Early conversions

These two figures represent some of my earliest conversions. What is unusual about this pair is that they were done without any wire armatures. I just fitted spares and bits to a blob of putty and it all came together. References for this pair was thin - a very very old Preben Kannik book on Military Uniforms (Blandford). This was a singular and fantastic source of inspiration for me at that time.

The detailing was simple at that time, I just wanted to create unique pieces with reasonably correct proportions.

King's Troop of the Horse Guards - Officer
After a battle, the Officer is wiping the dirt off his boots and spies a battlefield trophy - a helmet.

Large cavalry boots were taken from the Airfix cuirassier. I stuck a couple of these boots onto a blob of putty and stuck a pair of arms. It seemed to work. More putty was added to create the overall shape and a Verlinden head was added. Hat, hair and feathers were sculpted. The large cuffs, cravat, buttons were sculpted later.

The sword was added and the sash was sculpted over it.

Carignan-Salieres Regt. Ensign
This was created immediately following the completion of the Kings Troop figure. An ensign of the renowned French regiment sent over to Canada. I decided to give my ensign a bear mascot.

Flag was plastic sheet folded around the wire staff. Pike head and sash was from Historex. Starting with the legs again, a pair was selected from the Airfix English Civil War set and stuck to a blob of putty. A scalelink head was set atop this putty and arms were added. When the proportions looked right, detail was sculpted in. The bear was taken from a toy set.