KenBoyle
PlanetFigure Supporter
Great work Neil! Love all the detail.
Cheers,
Ken
Cheers,
Ken
Completed Airfix 54mm French Line Infantry
- Thread starter Merryweather
- Start date
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Merryweather
A Fixture
Chris, Warren and Ken - thank s for the encouragement, guys.
Steve Brodie
PlanetFigure Supporter
Tonton
Well-Known Member
Have only just caught up with this. It’s a lesson in patience, creativity and attention to detail. And it’s brilliant. Well done, Neil.
Jeff
Jeff
Merryweather
A Fixture
Well thanks very much for that, Jeff.
Painting the face didn't go so well so I'm having a little rest from this. Back soon though.
Cheers
Neil
Painting the face didn't go so well so I'm having a little rest from this. Back soon though.
Cheers
Neil
Merryweather
A Fixture
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since my last report on this project. My new job in film prop-making has been totally full-on and has left me with very little opportunity or energy for bench time, and when it did I just couldn’t settle into anything meaningful.
I started to paint fusilier 4 but the face went wrong and despite several restarts I haven’t managed to get the painting mojo fired up yet.
I’ve had another look at it all recently and decided I didn’t really like the ‘fleeing’ guy (fusilier 5) so I took him apart and had another look at his pose. After a few false starts this is what I came up with.
That led me to think I could do with another standing fusilier, and after a bit of evilbay surfing I found a part-built one in a batch of spare parts which included some useful Historex gaitered legs and other stuff.
I placed a bid of £7, thinking I would max out at £20, but somehow I added two 0s so my max bid was a crazy £700! Of course I was the highest bidder by miles and I couldn’t figure out how to retract my bid so I just had to sweat it out….It finally topped out at £28.50,which was more than I had planned to pay but not so catastrophic as to require an explanation to SWMBO! I can’t see why anyone would be prepared to go so high, so maybe there’s something more valuable in there that I don’t know about. Perhaps I’ll offer all the stuff I don’t want and see if it sells…
So the Historex legs will have to justify their existence now!
I had a good look through a load of paintings and illustrations for inspiration and I came up with this from Lady Butler’s painting of Quatre Bras
so we now have a Fusilier 6,who is in the process of biting off the cartridge
Whilst doing all this I re-thought the composition of the group, and I don’t like the fact that two of them are looking to their right at the running guy, so I’m going to change the rammer (Fusilier 2) so he’s looking ahead at the danger approaching.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get some quality bench time in over the upcoming Jubilee bank holiday, and get these two filled and fettled. And I really want to get Fusilier 4 painted and finished. I just need to find a way of firing up the painting mojo...
thanks for looking
Neil
I started to paint fusilier 4 but the face went wrong and despite several restarts I haven’t managed to get the painting mojo fired up yet.
I’ve had another look at it all recently and decided I didn’t really like the ‘fleeing’ guy (fusilier 5) so I took him apart and had another look at his pose. After a few false starts this is what I came up with.
That led me to think I could do with another standing fusilier, and after a bit of evilbay surfing I found a part-built one in a batch of spare parts which included some useful Historex gaitered legs and other stuff.
I placed a bid of £7, thinking I would max out at £20, but somehow I added two 0s so my max bid was a crazy £700! Of course I was the highest bidder by miles and I couldn’t figure out how to retract my bid so I just had to sweat it out….It finally topped out at £28.50,which was more than I had planned to pay but not so catastrophic as to require an explanation to SWMBO! I can’t see why anyone would be prepared to go so high, so maybe there’s something more valuable in there that I don’t know about. Perhaps I’ll offer all the stuff I don’t want and see if it sells…
So the Historex legs will have to justify their existence now!
I had a good look through a load of paintings and illustrations for inspiration and I came up with this from Lady Butler’s painting of Quatre Bras
so we now have a Fusilier 6,who is in the process of biting off the cartridge
Whilst doing all this I re-thought the composition of the group, and I don’t like the fact that two of them are looking to their right at the running guy, so I’m going to change the rammer (Fusilier 2) so he’s looking ahead at the danger approaching.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get some quality bench time in over the upcoming Jubilee bank holiday, and get these two filled and fettled. And I really want to get Fusilier 4 painted and finished. I just need to find a way of firing up the painting mojo...
thanks for looking
Neil
Warren SMITH
A Fixture
Great to see you back and cracking on... waiting to see more..
Waterlooman
A Fixture
- Joined
- May 8, 2021
- Messages
- 1,061
Excellent work, I am still about myself - just changed tack and working on my HMS Hood dio.
W.
W.
Hi Neil
A close call on the bid ! .....£700 ....bargain ...lol
Great to see you posting , hope the film props goes well , no doubt busy from the sound of it , good sometimes to revisit ideas and rethink the original
Fear not painting mojo will be returning!
Look forward to seeing more updates when you can
Happy benchtime
Nap
A close call on the bid ! .....£700 ....bargain ...lol
Great to see you posting , hope the film props goes well , no doubt busy from the sound of it , good sometimes to revisit ideas and rethink the original
Fear not painting mojo will be returning!
Look forward to seeing more updates when you can
Happy benchtime
Nap
Merryweather
A Fixture
Warren, Waterlooman and Kev- thanks for your kind comments.
Well I did manage some benchtime over the long weekend, and as luck would have it the film studio closed on Monday and Tuesday so I have had 6 days off!
I did have to spend SOME time with SWMBO, but other than that I got a fair bit done on the Fusiliers.
First up is Fusilier 6. I filled and fettled all the various gaps with white Milliput, then added the various accoutrements such as cartridge box, non-regulation haversack from the spares box and water bottle (whittled down from a WWII German water bottle and a little thingummy jig from a long extinct 1-76 scale tank ). I found a nice furry pack with the Airfix American War of Independence British Grenadier which I textured with the hot knife-in all this time I had forgotten how tedious THAT is….I have tried to vary the packs and rolled greatcoats so I made a covered one from Milliput which will be painted white with fine blue stripes - when I eventually get back into painting mode.
I thinned down the epaulettes as before and now my phone doesn’t recognise my fingerprint…I am keeping the equipment separate for painting so I stuck the epaulettes to the cross belts. I filed grooves in them (and under the arms) for the pack straps which will go on last.
I made a cartridge for his right hand from a short piece of solder, and I pinched the end with pliers to represent the paper twist. Having decided to turn the head of Fusilier 2 I found that the original didn’t work very well so I have used that head for this guy, and Fusilier 2 will get a new one.
So all that’s left for Fusilier 6 is to make the musket sling and start painting.
As I said, Fusilier 2 gets a new ‘character’ head, which comes from my Bee’s Putty experiments on the World War One Figure I sculpted last year.
He’s going to be hatless but he will get hair when I break out the Duro.
I was never really happy with the posing of the Eagle Guard, and I wanted to use the expensive Historex legs so I had another look at him. This is how we left him
And this is what I’ve come up with.
Not terribly different but I wanted it to look more like he had just grabbed the standard from the fallen officer. I also decided to highlight the fact that he was armed with pistols. I made a substitute flag from adhesive foil tape to avoid damaging the beautiful pre-painted one I have been given by Paul(Daddyo). This foil tape is excellent stuff used by heating engineers and apart from making flags it’s very good for blocking light-bleed gaps on lit models. I’ve given him a better head as well, from an Airfix Cuirassier.
So that is where I had to leave things and go back to work. Let’s hope it’s not another year before I pick up where I left off!
Thanks for looking
Neil
Well I did manage some benchtime over the long weekend, and as luck would have it the film studio closed on Monday and Tuesday so I have had 6 days off!
I did have to spend SOME time with SWMBO, but other than that I got a fair bit done on the Fusiliers.
First up is Fusilier 6. I filled and fettled all the various gaps with white Milliput, then added the various accoutrements such as cartridge box, non-regulation haversack from the spares box and water bottle (whittled down from a WWII German water bottle and a little thingummy jig from a long extinct 1-76 scale tank ). I found a nice furry pack with the Airfix American War of Independence British Grenadier which I textured with the hot knife-in all this time I had forgotten how tedious THAT is….I have tried to vary the packs and rolled greatcoats so I made a covered one from Milliput which will be painted white with fine blue stripes - when I eventually get back into painting mode.
I thinned down the epaulettes as before and now my phone doesn’t recognise my fingerprint…I am keeping the equipment separate for painting so I stuck the epaulettes to the cross belts. I filed grooves in them (and under the arms) for the pack straps which will go on last.
I made a cartridge for his right hand from a short piece of solder, and I pinched the end with pliers to represent the paper twist. Having decided to turn the head of Fusilier 2 I found that the original didn’t work very well so I have used that head for this guy, and Fusilier 2 will get a new one.
So all that’s left for Fusilier 6 is to make the musket sling and start painting.
As I said, Fusilier 2 gets a new ‘character’ head, which comes from my Bee’s Putty experiments on the World War One Figure I sculpted last year.
He’s going to be hatless but he will get hair when I break out the Duro.
I was never really happy with the posing of the Eagle Guard, and I wanted to use the expensive Historex legs so I had another look at him. This is how we left him
And this is what I’ve come up with.
Not terribly different but I wanted it to look more like he had just grabbed the standard from the fallen officer. I also decided to highlight the fact that he was armed with pistols. I made a substitute flag from adhesive foil tape to avoid damaging the beautiful pre-painted one I have been given by Paul(Daddyo). This foil tape is excellent stuff used by heating engineers and apart from making flags it’s very good for blocking light-bleed gaps on lit models. I’ve given him a better head as well, from an Airfix Cuirassier.
So that is where I had to leave things and go back to work. Let’s hope it’s not another year before I pick up where I left off!
Thanks for looking
Neil
Warren SMITH
A Fixture
Great updates. Its interesting to get an insight into how other modellers minds work.. Way to big a scene for me to try, but great to see it coming along..
Hi Neil
Great updates and like the way you think each figure through , good modelling skills as well , all this cutting about and putty filling !
Like the idea of variation on the equipment as well
Looking forward to seeing more when you are able
Happy benchtime and studio time
Nap
Great updates and like the way you think each figure through , good modelling skills as well , all this cutting about and putty filling !
Like the idea of variation on the equipment as well
Looking forward to seeing more when you are able
Happy benchtime and studio time
Nap
Peter Day
PlanetFigure Supporter
So sorry not to have commented earlier Neil. No excuses except that I don’t look at the V Bench section as often as I should. I see that you’re up to your usual mastery with some terrific detailing, really bringing these figures to life. I wish I had your skills.
Merryweather
A Fixture
Thanks Warren,
it never occurred to me that I was any different to anyone else.....
As for the size of it, it started out as a vignette of 3 figures, but I keep getting ideas.
Merryweather
A Fixture
Merryweather
A Fixture
Thanks Peter,
it's great to see you here.
And you know I wish I had YOUR skills....I keep putting off the painting, but I'm not going to interrupt the flow while I'm on a roll
Cheers Nap,
It's the modelling that's the most fun, and hopefully I've cleared the mental blockage for a bit
That's the whole idea ...having fun
Hope to see more on this piece
Happy benchtime
Nap
dutch
Active Member
Wonderful work. Good to see I’m not the only one who is fiddling with “ left-overs” and swapping parts. I also am trying( trying!) to build more than I buy
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