Completed Critique British para Arnhem - Verlinden - 120mm - Completed

[Ferris]

Hi All,

Finished this a few days ago. It's an old Verlinden 120mm resin figure, with quite some changes to modify pose and details. The most important changes were:
- Re-positioning of feet/boots under the leg to give a more balanced pose
- Re-positioning of the head to get rid of the stiff/broken neck look,
- Changing the arm cuffs to a Mk2 version of the smock (the sculpt has the post-war version cuffs),
- Changing seams of the smock at the shoulders to make the smock look more baggy. Adding other seams,
- Removing unnatural folds at the knees,
- Modifying the rifle to make it look like the sniper version.
Other than this, the sculpt is great and with a bit of work this can be turned in one of the better British para figures.

Painting is mostly acrylics, with an oils 'stain' on the smock; see my earlier threads on the technique used.

As always it took much longer to finish than anticipated. It also didn't help that we had to move house during this project. Nevertheless, I tried some 'fast' techniques that indeed accelerated some of the painting steps.

Glad to get another done (although I spotted some minor things to correct in the pictures; feel free to let me know others).
Hope you like it!

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[tonydawe]

Great job Adrian. Those small changes add up to make a huge difference.

 

[NickM]

Top painting, Adrian. I always love viewing your 120mm figures. Beautiful work on the camouflage smock, and I like the subtle texture you've achieved on his webbing and pack. Lovely work!

 

[Wings5797]

Great painting Adrian,
I like all this fellow but I am really drawn to the high detailed weathering on the rifle sight. Love the way that the brass is wearing through the black coating.
Amazing.
Keith

 

[DancingShaman]

Now we know that with such top notch painting skills, one can make a Verlinden figure look like relatively superior Alpine figure. What is your view on Verlinden Adrian? They are a lot more reasonably priced compared to many a+ brands out there, but it looks like that the quality is still there. Once again, wondeful piece.
Cheers
Osman

 

[Ferris]

Thanks for the positive feedback Tony, Nick and Keith. Very encouraging. Glad you noted the texture and scope details.

Thanks Osman for the compliment. Some old Verlinden 120mm figures can be quite good, some are outright stiff playing dolls. They used different (anonimous) sculptors, so quality differs a lot. There was one sculptor that was way ahead of his time in quality with top notch drapery; I'm not sure, but it has been mentioned that this was Julian Hullis. Most of these good figures still suffer from some imperfections, some that are difficult to correct, such as a straight neck (the spine and neck going up in a vertical line, instead of an S-curve). And hands can be too large or a bit featureless. But overall there are some gems among the Verlinden figures that, with a bit of work, can (almost) stand next to an Alpine one. One of the best from this series, in my opinion, is a standing German SS soldier in early camouflage smock (right hand in pocket, left one down, holding an MP40). By the way, these 120mm figures are slightly larger than the 1/16 Alpine ones, so be careful if you want to place them together.
I find it very pleasing to upgrade an older figure, but if time is sparse, the rational thing to do is to buy the Alpine one; it may be twice the price, but is still a good deal and you can start painting much earlier.

Cheers,
Adriaan

 

[Viking Bob]

You have done a stirling job on painting him and now he looks first class.
Excellent and well done.

 

[Gellso]

Beautiful work Adrian.
Love the effect of texture on the trousers.
Camo is spot on and the painting overall is brilliant.

Gells

 

[Edward]

Lovely finish Adrian. I like all the little details you've painted and the vibrant colours. The groundwork looks great as well.

I wish there was a list of Verlinden figures with the sculptors. I would say this is by Sid Horton - to me, the face looks very much like one of his. Some of the old 120mm Verlinden figures are fantastic - as good as any produced today IMO.

In fact, I've just found a post on PF where someone said that Sid sculpted many of Verlinden's Napoleonics as well as the British paras.

 

[Adrian Cowdry]

Good Job - Verlinden Figures do suffer from an unnatural stiffness - I know they were pioneer manufacturers but they necver stayed ahead in the game.

Lovely paint work, groundwork and great converting. I can hear John Addison's music now.

 

[swralph]

Such great work all round,great camo.

 

[Martin64]

the best painted version of this figure I have seen so far.
Cheers, Martin

 

[DancingShaman]

Adrian, according to ebay some 120mm Alpines are almost triple the price of Verlindens. Anyways, thank you for enlightening me. I wish there was a way to distinguish the good ones from the not so good ones.

Cheers
Osman

 

[YongA01]

Hi Adrian
Can't believe u transform this old classic to a masterpiece.... Keep it up !

 

[pmfs]

Adrian, Verlinden figures and all stuff are remarkable kits and you done a fantastic job in one of them.

Cheers,
Pedro

 

[sam b]

All your hard work hard paid off !!!
its out standing

 

[Ray Welshman]

Very good work.
I use Verlinden figures a lot for my 120mm conversions. The price is right, some of them are gems. Their para line is actually pretty good. Recently I ordered a few of their newer castings and the castings were pretty clean. They do fall down on their hands a lot. I generally replace them.

Great job

Cheers

Ray

 

[Carlos Figure Art]

Very Impressive work Adrian, more so when you think of what you started out with.

 

[Joe55]

The mods you did on this Para are seamless, and the brushwork is downright lovely.

I like the sort of maroon background in the first pics. The color of the Airborne!

Heck of a job Adrian !

Joe

 

[Mookie]

Looks excellent to me!!.One of the best ww2 paras i think i have seen.Its nice to upgrade older figures and bring them up to todays standard.
Mighty fine job that man well done indeed!!!.
Richard