adding in the lapels, which didn't feature in the initial paint job they'd had.

Here they are now:

Leib-Infanterie-Regiment Großherzog

Linien-Infanterie-Regiment Erbgroßherzog

Next time Neapolitans!

Different Tack

2011-12-04T12:07:00.000Z

Although I've had quite a busy and productive period from a hobby perspective, I haven't been doing much sculpting, and as a result, I haven't been posting for a while.

The reason for this is that I've been focused on pulling together my 25mm Peninsula Collection and this has taken up all of my hobby time.

One of the reasons I really got into wargaming in the early 80's was those lovely shots of Peter Gilder / WHC Napoleonics which featured in Miniature Wargames and early copies of Wargames Illustrated. Truly inspirational stuff, and in many ways, I believe never bettered since. As a teenager I duly trotted off, bought my Hinchliffe peninsula napoleonic figures, painted them up, stood back, and then thought .... mmm! these aren't quite doing it!

Fast forward the best part of 25 years (ouch!) and I happened to pick up a couple of ex Gilder units, bit of an impulse buy, but too good not to get at the time. I then thought again about Napoleonics, something I hadn't touched during the intervening period. I wanted to go for it, but only if I could achieve that "look", and I wasn't interested in the more "modern" style. I also recognised that with my limited hobby time, I was never going to paint my way there by myself. I'm just too slow, realistically 3 - 4 units a year, and that it was going to be a long timeand that rate of progress before I got any sort of forces that were useable (and I needed both sides). I therefore took the conscious decision that whilst I would paint some units, I would buy figures, certainly till I'd got to a reasonable force. My rules would be that I would only buy old style figures and only top quality stuff, no "fillers" to make up the numbers, I wanted to be able to pick up any base from any unit during a game and just enjoy how lovely they looked. I've subsequently, over the last couple of years, been lucky enough to pick up quite a number of units, both directly from the WHC (before Mike sadly passed away) and on ebay and various others sources.

Anyway, whilst most of the figures I have picked up have been great, it's fair to say that many have seen quite a bit of "action", broken muskets, chipped paint etc. A wide variety of basing styles have also been evident!

I've therefore been working through the collection (slowly) gradually restoring things to their former glory, and in some cases improving them. All are also getting rebased into a consistant style. I've mixed this in with painting the odd new thing myself and it's been a pleasant way to move things forward.

I've now got to the stage where I feel I've made some progress, and can now take stock a bit.

Well, that's the background. Here are some picture, hopefully in a suitable WHC style!

I plan to post up images of the restored units and a few new creations as they come of the production line.

Here's the first two:

Neuchatel Battalion

This is an ex WHC unit, it's fair to say it had "seen some action" but deep down it was a lovely unit despite all the war wounds. It's all Connoisseur figures with a few simple conversions.

22nd Legere

Again ex WHC, although I don't think this particular one had been in action for a while. Hinchliffe figures, yes, they are very much forgotten these days, but there are still some gems in there if you look. Again, this unit needed a bit of "love" but it's back in A1 condition now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come soon .....

Volunteers of Ireland

2011-10-12T10:03:00.005+01:00

Been deathly silent hear for a long time. Not been sculpting anything for ages, so didn't have anything I thought was worth posting.I've been having a "painting phase" to my hobby time recently. Sculpting has been limited to the odd bit of conversion work on figures.

Finally finished unit of 30 Volunteers of Ireland figures, I sculpted the foot figure a long time ago, but haven't got round to finishing the unit till recently. Command figs are standard hinchliffe with head swops.

Ears

2011-02-09T20:59:00.002Z

Been Painting more than sculpting recently, but have done another couple of heads, and stuck some ears on the last three to see what they'd be like before I decide whether to junk them or not.

Keep reminding myself that I'm seeing them at their worst as adding hair and headgear always improves the look of them.

Anyway, see how the next few take shape and then I'll perhaps cast a few up and see if they'll do.

Improving

2011-01-16T20:53:00.002Z

Added a couple more heads tonight, and strengthened the chin up a bit on the last one, which was worth a bit more work.

Here they are

Getting There

2011-01-15T12:31:00.001Z

Here's the latest attempt, a definite improvement I think, starting to get a feel for what works and doesn't. This one might be a keeper.

Anyway, a few more to try yet .....

Hussars

2011-01-11T22:55:00.003Z

Did a little work on a couple of new heads tonight, I'll post the results up in a day or two once I've finished them

Note the comment about the hussars, and looking back, I see I didn't ever post up a picture of the finished castings. So just for interest, here are the two officer figures, just undercoated and given an oil wash.

Sorry, don't have any painted ones, started ages ago, got half a dozen done in the paint scheme shown previously, then decided I wasn't happy with it, and stopped. Other things have since taken priority.

Don't want to paint them now, as it will give Doug huge cavalry superiority in our upcoming southern campaign! Ha Ha!

Analysis

2011-01-10T22:05:00.004Z

Little bit more painting tonight (don't panic Doug, I am still painting as well!)

But took the time to do a little analysis of those first three heads, before I do the next batch.

Ok, so the positives, looks like I will be able to do it, I can achieve the detail I'm looking for working at this scale, which is hard to gauge from the photo's, but isn't huge (the heads are in reality only about 4-5mm high)

However, it's also apparent I haven't got it quite right yet.

So assessment of what I think I've got wrong:

1. The heads, well at least the first two are too long, they look stretched just a bit too much. Now I do want thin faces with character, we're not going for a modern "huge pumpkin head" look, so that's ok, but I think I've gone a little too far. Having said that, I haven't added the things that widen the head out, like ears, hair etc, neither have I added the top of the forehead/hat, but even taking this into account, I think a little less elongation is called for.

2. The third head is better in this regard, but it's probably too far the other way, and also the nose is too fat. That added to the "frowning" look makes it all a bit scary (might be good for a "charging/aggressive" figure though!) I could probably fix the frown by adding more of a forehead, but the nose isn't going to get any better.

So slightly less length and chin, go steady on the nose, I'll try that with the next few and see how they look.

Heads up

2011-01-09T23:08:00.003Z

Wow, over a year since my last post!

Well, given that this blog is supposed to be about making miniatures, I think I can be excused, as I haven't done any sculpting since then.

Various diversions etc with painting some figures for Napoleonic and AWI mainly.

Been experimenting a bit on the painting front with oil washes, and I like the effect, still learning though. Anyway, the downside to using oils is that they take ages to dry, and to cut a long story short I got bored!

I'd mixed up some greenstuff for use on a couple of AWI Willie command figure conversions, and the sculpting bug bit again. So whilst waiting for the paint to dry I thought I would knock something together.

Been thinking a lot about the figures I've sculpted to date, and whilst I am quite pleased with them, I think they lack a little "spark" in some respects. I think it's because I tried too hard to make them "accurate" and didn't think enough about movement and character. The command figures I've been working on are a good case in point. Suren's sculpting in many ways is "wrong" if you analyse it, but they have that little bit of stardust about them that makes them very special.

Now I ain't ever going to be as good as he was, but I thought I'd have a go at trying to capture the style.

So first up ...... heads!

Previously I just used the ebob dolly heads and "enhanced" them a bit. Worked fine, but the end result was "functional".

So I've had a go at sculpting some heads from scratch this time. And here (minus any ears yet!) are my first attempts. I plan to just play about with heads for a while, and try to develop some which I like. I suspect none of the above will in the end make the "cut" but we'll see how things evolve.

I'll post up some more pics as more heads are done.

Not actually sure what I'm going to end up sculpting yet!

Lauzun's

2009-10-08T20:59:00.003+01:00

Well, in the end had to admit defeat and park the rest of the infantry for the time being, it was becoming a real chore. So as a break, I've started painting some of the Lauzun's Hussars. Finished the first figure, a hussar, just to test the paint job.

Must admit, this is the first mounted figure I've ever sculpted, and I'm pleased with the results.

Back in due course with the rest of the unit.

Long time little progress

2009-08-24T21:38:00.003+01:00

Well, its been an awfully long time since my last post. I must admit I've just been to busy to put any time to this, and on the few occasions I have restarted painting, I've quickly stalled. Anyway, I've finally finished all the fusiliers for the first unit. Still to do the Grenadiers and Chasseurs, along with a couple more command figures.

Anyway, I've added a few photos (sorry unit photo not great, haven't mastered such shots yet and the gloss varnish doesn't help!) just for interest.

Cheers

John

Ready to go?

2009-04-22T20:45:00.002+01:00

Well finished the last officer, so he'll be off along with his chums to populate a production mould. Then its time to do some painting, suspect the blog will be quiet as a result for a while.

Cheers

John

Casting Figures

2009-04-18T19:54:00.002+01:00

First, thanks for the positive comments about the Hussar's, its nice to get some feedback. I note that several of you appear to be suggesting that you would like some of these figures yourselves. To that end I thought it would be worthwhile putting up a post about the ins and outs of such a move.

For those of you that have followed this Blog from the start, this is very much a personal exercise in attempting to make figures in a style which I can't get commercially. At the same time I'm enjoying learning how to sculpt as an alternative to painting all the time.

A while back I decided that I wouldn't continue with much "drop" casting as, for the number of figures that I want it takes too much time and is pretty dull work. I've therefore gone down the route of using a professional casting service and proper "production moulds" just the same as commercial ranges. I must admit I've been pleased with the results.

In cost terms its not too bad, a bit of a luxury, but acceptable if your getting a reasonable number cast. The "capital" cost of the mould being spread over a number of castings.

However in normal circumstances getting figures cast in a commercial way is a two stage process, you first make a "master" mould and then use this to make castings to populate a "production" mould. You can normally get 16 figs in a production mould. Obviously getting two moulds made in this way costs more, and thus unless you're casting a lot of the same figure (100+) then its quite expensive. Now for a commercial range that's fine, but given that I'm making these for myself I need to think carefully about what I put in any given mould.

For the hussars I had intended to only make one production mould, containing 13 castings of the basic trooper (for which I already have a master mould), and 1 each of the two officers and the trumpeter I'm currently working on, making a total of 16 and filling the mould. Because I only intend to have one each of the other types, I can skip the master mould cost and just put the masters I'm currently making into the production mould. This is a significant saving for me, when you consider I'll probably only ever want a limited number of hussars.

In this format two spins of the mould will give me a unit of 24 troopers, 4 officers and 2 trumpeters along with two spare troopers for casualty figures or such like, which is ideal for me.

Sorry bit of a ramble all this, but I wanted to make it clear the limitations of my current approach.

Now having said all this, cutting to the point.

I have no objection to getting extra figures cast up if people want them, the moulds will be there anyway, so it doesn't make any difference to me, I just need to ask the casters for more figures. For information I think the cost (based on some "back of an envelope calculations") would likely be comparable to commercial ranges like elite or connoisseur. However, unless a lot of people do want the figures it isn't going to be worth my while making up additional moulds, so you'd be stuck with getting figures in the format I've outlined. Obviously if a lot of figures were required then I could rethink the mould format and this would give more flexibility. But as it stands I'm afraid "5 officers only" as an order wouldn't work for me, as hopefully you will be able to see.

If I do go down this route, to be clear, I'm not interested in making any money, just not costing myself anything for doing somebody a favour.

Anyway, I'll await some reaction to this post and reflect accordingly.

Steady lads!

2009-04-16T20:51:00.003+01:00

Well here is the first officer figure, a conversion from the basic trooper. I intend to use this as both an officer and with a little bit of arm bending and hand modification as a standard bearer as well. For the number of figures I need it isn't worth actually casting both variants, so I'll just cast this figure as is and then modify the required number post casting for standard bearer duties.

One more officer to go and they can go off to the casters for the production mould.

Sound the Charge!

2009-04-10T13:44:00.003+01:00

I've now finished the trumpeter master figure as well. I was able to re-use the original legs and saddle from the Hussar figure as they survived relatively intact from the previous master mould. (You can see the "donated parts" in the photos, as the moulding process dyes the greenstuff darker). The upper torso etc is all new however.

I'm planning a couple of officer conversions of the basic hussar (which should be more straightforward than this figure). After I've done that they'll all be going into a production mould.

In The Flesh

2009-03-23T20:59:00.003Z

Well, Metal actually. After a slight delay caused by a mix up with the Mould Makers (my fault entirely) I've got a few castings back from the Master Mould of the Hussar Figure. I'll be using this as the main figure for the unit, but want to do a few conversions in order to create a couple of officers and a trumpeter. These will then go into a production mould with this trooper figure in due course. In the interim, I've been painting some of the horses in anticipation. So here is a "raw" casting mounted up on a partially painted horse.

Back from a Break

2009-02-02T22:26:00.003Z

Well its been a long time since the last post, principally because I haven't been doing any sculpting, and as that's the purpose of this Blog, I didn't see much point in putting up anything else.

Got sidetracked on to some painting, mainly a "Gilder style" unit of connoisseur French Napoleonic hussars. Pleased with the results, but it took a bit of time.

Anyway, got bored with painting, so its back to the sculpting for now. A while back I had made a dolly for a mounted figure, so I decided to have a go at taking one through to completion. First selection was a french hussar type, of the sort that could be used for Lauzun's Legion or similar units. It's basically a standard French Hussar outfit with no pelisse.

Anyway, here he is, officer and trumpeter etc to follow, once I get round to it.

Filling up the Ranks

2008-08-10T14:21:00.004+01:00

Finally finished the grenadier and fusilier, to complete the set.

To give you an idea on size of the figure in comparison to some common makes, here he is in a line up of (from left to right) Front Rank, Foundry, Hinchliffe, our lad and finally an RSM. I was aiming for something that was of similar size and heft to the Hinchliffe/RSM type figure, but with a little more detail to ease painting, a compromise between "old school figures" and there modern "chunky, pumpkin head, baseball mitt" brethren. I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Lookout the boss is about

2008-07-26T13:36:00.002+01:00

Finished the two officers and the standard bearer.

Playing for Time

2008-07-22T20:34:00.003+01:00

Thanks for all the very positive comments, I must admit its fascinating painting up a figure you've sculpted yourself, you know exactly where everything is, and what it's meant to be. You also haven't got much grounds for complaint either!

Its been slow progress in the last week as "real life" took over for a while. However the drummer is now complete and the rest all partially finished, with smiling faces beaming out asking to be completed.

Final Countdown

2008-07-14T20:10:00.004+01:00

A few months ago, it started to become apparent to me that it was going to take me an awful long time to make up and cast the figures I had sculpted, and that time was something I just don't have at present. However I was keen to move the project forward.

In an attempt to resolve this I ended up getting the first master (the Fusilier) moulded and cast for me into a proper production mould by Griffin Moulds (link at side). At the time I was quite happy to do this, as I knew that I would want, over time, several units of this figure and the number of figures I would require would justify the cost (or at least that's what I told myself!). Anyway the figures duly came back and I was delighted with them, very nice, clean castings.

As time moved on, I have to admit that I gave in to temptation (or perhaps laziness) and just thought well in for a penny, in for a pound, and got the rest of the masters done in the same way. It was a bit of an extravagance on my part, but I'm content I made the right move.

So happily in the ownership of some production moulds, I had a batch of figures cast up of all the types, sufficient to make up a few units. I could have got more done, but don't want to put myself off with a Lead mountain. Anyway now I've got the moulds I can go back for more anytime, and no freezing in the garage pouring hot metal about!

The packaged arrived on Friday, and I'm busily in the process of painting one each of the seven figures to see how they look. Initial progress looks good.

When I paint figures for the first time, I usually do one right through to the end to test the colour scheme/paint combinations, to make sure I'm happy with this, before I do a whole unit.

So in no particular order I painted the Chasseur through to a conclusion, and here he is:

He's painted as a Chasseur of the Soissonnois regt in the 1779 uniform, with rather fetching crimson facing colour. I've pictured him prior to the application of varnish.

I wouldn't mind views on a couple of points on the paint job. Firstly as most will be aware, the french uniform of this period has an awful lot of white, something that personally I find difficult to do well in 25mm. In an attempt to break up the expanse of rather boring white, I've cheated a little and made the waistcoat and breeches more of a cream, just to give a bit on contrast. What do you think, does it work or would it just be better in white the same as the coat and gaiters?

On a similar vein, I've gone with white gaiters, but black is a theoretical option, again not sure which way to go on that one.

Anyway I'll press on and finish the rest, and post them up over the next week as their completed.

Overall, I'm pleased with this little project, its taken a bit of time, longer than I would have wished, but we've gone from this:

To this:

And I hope this has been a useful journey for those of you who have travelled it with me.

Back in a few days, with more shots of painted figs.

Cheers

John

Something Different

2008-06-14T16:08:00.003+01:00

Just for interest, I've taken a few shots of a figure I sculpted and cast a while ago, but using one of the same basic dollies that I subsequently used to create the French. The unit is Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland from the AWI period, again created to fill a gap that isn't serviced by any of the commercial figure ranges that I like.

The photo's will give you some idea of how the french will look, although hopefully slightly better, as this figure is an older sculpt, and I think I've improved since then.

In best Old School style, this figure is gloss varnished, which unfortunately doesn't help with photography, but you get a good idea anyway.

It takes two

2008-05-07T22:30:00.004+01:00

Decided on reflection it was probably best to do the chasseur and grenadier while I was on a roll, and before I resumed on painting, so here they are.

That's going to be the end of sculpting for a while, I need to get these masters cast up and some units cast and painted, I'll post these up as they get done, but it will probably be a while (too many other distractions)

Cheers

John

Back in Command

2008-05-04T20:18:00.003+01:00

A significant delay in progress with sculpting, as I've been sidetracked onto painting for a while. However I've taken a break from that for a couple of days and finished off the next figure, another officer. The swords probably a little bit too thin for effective casting/longevity in lead, but this doesn't matter as I replace these on gaming figures with flattened paper clips, which are much stronger than lead in such dimensions.

This little project has now produced a fusilier, drummer, standard bearer and two officers. Sufficient now to start producing units, hurrah. I think the next couple of figures will be simple conversions of the fusilier into a Chasseur and Grenadier in the same pose.

I'll post again, once I've done these, might be a while, depending on progress on the painting front!

Flying the Flag

2008-03-24T16:38:00.003Z

Firstly thanks for the feedback on the big issue, namely the with/without sculpted lace debate, in the end I went without and I think this was the right direction. Anyway, its been a long time since the last post, which is probably how things will continue from now on. The original intention of the Blog was to show how to sculpt and make miniatures, and I hope this has largely been achieved.

A few kind souls did however indicate that they would like to see the other sculpts as they are completed, and to that end I shall continue to put up some photo's as each one is finished. So without further ado, here is the next edition, a standard bearer/ensign or Sous-lieutenant as the french would say!

Opinions Sought

2008-03-03T20:59:00.003Z

Bit of a dilemma with the drummer. I've basically finished the figure, however I'm not sure about how much of the lace I want to add to the sculpt, as opposed to just painting this on the final figures. At present I've added the shoulder "swallows nests" or whatever you like to call them, but not the lace running down the sleeves. I'm a bit concerned that if I do this it will make the figure a bit clunky. After all in "real life" this would not have been raised up, which it will be, at least to some extent if I add it to the sculpt. Doing this however would make it a lot easier and more consistent to paint. The nub of this dilemma is the old school vs new style figure debate, and this is a good illustration of this point in action. New style would have all this sort of thing in high relief making it easy to pick out, but it would be an artificial look and the figure could potentially look like a gorilla, though hopefully not! Old style figures either wouldn't have it, or it would be very lightly "etched" on. Not sure how to go on this one, interested in people's views, do you think I should add or not, some photos attached to get an idea of how he looks presently.

Marching in Time

2008-03-02T13:24:00.003Z

Mainly Photo's this time, The first officer is now complete, and I'm making good progress on the drummer. I have to say that the drummer is quite awkward to get right, its a bit of a challenge to get everything to line up (angle of arms, drum etc) and look ok, whilst making a figure that's reasonably robust. Anyway happy enough with him so far, cuffs, hands and fine detail still to add.

Query on who I'd used for the casting of the master, it was Griffin Moulds (link opposite) who I found very prompt and helpful for an amateur like me.

Hopefully I'll get the drummer finished soon and will move on to another officer.

Officer almost commissioned

2008-02-25T22:02:00.003Z

Made some progress on the first officer this weekend, he's just about there now, one more session on the detail and he should be complete. Here's how he looks at present.

For interest I've also included a comparison photo of a casting of the fusilier alongside and RSM 95 Prussian Grenadier figure (Neither figure cleaned up in this photo). As you may recall at the start of the blog, I'm making figures which will hopefully fit in with this range and the likes of the Hinchliffe X-range AWI, figures which I use a lot and really love.

Now I'm certainly not claiming that my figures are as good as the one's which Steve produced, but I'm quite pleased with the end result, I think its a reasonably good fit in respect to heft and height.

I must confess in respect to the fusilier, that this is not a figure I have cast myself. Because I will require quite a lot of these particular figures (I use 40+ figure units) I decided it wasn't worthwhile drop casting them individually. Don't get me wrong, as I've already illustrated you could drop cast this figure, and if I wanted 40 or 50 of them only, that's exactly what I would do. However as I probably want several hundred, I've had the master figure used to make up a master figure mould, from which the figure in the photo was professionally cast. These metal master figures will then be used to make a production mould for a centrifuge based casting machine. In terms of cost, even doing it this way, assuming that you are going to get a few hundred cast, its very competitive with buying commercial figures.

Whilst this approach will be fine for the "high volume" figures, I think I'll stick to drop casting for the more specialist type figures.

Next time, hopefully finishing the officer and starting the next, probably a drummer.

Order in the Ranks!

2008-02-23T16:28:00.003Z

With the Fusilier master now complete, its time to move on to other figures which will be required. Clearly our man will not be led to the path of glory without adequate direction, so its time for the first officer.

As initially assembled from a selection of the previously made components, he looks like this, at this stage he's had a few bits of greenstuff added as per the previous figure. I've also remodelled the hands to accept the pistol and into a pointing pose.

At the next stage I've added the coat sleeves and collar as well as the waistbelt for the sword, and associated attachments on the sword itself. You could put the waistbelt on flat, but I've added an area of greenstuff to the waistcoat and then drawn up the belt etc. This leaves a little bit of greenstuff on the original waistcoat, which I've given a little texture to. This will hopefully make it look like the belt is "pulling in" the waistcoat a little, rather than just sitting on top of it. Its fairly subtle, so we'll see how it comes out in the end.

There was a query about how I do buttons and other "detail" areas like cartridge box plates. For buttons I use a little tool that I have made from a plastic golf tee/peg. All I have done is take a plastic golf tee, cut the pointed end flat and drilled a very small hole in the end. Making buttons with this is simple, similar to cookie cutting in dough. I apply a small quantity of greenstuff to the area in question and flatten to roughly the required height. Next apply the tool and press lightly. This effectively "cuts out" the button shape. Then simply remove the excess greenstuff from around the button and there you have it. You can subsequently tidy up the edges/shape if its slightly incorrect, its also worth very lightly pressing the button down to make sure its stuck down well to the figure. I'm sure there are other ways of doing this, but this technique works for me.

For other areas of detail I just try to create a raised surface that's a bit similar to the design in question and then roughen it a little to create a surface for painting. I don't try to recreate the exact detail, lets face it, its unlikely you will paint it anyway and even if you could it would be lost at anything more that very close inspection. Figures with too much detail in a restricted area can look a bit busy when viewed at any kind of distance and the overall impact is lessened, well in my view at least.

He's Finished!

2008-02-17T12:00:00.003Z

Very busy this week, so progress has been slow, however the first master is now complete. Here's a few photo's to give you an idea how he turned out.

Finishing the figure involved adding more buttons, the plate on the cartridge box, bow/ribbon in hair and generally tyding up any little bits that weren't quite correct (e.g. one of the musket bands was slightly damaged). As I said before adding detail is a compromise, I want the figure to look right, but don't want to overdo detail, as this takes you down the route of the oversize "modern" figure I talked about at the very start of this Blog. I'm aiming for a figure that will be clean, easy to paint, but that will still have the key details that define the uniform. In this case for example I've put buttons on the cuffs and vents, but less than the "correct" number, as I felt it looked a bit fiddly with that many. Anyway, on balance I'm happy with the result.

Time to move on to the next masters, probably an officer or drummer.

At this stage I've effectively taken you through the whole process, sufficient that you can, if you want, try this yourself. Making final figures is just a repeat of the process I illustrated previously while making the intermediate castings.

I'll continue to post up photo's of the other masters etc as I complete them, in case anyone is interested in how they work out.

For those planning on having a go, good luck, as I said at the start its not as hard as you might think, however, be realistic, its a bit like anything else, you won't be great to start with, but if you persevere, I'm sure you can achieve acceptable results.

Cheers

John

Almost there

2008-02-10T15:35:00.000Z

Firstly thanks for all the positive feedback, It's good to know that this blog is of some use/interest.

Having done the initial assembly that I detailed in the last post, I decided that I didn't quite like the musket position on the shoulder. I felt it looked like it was about to fall off his shoulder, so I have re-aligned it slightly more towards the head.

In respect to this, I fine that the human eye is a good guide when scuplting figures, this may be a somewhat obvious point, but things that aren't quite right tend to jar on the eye, somehow they just look wrong.

The next stage with the figure was to add the cuffs (including the linear vents) and collar on the coat. I also added the belt for the cartridge box. In addittion to this, I added a little extra length to the tips of the fingers under the musket butt, as I felt they didn't look like they were really holding it properly prior to this. At this stage he looked like the first photo, I then left him to harden.

Once this work had hardened, I added the cartridge box, the bayonet (which is made from bits of paperclip, suitably flattened and pointed where appropriate) attached to the cartridge box belt, the shoulder straps and the back of his hair and pigtail. I also "filled up" any small gaps between anything I've added to the basic figure, i.e. underneath the bayonet, the small area between the palm of the hand and the musket butt. This is to prevent the final mould having small voids/slivers, which won't work properly during casting and will ultimately lead to the demise of the mould. In essence you need to create a fairly "solid" figure avoiding small gaps between elements of it. At this stage this first figure is almost finished, I still need to add a few small details, mainly buttons etc, but don't intend to add any more equipment. He currently therefore looks like the second photo. Next time, should see this first figure complete!

Final assembly

2008-02-05T21:55:00.000Z

A bit of a delay for this post, as I've been making moulds and casting the weapons and heads required. And this is only a hobby for me so other pressures inevitably take precedence.

Casting the weapons and heads to a satisfactory standard is difficult using the "drop casting" technique. The basic problem is that as the individual items are small, there isn't really enough mass of metal to keep the heat as it goes into the mould, the result is that it cools more quickly and its difficult to achieve the fine detail. This is an area where a centrifuge would pay dividends. However after a bit of perciverance I've got a reasonable stock of heads and weapons that I can use.

For the first figure, I intend to do a marching fusilier, as its a good "generic" pose.

In this photo, I've just assembled the figure with the basic components I've cast, so a body, head and musket. The head is attached to the body with a metal pin, drilled and glued to both parts. At this stage I normally bend the arms, move the head etc, until I get a pose that I'm happy with.

The next step is then to start to build up the figure working towards a completed master. Initially I will add the basic, form of the coat sleeves, the shirt around the neck area, and some minor repairs and beefing up of the vulnerable areas on the coat/turnbacks and between the legs that the master for the Torso suffered from.

Here he is having completed this stage of the process, I have also added a little more to the nose, as whilst it was ok looking from the front, in profile it was still a bit weak. I'll stop, now to let this harden, next time finishing the coat, and adding the cartidge box and belt.

Casting

2008-01-28T21:54:00.000Z

Ok, I don't intend to cover casting in a lot of detail, firstly because I don't have any photo's (its hard to handle hot metal safely and take good photo's), and secondly because its more than adequately covered elsewhere. If you want to know more detail try the Prince August site (I've added a link) which may also be useful to you if you need to buy some of the equipment and metal you'll need.

My tips would be:

1. Think about safety, you're dealing with hot metal at 200-300 degrees, so be careful (eye protection, clamp or vice for mould etc)!

2. The mould won't work well when cold, the metal cools too quickly and you don't get the detail, some people heat the mould up first in an Oven, I haven't tried this (as I don't think my wife and kids would like it!) so can't vouch for its effectiveness. I just accept that the first few casts won't come out well, and effectively use them to get the mould up to temperature.

3. Metal temperature is critical, too cold and the detail won't cast, too hot and you get "pitting" which will give a rough surface on the figure. Its largely a case of trial and error to get it correct, my tip would be stick a matchstick in the metal for about a second, if it comes out smouldering and a bit charred, you're in the right area.

4. Talc dusted in the mould is essential, prior to casting. I just use cheap un-perfumed stuff from the supermarket and it works fine, sprinkle it over, blow off the excess and away you go. One dusting will last for a number of casts.

5. Once you get the correct temperature etc and the mould is casting well, stick with it, as its likely that each cast after this point will be successful.

So how did we get on with our mould, well....... mixed results, I did get it casting effectively, and got about a dozen or so usable casts out, the mould has however started to break up a bit in the area around the legs/ turnbacks as expected, its not critical, as its not an area where I'm losing detail, just means the figures require a bit more cleaning up.

In normal terms this is a pretty poor performance for a mould of this type, I have several that have happily cast 100+ times and are still ok. However as I highlighted a little while back, this figure did have "problems" and as such I'm happy that the mould has served its purpose and for the time being I have sufficient castings to create final masters. If I need more I'll consider making another mould.

Recognising this defect in the design, I'll be "beefing up" this section of the figure to try to eliminate this issue for the future. As I said in an earlier post, the sculpt has to be a compromise to some extent between realism and practicality of casting etc. In this case I've danced a little to close to the realism side and will need to step back a little to get a more robust end product.

Anyway here's a shot of three of the casts cleaned up and ready to be made into final masters. I've also now completed the mould for the weapons and am currently working on the mould for the heads. These should be ready soon, I will then cast up some weapons and heads, and we can then press on to actually make some completed masters.

Back once I've cast these bits...............

Finishing the Mould

2008-01-26T16:46:00.000Z

Ok, so the second half of the Mould has now set. I now remove all the lego blocks from the outside, and in addition for this mould, withdraw the two plastic rods I had inserted to vent the turnbacks/coat. The mould will probably be a little "hairy" with little slivers of rubber on the outside, where it has leaked between the lego blocks. It doesn't make any difference to the function of the mould, but I usually trim this off with a knife at this stage.

Now, gently prise the two mould halves apart with your hands. Sometimes they stick together a bit, but if you work round the corners, it will gradually peel apart. Remove the figure and the wooden block. In this case our lad has survived with no significant injury, which is good news, as if this mould doesn't work, I can always use him to make another.

At this stage the Mould will look something like this.

The wooden block attached to the figure base has formed a void in the mould which will be the hole into which we pour the metal, this will therefore be the "top" of the mould. Now with this in mind, visualise what will happen to the air in the mould
as the liquid metal is poured in. In this case you can see, that due to the orientation of the arms, air will become trapped in this part of the mould, as it fills with metal. The result will be that the arms won't cast properly as eventually the air compressed within them will prevent the flow of the metal (remember we aren't using a centrifuge to "force" the metal in, just gravity).

The solution to this issue is to "vent" the mould by cutting channels in the rubber to allow this air to escape. For this figure, one vent per arm will be sufficient. In the adjacent photo, I have created these vents, using a sharp modelling knife. Be careful whilst doing this not to cut into the detail of the figure, or you will destroy it when its cast. Also try to vent from the highest point, to make sure all the air can get out.

Having done this, the mould is now ready for casting! I won't cover this in detail as its fairly straightforward, but will give a brief summary next time.

Whilst waiting for the mould to set, I've completed the various weapons and drum, which will be required for the final masters. Here they are embedded in the plasticine, ready to be made into a mould themselves.

Next time we'll see how well this first figure mould works. I think it will, but suspect that it will probably fail after a while, due to the heavy undercut. Hopefully, before this happens, I'll have enough castings to make into final masters!

The other half

2008-01-24T15:02:00.000Z

With apologies for the slight delay in update.

Once the first part of the mould has set (leave for at least 24hrs), we can press on. To do this, we flip the mould over, so that the wooden base is on the top. Gently remove the wooden base (it will come off will a little persuasion), in most cases the bulk of the plasticine will come off along with the wood. It doesn't matter however if it remains in the mould.

With the wooden base removed, take off the first two layers of lego bricks, this will bring you down to the level of the rubber which has now set. Having done this, remove any surplus plasticine which may still be stuck to the rubber or figure. Normally the bulk of the plasticine will just "peel off" but you might get the odd bit still stuck on. Use the sculpting tools to remove any residual.

In this photo, I've reached this stage, with the figure and mould "cleaned up" having removed any plasticine that was left. The mould box now needs to have the lego walls built back up ready to pour the second half.

As this is a "drop casting" mould, i.e. it will rely on Gravity to fill it, it will require to be "vented" to allow the air to flow out as the metal flows in. In most circumstances, the cutting of vents can be left until both halves of the mould are complete. Indeed for this mould I will be doing this and will illustrate this process in due course.

However as I've already highlighted, this mould has a slight "problem" namely the coat tails and turnbacks. This part of the figure will effectively be "buried" in one half of the mould. As such it will be quite difficult to cut vents to this part of the casting when the mould has been made. There's a real risk you could damage some of the detail in doing so. I have therefore very lightly glued a couple of plastic rods to the very highest point on the end of the coat tails. The rods are then laid on the outside edge of the mould. I will now pour the second half of the mould, and once set, will withdraw these rods, thus creating an air vent to this part of the figure (at least that's the theory!)

Before pouring the second half of the mould, I will again spray the surface and figure with "releasing agent". The rest of the process is exactly the same as previously detailed for the first half. You will need to mix up about 100g of rubber again.

Next time, finishing the mould.

Pouring the Mould

2008-01-20T12:15:00.000Z

I've now built up the remaining sides of the Mould box, to the desired height. I have then sprayed the inside of the box and the figure and plasticine with "formula 5" release agent, I find this helps when later separating the mould.

The moulds I'm going to make are made of Room Temperature Vulcanising rubber (RTV). The rubber comes in a thick liquid form (similar to treacle). You decant the required quantity into a small mixing tub/bowl and add drops off a catalyst which starts the reaction off. Depending on how much catalyst you add, it takes about 24hrs to set.

I'm using RTV 101 from Alec Tiranti's in the UK. The link is at the side of the Blog. The more you buy the cheaper it is, however for a mould this size (which will use about 200g of rubber in total) it will cost about £4-5 per mould.

For this first half of the mould I've mixed up about 100g of rubber with the required catalyst, make sure you mix well to ensure that the reaction works. Once mixed, I often leave it to sit for a couple of minutes, as it tends to get small air bubbles trapped in it from the mixing process which need time to work themselves out.

Ok were ready to encase our lad in his rubbery grave! hopefully an experience which he will survive.

Initially dribble a small amount of the rubber mixture over the figure and other points of detail, don't put too much on at this stage, and don't touch the surface, as this tends to make it stick. Once a light covering has been achieved, stop for a couple of minutes, to allow the rubber to spread. Again this is to try to prevent air bubbles forming on the surface of the mould.

Now pour the rest of the rubber, try to pour steadily into one corner, allowing the rubber to flow out across the box, this should prevent bubbles forming. Keep going till you've filled the box up or run out of rubber, which with about 100g should be about the same point, hopefully!

The mould now needs to be laid aside to set for 24hrs. Don't be tempted to take it apart prior to this, go and do something else, I'm off to finish that drum.

Next time, the "other half" of the Mould!

Mould Box

2008-01-19T15:03:00.000Z

I'm going to be making moulds for drop casting these masters, its a process you can do at home, without the use of a centrifuge.

The first thing you will need to make such Moulds, is a Mould Box. The base of mine is made up of a couple of pieces of plywood about 7-8mm thick. The larger section on the base is about 9.5cm square, with a smaller piece on top of this about 6.5cm square. On top of this is some modelling putty (Plasticine), this will be used to form the "bed" for the miniature.

For the sides of the Mould Box, I'd recommend Lego, its ideal as it is sufficiently "watertight" when constructed to hold the liquid rubber of the mould, before its set, but also very flexible enabling you to remove and adjust in height etc. Dig some out of the loft if you have any, if not, you can buy small quantities on ebay for a few pounds.

For a 25mm foot figure, which this mould box is made for, its a 12x12 lego box, which will have 4 layers. This size works well in my experience for this size of figure.

In this photo I have added the first two layers of side walls of lego and smoothed out the plasticine to this level, this is effectively half of the mould.

We now need to bed the miniature into the material, this is a tricky process to get right, to some extent its trial and error, and with practice, you'll get a feel for it. I'll use the same tools to do this as I used for sculpting, also using a light smear of Petroleum Jelly (vaseline) on them to stop sticking and for smoothing the surface. Roughly you want about half the figure embedded in the material, but you must follow some basic rules:

1. Don't lock bits of the figure in, if you completely enclose an arm or leg say in one half of the mould, how will it subsequently come out?

2. Try to avoid rapid changes in height or thickness on each mould half, if you do have such areas, they will be weaknesses in the mould and vulnerable to "tearing out" or failure, ruining your mould and any subsequent castings.

3. Try to get a nice clean hard edge between the figure and the plasticine, roughly flat and level. Its worth spending a bit of time on this going round the figure carefully. Do this bit well, and the mould will last a long time, and you'll have little or no flash or mould lines.

4. Ultimately you want a line of mould running around the figure, up and down each leg etc, it therefore won't be a level mould in the centre, it will gently undulate round the figure, however bring the edges of the mould back to the same height by the time you get to the edges, as you do want each half to be roughly even overall.

5. Try to avoid areas where one half of the mould "cuts back on itself" i.e. a big undercut, this is for the same reason as 1. its an area that's likely to fail when the mould is in use, and also may make it hard to get the figure out, once cast. In this example, I have broken this rule, at least to some extent, as the turnbacks of the coat, will suffer this problem. Hopefully it won't ruin the mould, but it's possible, let's hope it works out!

I've carried this process out with the basic armature in this photo. You'll note that I've added a small wooden block to the base (this will be the opening down which the metal will be poured). I've also made some holes or dents in the plasticine around the mould, these will act as locating plugs for the two mould halves (one male one female). Note in regard to this I have not put any in the bottom quarter of the mould. We need to leave this clear to cut out vent channels etc when the mould has been made.

Its now ready to have the rest of the lego bricks built up, and the mould poured. We'll do this next time.

Ready to cast

2008-01-19T12:41:00.000Z

Well, progress has been a little delayed in recent days, as a heavy cold has delayed things. However, on the mend now and things are back on track.

I've finished the three heads I intend to use initially, Fusilier, Grenadier and an officer. They've been removed from the paper clips, I was using as a stand and are now ready for casting.

A lot of what I've been doing to date in this process is preparatory, making various components required to make final masters. This element of the process is a bit dull, but it is an essential step. I have a few bits and bobs left to complete, in regard to this, a drum, officers fusil and a pistol. These are about half done, and should be completed in the next few days to draw this element of the process to an end, hurrah!

To keep my interest up, I've temporarily stuck the grenadier head on the body I prepared earlier, this gives us a good idea how the finished master will look, and is a good check to see that things are looking ok. I'm happy with the overall look of the figure so far, although its clearly not finished yet.

Next post, I'll cover making the Moulds and subsequent casting of the various bits I've created to date.

Keep your hair on!

2008-01-15T21:25:00.000Z

I've now progressed a couple of heads further, the basic fusilier and the grenadier.

This has been done in a couple of stages, first the basic form, for the fusilier this was the tricorne, moving towards a bicorne by this period (which personally I find quite hard to do). The grenadier got a structure upon which to build the bearskin, along with the front plate. The front plate was embossed with devices, but at this scale (don't let the close up photo's deceive you, the plate is only about 2.5mm in height) and with my talents, your joking! So I've roughened it up a bit to "suggest" this detail, this should give a sufficient surface to paint on to give a reasonable impression of this feature. These were then both left to set.

I then added the cockade for the fusilier along with his hair, so that head is now ready. The grenadier has had the fur and bag added to the bearskin, he will still need hair and a cockade and plume, but I've left these off until what has been done has set.

I note that a couple of you are considering having a go yourselves, great! My advice would be take your time, aim to do small bits in a session (remember the greenstuff is only really workable for a couple of hours, so mix up small quantities) build up in a series of layers, letting each one harden, as I'm illustrating here. That way you can "bank" the bits you get right, and if it goes wrong you don't ruin all that you've done prior to that. The key discipline to stick to is when you've completed a sculpting session, decide whether your happy with what you've added, if your not, take it off, while you still can, you can always try again as long as you don't let it set! You will improve with practice.

More heads next time.

Heads up!

2008-01-14T22:42:00.000Z

Started work on the heads, after all we wouldn't want our chap to look like a principal character from sleepy hollow.

The technique I use is to drill a hole in both the body of the armature and in the removed head. To do this I use a small hand twist trill with bits ranging from 0.5 up to 1.0mm. I can then mount the head onto the body by inserting a short pin to join the two together (whilst working on them the heads can be stuck to a longer peg, or as here to a bent paperclip, which makes a good stand). The neck can then be completed accordingly and the cast made. The advantage of this approach is that I can use both heads and bodies subsequently in other combinations, with only slight alteration/repair to the joint at the neck on removal. I'll illustrate this technique in due course.

One of the advantages of using this type of armature is that they already have a fairly good face on the to start with. This is great as its a really hard thing to do well. In my experience, and its only personal taste, the nose is a little "weak" and needs to be beefed up a bit or its lost in the cast figure. In this photo I've added more material to all three heads on the nose. One head is going to be for a grenadier, so I've added a suitably outrageous moustache, and another is going to be an officer so I've opened the mouth a little and dropped the jawline accordingly (Officers like to think their in charge).

In the next few days I'll build these heads up further by adding tricornes, bearskin and hair.

I've also now completed the musket and grenadiers hanger, I think I'll do a few more items to go along with these, probably a pistol, officers sword and possibly a light officers fusil. The muskets not bad, perhaps a little thicker than it would be in real life, but it needs to be or it wouldn't be robust enough for use on the table. I've modelled with the sling "tightened up", suitable for a marching figure. This bit can be cut off if required and re-modeled for other poses.

Anyway, touch of cold at present so progress slightly delayed, more on head development in next few posts.

Making Progress ..... and moving back

2008-01-10T21:22:00.000Z

Firstly thanks for the positive comments. Its been correctly pointed out that it would be helpful if I assume people reading the Blog know nothing about the subject area (which isn't a lot less than me!). So to that end I'll firstly reprise a few things.

The armatures as previously indicated are from Ebob (the link's at the side of the Blog). Here's one of the fine fellows to give you an idea where our brave lad started from.

The tools being used are stainless steel Dentistry items, here's a selection. I'm sculpting using Greenstuff, which is a two part epoxy? material that comes in strips half blue half yellow. You mix it together and it goes green hence.......greenstuff. I think its actually supposed to be used in the plumbing industry, but its fairly extensively used in the miniatures world hence the term "greens" for masters.

All the tools, greenstuff and armatures are available from Ebob, from the link on this blog (I'll point out now I have no commercial interest in Ebob, just trying to point people in the right direction if required).

When mixed it has the consistency of chewing gum, and stays pliable for about 1-2hrs after that its best to stop. When working with it I find it useful to occasionally wipe the sculpting tools with petroleum jelly (vaseline) as it prevents them sticking to the material. Its also handy to use tools thus treated for polishing up rougher surfaces of the greenstuff, when its still pliable that is.

Right, hope that's covered the basics, but feel free to ask anything else, and I'll try to give you an answer.

One of the things I should say, is that with a figure 25mm tall you can't have entirely lifelike detail, its a compromise between the overall form and how it will look when painted etc. To that end with this figure, what I'll be trying to do is give a reasonably good impression of what the uniform should look like, which will hopefully carry through this impression to the painted figure.

In the case of this lad, I've put on Buttons (which are a bit oversize) to give hopefully the feel and look of the uniform. Its not however the correct number in respect to true accuracy but I think it will look ok, as I said a compromise.

In respect to this, I've decided not to put buttons on the side of the gaiters, as I think this would just be a bit to much and would destroy the overall line of the figure, if required they can be painted on.

So here he is, not much changed from previously other than I've fixed that damaged button (only noticed when I saw the Photo on the Blog) and fixed his arm back on. In that respect I've put a very small amount of material on the joint to strengthen it a little. We don't want to overdo this as we still want to be able to bend the arm later at this point.

I want to create several different master figures, all wearing the same basic coat like this lad. Given this, now is probably a good point to stop the sculpting process again, and cast this figure up thus making another armature wearing the coat and gaiters. This armature can then be used in several applications to create final masters by adding different heads, equipment etc.

So the next stage for this chap will be to make a mould and cast him up as is. I'll cover this in the next few posts.

This "intermediate casting" is a bit risky in that its possible the mould won't work, the figure gets damaged or too much detail is lost, but its a necessary step if we don't want to have to sculpt all figures individually up from scratch. On this figure I'm particularly concerned about the long coat tails, which are realistic but a bit vulnerable (its a big "undercut" for the Mould to handle)........We'll just have to hope for the best!

In the interim our brave lad will need to get "tooled up" or he won't be able to storm to glory on the battlefield, so lets make some weapons!

I'm making initially a sword and Musket, these will be loosely (and I do mean loosely, its 25mm after all!) on a French Grenadiers hanger and the 1763 model musket.

The frames for these are nothing more than appropriately bent paper clips, flattened in the case of the sword. The sword has also had a little bit of plastic strip added to form the hilt. I've then started to build these up with Greenstuff, but I'll now need to stop and wait for it to set before I add more detail.

I think that's enough for now................hopefully back again soon for another step in the process!

Sculpting ........ Getting Started

2008-01-09T22:46:00.001Z

To make a miniature, the first thing you will need is a "dolly" or armature. This will act as the Skeleton for the figure, giving you something to build on and also importantly setting the proportions for the figure. You can make these yourself, out of bits of wire, or take the easier route, which I use and buy some. I would recommend the ones supplied by Ebob, and it is those that I have used here.

The figures I going to make are late Eighteenth Century French, suitable for the AWI as its a range not really available from anybody in a style which I like.

If you think you might make more than one pose or figure its worth creating some basic masters, at various stages in the process, that can then be added to or modified to create finished masters for casting. You'll often see this approach being used by the "professionals" when they show previews of greens.

In this case I've created a couple of poses and clad then in a basic C18th style waistcoat, breeches and shoes. You'll note no head at this stage (its been removed for seperate surgery!).

I've sculpted this using "greenstuff" and basic modelling tools, I think there made for Dentistry work, but are readily available.

At this point in the process I will make casts of these as I plan to use this basic form in several different applications in due course. I'll come back to casting later, we'll stick with scuplting at present.

We've now effectively created a new more advanced "dolly" (not cleaned up in this Photo) on which we can build a figure.

Lets add a coat, this will be done in a couple of stages, first the basic form which will be allowed to harden, then the detail such as lapels, turnbacks, buttons etc will be added. In the later Photo's I've also started to add the gaiters.

You'll also note the arm has broken off, this doesn't matter at this stage. It happens quite often, and we can fix it later.

More to follow ........

In the Beginning..........

2008-01-09T22:03:00.000Z

When I first started buying miniatures in the 80's the "big" Sculpters were the likes of Peter Gilder and the figures were of the slim realistic style. Over the years I dipped in and out of the hobby and the increasing emphasis on more cast detail and the resultant "Chunkier" figures gradually crept up on me without much notice. I bought and enjoyed them the same as everyone else.

A couple of years ago a long term gameing pal of mine and I decided to revist the AWI in 25mm, a period we enjoyably played as lads during the 1980's. On a nostalgia trip we flicked through some of our old books, particularly the inspirational Curt Johnson book "Battles of the American revolution" which contains some lovely set piece images using Gilder Hinchliffe figures.

Suitably enthused we embarked on recruiting troops, using this range and also the lovely RSM figures available from DPC in the states.

At this point we had a bit of a "road to Damascus" moment realising how horribly stylised modern miniatures had become, less a human form, more a "paint by numbers" structure to enable people to recreate the style of dare I say it more able painters. Don't get me wrong this form of miniature has allowed the bulk of those involved in the hobby to create miniatures which are more than presentable and give a very pleasing effect, using a fairly formulaic approach that's relatively easy to master (Black undercoat, layers of progressively lighter shades). In comparison older miniatures without the cast on detail are much harder to paint well and as such its easy to see how the paint by numbers boys have triumphed in the mass market.

Anyway enough of this as background, I'm sure what I said may have offended some, for which, my apologies, its not my intention to do so, more to set the scene for the blog.

One of the things you will find if you do decide to re-explore some of these older ranges is that some of the sculpting quality is variable (RSM are a good example as I'm pretty sure not all figures were done by Steve) and that many figures you might want are "missing". So whats the solution...........

Make your own!

No, its not as hard as you might first think, and I intend in this Blog to show you my limited attempts to do so to date. We'll start with sculpting and then move on to making moulds and casting in due course.