Dan Morton
A Fixture
Andy Cairns has been kind enough to ask me to review his 1/10th scale bust of a British or Commonwealth Soldier of the First War, "Trench Watch". I received the model a few days ago and I've been really studying his extraordinary sculpting skill!
It's packed in a simple card stock box with plenty of padding and protection. Two small pieces - a pipe and the upper barrel of the SMLE rifle are cast on with a "tree" for protection and to keep them together. The superbly sculpted bayonet with quillon is perfectly cast in metal, but everything else is light grey resin. The bayonet is protected by being backed with hard card and taped securely. The other three pieces are the helmet, the stand and the head and chest.
In the first photo, I took the pieces out of the box and photographed them front and then back. I did not remove flash or casting waste.
Then I removed flash using - get this - mostly my thumb nail. No - I'm serious. Other than the stand, it was very light. The bottom of the stand required the X-acto to cut and scrape a little bit and it took all of 2 minutes to clean. Before painting I would want to fill one small gap and then sandpaper and steel wool to smoothe everything. Not counting putty drying time, I estimate this would take 15 or 20 minutes. Very good casting!
The rest of the photos - I believe they pretty much speak for themselves. This is an excellent study of a face displaying tension and anxiety and gritty determination. Probably one of the reasons the face is so drawn is that it wet and freezing cold.
The gear is expertly done. The British Warm great coat and leather jerkin are perfect and the rough neck scarf is great. Looks like that part was fun to sculpt!
Andy wanted me to mention the quillion on the bayonet. Officially, the British army phased out the quillion and removed it ca. 1913. But I've seen some militaria site photos of British bayonets with quillions (more without I admit!) remaining, so not all of them were removed. Anyways, he's concerned that it is a small historical snafu, but heck, if you are bothered you can snip it off easily enough.
I've included three photos Andy sent of his model painted. He seems to have used a very warm, leathery set of hues and it fits very well in my opinion.
Great kit!
All the best,
Dan
ps - In the fourth and fifth photos, the Sculpey used to hold the piece for the photo - That's NOT part of the kit.
It's packed in a simple card stock box with plenty of padding and protection. Two small pieces - a pipe and the upper barrel of the SMLE rifle are cast on with a "tree" for protection and to keep them together. The superbly sculpted bayonet with quillon is perfectly cast in metal, but everything else is light grey resin. The bayonet is protected by being backed with hard card and taped securely. The other three pieces are the helmet, the stand and the head and chest.
In the first photo, I took the pieces out of the box and photographed them front and then back. I did not remove flash or casting waste.
Then I removed flash using - get this - mostly my thumb nail. No - I'm serious. Other than the stand, it was very light. The bottom of the stand required the X-acto to cut and scrape a little bit and it took all of 2 minutes to clean. Before painting I would want to fill one small gap and then sandpaper and steel wool to smoothe everything. Not counting putty drying time, I estimate this would take 15 or 20 minutes. Very good casting!
The rest of the photos - I believe they pretty much speak for themselves. This is an excellent study of a face displaying tension and anxiety and gritty determination. Probably one of the reasons the face is so drawn is that it wet and freezing cold.
The gear is expertly done. The British Warm great coat and leather jerkin are perfect and the rough neck scarf is great. Looks like that part was fun to sculpt!
Andy wanted me to mention the quillion on the bayonet. Officially, the British army phased out the quillion and removed it ca. 1913. But I've seen some militaria site photos of British bayonets with quillions (more without I admit!) remaining, so not all of them were removed. Anyways, he's concerned that it is a small historical snafu, but heck, if you are bothered you can snip it off easily enough.
I've included three photos Andy sent of his model painted. He seems to have used a very warm, leathery set of hues and it fits very well in my opinion.
Great kit!
All the best,
Dan
ps - In the fourth and fifth photos, the Sculpey used to hold the piece for the photo - That's NOT part of the kit.
