Drummer Louis XIV 5

I added buttons to the figure.

Leaping Horse

This is the horse meant for a proposed 2nd Hussar piece.

Napoleonic Drum Major 6

I detailed the sash, added hands and am now sculpting the arms.

Russian Medieval Knight 6

I decided to add more detail to the helmet.

August The Strong

My sister went to Germany and got me this piece. It was made by Peipp and represents August The Strong.

Very nice single piece casting with details. I intend to paint it up for my collection.

                                                      Primed with white undercoat.

Red Lancer

I found this figure in a dustproof container. It is a Historex conversion representing a Napoleonic Red Lancer. Work in progress.

Manchu Emperor

I discovered another gem lurking in a dark recess of my collection. I had worked on this figure a couple of years back and had painted a basic undercoat to let it dry in a dust proof container.

The figure was completely sculpted in epoxy putty and this is the current state. It represents the Jiaqing Emperor who wore this unique red dragon robe.

Russian Medieval Knight 5

Basic undercoats were added. Figure requires final detail on the helmet.

Napoleonic Drum Major 5

The epaulettes were removed. New Historex epaulettes were added and the cord fringes will be added after the arms have been completed.

The drum major's sash was added together with the sword. The figure was undercoated in yellow and blue.

Drummer Louis XIV 5

Figure was taken from an osprey book illustration.
Added pockets and painted the figure in basic undercoat. Awaiting addition of buttons next.

 

Drummer Louis XIV 4

I finally settled on a drummer of Louis XIV era, based on an Osprey book illustration.

The hat was taken from Historex and details were added in stages.

The skirt length was trimmed back so that metal strips could be glued on to create the impression of overhang. The tunic was faired to the metal strips and hip pockets added. The figure was given a coat of light yellow and is now awaiting buttons to be added.

 

 

 

Rommel 3

These are further pics of this figure.

 

Marlborough 3

The proportion of the figure was readjusted and re-built. The horse was sanded down to take the saddle. The rump was built up.

Drummer Louis XV 3

I trimmed the edges of the coat to be shorter and added a non-descript head. The figure will be wearing a soubreveste displaying the Colonel's livery.

Caesar 2

I removed most of the old putty and previously attached limbs and snipped off even the left side and arms of the figure. This will be a major rebuild of Caesar.

Marlborough 2

I cut the figure into three parts, then selected a suitable horse and attached the torso, legs and tilted head together.

Rommel 2

The boots were sculpted. A drastic cut was made to remove the small of the back on the figure. Following a build up of the back portion, the arms folded at the back was interfering with the re-sculpting of the belt.

 

The arms were reattached. The figure is awaiting a final addition of putty to fill in the imperfections. Otherwise, I am satisfied with the overall stance of the piece.

 

Another horse position

Here is another horse, leaping over an imaginary obstacle.

I saw an image of a 2nd Hussars officer leaping over a fence by E Leliepvre and may use this picture as inspiration.

Napoleonic Drum Major 4

I gave the figure a base coat of yellow to the tunic, white to the breeches and plumes, and black to the hat and boots.

Drummer Louis XV (2)

I changed the pose drastically. I removed both arms for now.

Both legs were removed and repositioned, pinned with wire drilled into holes. The legs were reshaped. All moulded details were sanded off as I think that these were too coarse. More drastic sanding is required to achieve a smoother surface.

Going by my references, I may also do this figure as a drummer of the Louis XIV period, wearing a Colonel's livery. The drum is to be slung on the left hip, not on the left thigh.

Marlborough and Caesar

After a Dettol bath, it's sayonara to old figures and these are the results. Marlborough was a Tradition figure and Caesar was a Russian Joy's Toys figure.

I plan to convert the Duke to a mounted figure. The detail on this piece is not good.  The face, hair, the limbs and the costume details will have to be thoroughly reworked.

The dilapidated Caesar piece has a good face. Some interesting torso armour can stay but everything else will have to be reworked.

That I think is the fun part and the whole point of this posting.

Napoleonic Drum Major 3

On the original the buttons were impressed into the figure. I added buttons from putty over these positions.

ADC General Rapp 5

Finally added some putty to the legs to firm up the seat.

Russian Medieval Knight 4

I added putty to the feet to make them less pod-like. Also I added more putty to bulk up the helmet.

Rommel

I came across this nearly forgotten piece. It was a Roco 1/35 conversion of Rommel into a 1/32 size. Roco had designed 5 figures to represent WWII leaders. The facial features are very good. They had 1/32scale physiognomy but with 1/35 scale heights. That means that these figures look stumpy.

I had been redoing these pieces and converting them slowly into 1/32 scale figures, including elevating the height of the General DeGaulle figure considerably.

Rommel was an abandoned piece. Anyway, I picked it up and decided to rework the legs and stance. This is the result and it looks promising. The overall height of this figure was increased by a cm!

Drummer Louis XV

I have decided that this drummer will represent one of Louis XV regts, as I have quite a lot of references on these. I will have to remove and add details as I finalise my choice. The original drum, which is too small, will have to be substituted with a Historex drum of larger size.

More horses

I came up with two more horse poses.

This pose was created from earlier conversions.

This pose was copied from an old Rose mounted figure. I have removed the upper part to accomodate a saddle.

Fifer 3rd Ligne 8

Due to the interlocking hands carrying the fife covering the face and the number of body straps, I decided to partly paint the fifer before further assembly. I use artist oils.

Napoleonic Drum Major 2

I sanded the breeches smooth and added coat tails from putty.

As my intention is to preserve as much of the details on the original figure as possible (including the bicorne with large plume and tri-colour plumes and turned-down boots),  I pored thru my references on drum majors. I eventually settled on the Drum major from the 67th Ligne regiment as the obvious choice. It also had the most colourful of the possible Drum major uniforms.

 Rigo

 Charmy

Bucquoy

Based on the choice, the horizontal back pockets were sculpted. I will be adding buttons but no turnback facings.