Rock formation bases

These unusual bases were converted from pieces of wood and cork bark, mounted onto a flat base. The wood was painted to simulate dramatic rock formation.

Mounted Baroque officer

As I had a few spare Cafe Storme figures, I wanted to convert them into mounted pieces. Two converted Historex horses are also shown.

Converted Tiger

I decided to rework the dismally converted Phoenix Model leopard. Only the head and front paw were retained. I used Edvard Muybridge's series of photos of a tiger published in a Dover book. A&B putty were fully used here.

By this stage, only the head was retained. All the commercial legs were removed and new legs were sculpted onto wire armatures drilled into the body. 

Getting creative with non-military subjects

I made Maqoma, king of the Xhosa, mounted on a horse. This was based on an illustration in Military Illustrated, a great looking magazine then. The figure was made from Preiser parts, mounted on a Britains horse. The cape was sculpted Duro putty.

Two Indian dancers are featured here. Except for the heads and hands, the rest of the figures and pantomime horses were sculpted from putty.

Sculpting a master for TimeMachine

Sometime back, a small model soldier company based in the USA commissioned me to make a master for his company in exchange for some of his production figures. The result was a mounted Mongol figure on a pony.

This was a great learning piece as I planned the work with sub-assemblies with a view towards making castings. To make great looking drapery and flowing hair, I used Duro green putty which had a rubbery consistency. Although in my opinion, this material is not so suitable for one-off pieces, its use in making masters cannot be underestimated.

This piece was never put into production.

metal castings

I discovered that high melting point silicone rubber could be bought locally to make flexible 2-part moulds for metal casting. The best that I've used was Dow Corning. Pouring channels were made to allow the molten metal to flow into the moulds.

These were used to produce my own range of toy figures. The picture shows a figure that was made more than 20 years ago and a later version. In both cases, I added sheet metal and wire to the figure to elevate it into a connoisseur piece.

Cantiniere

This figure was made using a commercial head and some hands. I used a mix of Duro and Milliput combined as a putty. The story is that of an unhappy lady holding a bunch of red roses. Red and green work well as a striking colour combination.

Red Indians

I made this figure without any armature. Using a Verlinden head and some commercial hands, the figure was built directly onto a converted Historex horse, the Arab horse head was converted to reflect a mustang.

Painting was done in a mixture of enamels and oils.

Emboldened, I made this Crow Indian piece, flushed with the success of his first Bison kill. The figure was made from converted Preiser parts but the Bison was made from a cut up toy Bison, cast in metal and with the parts rearranged to form a dead animal. This piece is heavy!

This piece is now in a private collection.

Jesus

I made the figure using converted Preiser parts. Clothing was sculpted from Duro green putty. The wooden cross was made from basswood strips. I experimented with underpainting in dark green on the flesh colours as I had read that old masters used this technique.

In retrospect and for a better viewpoint, I should have posed the figure in front of the cross.

This piece has been updated.

Xerxes I

This figure was sculpted based on a Scalelink head and a couple of Preiser arms. The rest was epoxy putty.

A trio of non-military subjects

The first was a figure of a Borneo Native woman pounding rice. this was made in milliput. Its now missing a head and the detail was rough.

 

The next figure was an African Luo native with very long spear and large cowhide shied. Figure was easily made from Preiser parts.

 

This figure has been refurbished and is now in a private collection.

The third figure was a monkey character from Peking Opera.

Sculpting horse heads

I had thought it would be a great idea if someone could provide alternative horse heads to commercial pieces, similar to the concept of resin heads produced for the burgeoning cottage industry. So I started to sculpt a couple of horse heads, creating cold-blooded types. It wasn't that difficult. I used a paper clip as an armature and built up the horse head with epoxy putty. I then made a few resin castings for my own use.

Aircrew figures

A friend asked whether I could make for him some aircrew souvenirs. The helmet bust is about getting the helmet to the correct proportions form an awful expanded foam casting and the second is a converted pilot figure.

My own resin casting

I discovered how to do simple open cast resin castings. This was a Cafe Storme/Mokarex figure of Louis XVI where I made several half-round castings for background group scenes. Notice the tiny airholes.

I used the lower legs from another JL David figure for another project.

Simple proposed conversion

I even tried to make a King's African Rifles toy soldier. Here I experimented with a Heller head, Heller torso mounted on an Airix Black Watch soldier legs. The soft rubbery plastic with its very obvious mould lines is not satisfying for conversions and I never proceeded further.

More findings

These figures were the start of a more standardised way of working - figures built on wire armatures. I used bits of upper torsos to create the armatures. various epoxy putties were tried at this stage.

Unfinished figure busts

I had tried to model the famous painting by Diego Velasquez of the Spanish Royal Family and only the fragmentary pieces of Queen Luisa and her son Felipe remained. Features were built up with liquid plastic.

The third figure was a half sculpted figure of a red Indian Crow. Head was Verlinden and the headdress and feathers were sculpted in green epoxy putty.

I also tried to sculpt a larger bust in 1/6 scale. This time, I used a very fast curing putty for the basic head structure and added Milliput and A&B putty for the facial features.

Melted plastic for sculpting

I had sold off a collection of about 18 WWII personalities, some of which I had made myself. This was a figure of Marshal Graziani, taken from a Blandford book. He was never completed to be sold off. All parts were Tamiya, liberally coated with the melted plastic and when it had hardened, I tried to carve the clothing. Obviously a failed attempt, you can see the airholes where I had carved away the upper layers. The boots were salvaged for another figure. The sun helmet looked salvageable, too.

Another figure was this proposed figure of Mary, wrapped in clothing. I dribbled melted plastic all over a Preiser head and one hand. When fairly dry, it was possible to pinch and shape the melted plastic but the shapes tended to round off. 

Both for safety and suitability for modelling work, I won't recommend this as a modelling material due to the awful smell from the plastic cement.

More dismal conversions

I have hundreds of rejected conversions. Generally, I don't throw them away as they provide reminiscences of youthful sculpting attempts and ultimately, represent a source of salvageable parts.

ET?

                                             Figure pose used as a reference model for a painting

                                         home made metal casts of limbs and torso and animated

Converted Tradition QE I and Henry VIII

Probably around this time, I converted two Tradition toy figures. They would be used to build up a historical personalities range.

Queen Elizabeth I had a Historex head and hands from Preiser. Hair, lace and gloves were epoxy putty. The tiny cat from Phoenix Models was placed strategically to support the gown.

Henry VIII had his legs filed down to thinner proportions. The head was a Historex spare and the dog was from Le Cimier.

The finished figures placed side by side.

Henry VIII has since been updated.