WIP Critique Minuteman - Art Girona - 54mm

[Ferris]

Lots of bench time during Easter, so here's a new project, a small conversion of Art Girona's Minuteman figure. Recently travelling through the New England area raised my interest in the war of independance and the minutemen are the perfect icon for this I think. So I had a look what was available figure-wise and found this Art Girona piece:

It's a straight, nice and simpe piece; should be good for a quick paint job.

After closer inspection the head was weird. It looks like the upper lip is partly absent, giving him a zombie-like snarl. And the ears are way too low on the head.

So I wanted a new head and found a suitable Hornet 54mm one that would fit. Now I did not want to cut off the whole head, as I rather liked the long hair of the original sculpt and could not see myself doing this as good, let alone better.

I decided on a face transplant. Here goes the old one:

That snarl says this must hurt...

After some more hacking and sawing I got this:

That's what I call losing face...!

After more hacking and sawing on the Hornet head, glueing it in place and filling in the gaps, making hair with Magic Sculp, filing off the hair and part of the head again because I wanted him to wear a hat, this is how he ended up:

Now I have some questions to which I hope you have some answers:

- Does this look right?
- Does the fit of the hat look OK?
- Is the position of the folded part of the hat OK historically?
- What's wrong with the trigger area of the rifle?

I have very little historical knowledge of this period, so hope you can help me out.
Please be open.

Thanks in advance for your commnts and advice!

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[mao]

Bravo, great changes

 

[housecarl]

The heads a vast improvemt Adrian. I don't know if that's a Kentucky musket, but the trigger guard looks well chewed.
Carl.

 

[MarquisMini]

Adrian,great transplant.
I will nickname you 'the surgeon"
Great subject,i follow this closely

 

[Mariner]

Really skillful modelling, Adrian!! This one's going to be stunning when painted.
Mary

 

[ChrisS]

Nice face transplant ! Looks superb

Chris.

 

[Kisifer]

Indeed a great work overall. I can't just the historical accurasy, but I like what I see.

Xenofon

 

[pmfs]

Excellent conversion and much better with this face Adrian.
Looking forward to see it done!

Pedro

 

[Ferris]

@Maurizio: Thanks! Glad you like it.

@Carl: Thanks for the pictures. It seems my casting is not the best and will try to fix things based on these pics. I'm not sure what sort of rifle/musket this is, but what you posted looks very similar. Thanks a lot.

daniel: Thank you. I very much like these simple conversions. Not too hard and yet you get something different. And it's fun to use some big tools on thes tiny things! I'm happy with 'surgeon'. 'Butcher' would have been different...

@Mary: Thank you. I hope the painting will be up to your expectations!

chris: Thanks!

@Xenofon: Thank you for commenting!

Pedro: Thanks mate!

Thank you all for having a look and leaving a comment.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[megroot]

I really this face more then the original.
Great plastic chirurgie

Marc

 

[Ferris]

I wish it would have been plastic surgery Marc....it really was more like 'metal surgery' requiring much heavier equipment! Fun nevertheless!

Thanks Marc.

Adrian

 

[Edorta]

I like more your version, than the original, for me is more complete

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia

 

[Meehan34]

I can't help you on the research but I wanted to say that this is an outstanding change sir. Very excellent work, he looks a much better figure now.

 

[Don Johnson]

Being a native New Englander with strong interest in AWI, the banded musket provided with the figure would, most likely, not have had any ornate additions to the simple trigger guard. Most Pennsylvania "long rifles" featured pinned barrels, not bands. The British "Brown Bess" also was pinned, whereas the French Charleville (sp?), and many of the Committee of Safety muskets, had bands.
If you were to assume that the weapon is a banded musket, the metal would probably be white metal - barrel, lock, trigger guard, butt plate, bands, ramrod and holders, and fastening plate opposite the lock on the weapon's left side.
I would opt for a simple plate in which the screws were seated (similar to the British Land Pattern musket, but in white metal, not brass), rather than the larger side plate that the painter has chosen to portray, but that's a personal choice.
I hope this info will be of help. Internet searches will provide images of these weapons for further study, if you wish.
Excellent execution (perhaps a poor choice of words...) on the face swap. Good choice, and it will make this production figure very unique for you.
Will be watching you progress on this one, as the boxart has, admittedly, put me off this figure until now.

 

[mil-mart]

Adrian a great job on the face change, much better.

Cheers Ken

 

[dArtagnan]

Very very nice indeed! Much more appealing than with the original head!
Always thought that something was wrong with that, so I never bought it,
but with your head instead it becomes very nice, and would have sold more, I guess!
Cheers,
Eddy

http://www.bloggen.be/eddys_painted_figures/

 

[Patrick Kamsma]

Although I'm a great fan of the period, I would never have bought this figure because of its head.
Looking at the reaction, I'm not the only one.
Seeing it in a different way, makes me change my opinion.
What a big difference with such a small conversion. I'll remember this one.
Great job and keep posting.

Greetings
Patrick

 

[sam b]

Congrats on a well completed figure

 

[Ferris]

Hi Eduardo, thanks. Glad you like it!

Hi Mike, glad to hear you like the conversion.

Hi Don. Thanks so much for the info. I did some searching based on your clues and think that the sculptor had a Charleville musket in mind. Here's some search results:

I'll use that last picture as colour reference, because it should have been a rather new rifle.
It is clear I have to fix the trigger area...

Hi Ken, thanks!

Adrian

 

[Ferris]

Thanks Eddy!
'Well, my head wouldn't have made the figure better really... But I'm glad you think the Hornet one did!

Cheers,
Adrian