Completed Legionnaire

[Rob]

Yeah I have one, trouble is I'm short sighted so distance is the main issue, up close is OK but a recent bleed in my right eye is the issue. Currently I am have an injection in it every month that may very easily be a permanent thing, still seeing the needle coming at me as my eye is clamped open as horrific as it is, is better than losing that sight. Still Roger Saunders only has one good eye and nobody has ever said his Hornet heads are'nt up to spec, also one of the Perry brothers (of Perry Miniatures) only has one arm and still.is a fantastic sculpted. So there is hope should the worst happen, as Monty Pythons say "Always look on the bright side of life"

I am blind in my right eye following an accident pruning my fruit trees back in 2011. It causes issues with depth of field and leads to stubbing the end of a lot of brushes. You do learn to compensate, but never lose the frustration.

Nice work on the ex-general. The source model for him does have a wonderfully sculpted head.

 

[Briggsy]

Cheers Rob, yeah the eye is a worry but hay ho these things happen, not one to let adversity hamper life. Thanks for the kind words though, means a lot.

The head is a bog standard Hornet one, what you can't see is that the tash and goatee are Magicsculpt, it is pretty much the same colour as the resin of the head.

Cheers Simon

 

[Nap]

Hi Simon

Good to have you with us , and interesting to follow your modelling coming along nicely

Do you ever use copper/lead wire for piping ?

A hen and a stag do to sort out .......you will need to get to the bench for the rest !

Have fun

Nap

 

[Briggsy]

Ah a rest not much chance of that as I am duty Grandad twice a week till my Granddaughter starts school.

Copper wire is OK but unless it gets annealed I find there is too much spring in it, I have some lead wire used by car and tank modellers but it is very fragile and snaps easily. Magicsculpt will roll out very fine and is easier for instance on the Hussar braid on the tunic, as so.

 

[Briggsy]

Right then time to crack on a bit. Luckily I didn't suffer too much from last night's stag do, only a tame affair for us older ones and close family.

I have built up the basic shape of the left arm with Magicsculpt and simply smoothed it out with hand tools and a moist finger.

As you can see the join to the tunic and the cuff are are neat and squared off, for me that's the tedious part building up the bulk with small blobs of putty and maintaining the general shape.

Next stage is the fun bit, with a variety of small tools and a fine damp brush I carefully shift the putty up and down around a depressed crease. This adds shape to the crease rather than just pressing a tool into the putty, it is then smoothed out with the brush, adjust and repeat until happy and move on to the next one. As the subjects tunic is heavy wool or serge I have made the creases larger and smoother than you might expect to help convey the feel of the cloth.

Just as a comparison in depicting the feel of the cloth this is another figure I'm working on, an officer of the 66th Regt at Maiand in Afghanistan. He is wearing a cotton drill uniform, actually the white hot weather dress uniform that has been dyed to one of the multitude of shades of khaki. Being cotton it creases more, so those that I have added are smaller and sharper in comparison. Looking at his arm though I am going to have to file his upper arm a bit once drt as it kind of looks like a limb just stuck on, which yeah it is but I believe there needs to be more taper into shoulder to look natural.

Both will now be left to cure as I work on some of the others.

Cheers Simon

 

[NigelR]

Very nice work, and thanks for sdharing your in progress photos.

 

[Briggsy]

Very nice work, and thanks for sdharing your in progress photos.

Many thanks, I have discovered the value of photo's since posting here, I can see in better detail things that I thought were OK just looking at the figure. Also reading all the other threads I'm beginning to understand how I have let bad habits creep into my painting leaving me far from satisfied with what I have done. So once again thank you for watching and your kind comments, you and all PF members.

Cheers Simon

 

[Ferris]

Nice work.
Thanks for showing your in-progress pics.

How do you do the buttons? And particularly, how do you attach them?
If I do them with tiny blobs of putty, they tend to fall off when dry.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Briggsy]

Nice work.
Thanks for showing your in-progress pics.

How do you do the buttons? And particularly, how do you attach them?
If I do them with tiny blobs of putty, they tend to fall off when dry.
Cheers,
Adrian

Adrian thank you, the buttons are small, really small, bits of Magicsculpt rolled carefully in the palm of my hand. I then put a small dab of diluted (but not very much added water) PVA glue where I want the button. The PVA keeps it in place very well and I have found it dries without a mark or trace left behind. The button itself can be shaped and manipulated with a fine damp brush after about 30 seconds to a minute later. The only down side is if you need to trim or remove the button the PVA can get tacky and is reluctant to be removed, though a quick brush over with a water loaded brush will reactivate the glue so it can be blended back in place without a trace.

Cheers Simon

 

[MalcC]

Good progress.

Malc

 

[Nap]

Hi Simon

Glad you survived the stag do .......

This is really coming together nicely and it's interesting to see and read how you approach the build

Well explained as well

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Briggsy]

Malc, Nap, thank you for the kind words. Doing this and seeing everybody else's work has made me do a rethink on my approach, most of what I have done recently has been in isolation and for my own benefit only allowing bad habits and laziness to creep in. To be honest I probably put more effort into figures for dioramas than some of my own stand alone figures. Trying to learn and improve was a large part of the motivation for joining PF in the first place so in that regard this has already been a fantastic and profitable experience. So thank you to both of you and everyone else at PF.

Cheers Simon

 

[Briggsy]

OK then some progress that I have actually done recently as opposed to catch up on what I had already done.

Not a great deal really but I have added his ammo pouches, again I am not sure that two pouches is right but they are there now. Also added his right arm less the hand, I have again tried to keep the creases and folds fairly soft because of the uniform material.

The right hand is attached to the rifle, I had to cut three fingers off to resculpt hold the rifle. The Rifle itself is a lengthened 1870's piece from the ICM French Prussian War set, more details later on.



Just for interest, one of the first pictures I used in this thread showed all six pieces I was working on. This is where I have got to with them all.

Any feedback, advice or helpful comments are most welcome.

Cheers Simon

 

[Robert Jan de Wit]

Great modelling work Simon!
I like your devotion to the hobby and your subjects.
Thanks for sharing your progress and insights. Very helpful.

greets,
RJ

 

[Briggsy]

Many thanks RJ I have been doing it for as long as I can remember it helps keep me sane(ish).

Cheers Simon

 

[Rob]

Great progress on those figures, looking forward to seeing them get to the painting stage.

 

[Briggsy]

Cheers Rob, yeah doing so many does slow things down as I am wanting to get the brushes out.

Cheers Simon

 

[Nap]

Hi Mr Briggsy

Feedback ......your doing a fine job so far , it's really good to see this current figure progress and to follow

Looking at all the figures current update they too are really coming together as well , like the Lancer

Following with much admiration for all those legs ...lol

Have FUN @ the bench

Keep the updates coming

Nap

 

[Briggsy]

Hi Mr Briggsy


Looking at all the figures current update they too are really coming together as well , like the Lancer


Nap

The lancer is by way of a tribute to Sid Horton, he did the 9th Lancer in Afghanistan with the quilted jacket, wasn't sure if I had the skills to sculpt it but it seems to be coming along OK. Will post pics once sculpted so long as it continues to go well.

Thanks for the feed back but if you see me doing something wrong or the hard way just call something rude and tell me!

Cheers Simon

 

[Ian Pen]

Takes me back a long time, I actually think my building is better than my painting. Nice work, I will keep watching with great interest.