ADC General Rapp (3)

Finally completed the lacing around the pantherskin.

The Historex representation of lacing was ambiguous, looking more like shark's teeth lacing found under sheepskin shabraque. The pleated lacing was more pronounced and wavy, as confirmed by Rousselot and Rigo plates, and is correctly represented here.

Restoring older figures

Here are the results of more paint stripped figures.

Napoleonic Drum Major. Tradition figure stripped of paint and primer. The figure is soldered to a tin base. A decent figure for its time, it does suffer from some anatomical issues. I may use it in a conversion.

75mm Lassett Scythian figure. I have yet to discover the horse and the other parts.

I have started to bulk out these two figures.

Removing paint from my older figures

With trepidation, I tried brake fluid on some of my metal figures as well as Dettol, diluted on a 1:1 ratio, all figures soaked overnight. I also placed a couple of plastic figures into the Dettol solution.

The Dettol solution is the more effective of the two. The paint coming off with a brush. I finish off with a gentle wipe with thinner. The plastic figures do not fare that well. There is some damage to the surface.

The drum major was a Tradition casting, assembled and primed when bought. I painted it many years ago. The Russian medieval knight was an obscure casting (Joy's Toys which used to advertise in Campaign magazine, I believe). Not the best of castings.

 The Roustam figure was an uncompleted Historex kit and the drummer was a modification from a Tradition kit.

 After overnight soaking in Dettol solution. The large green cuffs were made from Duro, now left soggy and will be removed.

This view shows how these figures look flattened from the side.

These two pics show the back as I propose to bulk up these figures as a sculpting exercise.

Welcome to the dark side 3

Of course, there's more...

Here are other figures for other vignettes, with animals.

 Man holding a desert fox, nicknamed Rommel

 Man afraid of dog

   And the man himself, left in /135 scale to be compatible in size with his figures. Look at his motorcycle sidecar in his left hand.

Welcome to the dark side 2

There's more.

 A camera and battery pack, scratchbuilt

 Typewriter with scratchbuilt cover

 The dog and other accessories

And finally, the whole scene put together. The main figure is an army journalist/camera man, probably working for the next Signal magazine.

Welcome to the dark side...

I met up with my friend Kenneth over the weekend. Now he is truly from the dark side. These are the people who choose to model in 1/35 (not 1/32), paint with acrylics (not oils) and are very hip on what's available on the internet (not old school). What's more, they like to model panzer troops....

But there's still hope for Kenneth. He chooses to focus on the DAK (Deutsch Arfika Korps) (dark, get it?). They wear brighter beige uniforms, have natty sun helmets and are always tanning themselves. His bent is on representing the quieter aspects of warfare, off-duty, leave, leisure. His vignettes are characterised by creative use of story-telling, and he likes to employ animals in many of his pieces.

I persuaded him to let me take some pics of his unpainted works just to highlight the complexity of his pieces.

 The main figure, reading a paper

  The motorcycle side car from Zvevda, superdetailed

The load in the sidecar seat are a  bunch of bananas. I've just noticed the teddy bear....

Antoine Lasalle (8)

Basic undercoat for the frogging and buttons on the pelisse.

Fifer 3rd Ligne (6)

I fixed the two legs firmly by pinning. The shako tuft and sword belt were added.

Fifer 3rd Ligne (5)

I readjusted the coat tails to hang more realistically and added turnback facings. Rigo shows the turnbacks as comprising a "3" and a star ornament.

The shako hangings were sculpted and Historex cords added. More hair was added. Theleft ear was repositioned andresculpted to accomodate the chinscales. The chin was built up. Buttons fully added to the front.

 

ADC General Rapp (2)

The legs of the figure was bulked up to sit on the saddle. The head was fixed in place and the torso was shaped further.

The  horse was filled out with more putty and the rump was adjusted to fit the saddleskin.

The figure is now nicely fitted to the horse. 

Antoine Lasalle (7)

I sculpted in the parts of the braiding for the pelisse to complement the buttons.

             

Napoleon I figure

I have had this figure in my collection for about 10 years now and had received it as a gift. Made in Italy, its not a bad commercial piece. The sculpting on the face is pretty good. However it is distinctly flat from the side and the boots are too slender.

I am thinking of stripping the paint off and converting this figure. While I am pondering that decision, these pictures serve as a record of what this piece looks like.

  

Fifer 3rd Ligne (4)

A spare shako was added. This had an interesting history. Some years back, a penpal from Australia decided to send me all of his Historex spares as he wanted to focus on re-enactment and wargaming. This shako was one of the spares. I added a Historex eagle and sculpted the lower plate added from putty.

The Historex coat tails for standing figures are just awful looking. I decided to sculpt new coat tails from putty, rolling it out between two plastic sheets and letting it harden a little. I then trimmed two rectangular pieces about the size of the coat tails, folded them over to represent the turnbacks and shaped these pieces onto the figure, creating some natural drapery.

Antoine Lasalle (6)

I undercoated the trousers in yellow. The horse was also undercoated.

Aide de Camp General Rapp

I recreated this horse piece from odds and ends. I think that I will do this as a mounted Aide de Camp to General Rapp.

I rescued this grubby looking figure from obscurity.

New mounted figure

I found these unlike bits from my spares box and decided to create another mounted figure.

I especially liked the horse head, an obscure Russian metal casting.

                                     All the bits assembled and posed with wire and putty

                              Putty added to the piece and it has been sanded down.

Antoine LaSalle (5)

Fur and buttons being added to the pelisse. The ornamentation on the hat was sculpted.

Antoine LaSalle (4)

Here's a Rigo illustration of LaSalle. Most of the lacing around the tiger skin has been done.