Adrian Cowdry
A Fixture
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2012
- Messages
- 1,037
DaveLieutenant Colonel Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne DSO***
120mm by Excalibur Models
I was asked by a modelling buddy Ade Cowdry if I would have a crack at painting this 120mm resin kit of Lt Col Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne DSO*** , the first release under his Excalibur Models banner.
Ever up for a challenge, and welcoming a break from my normal modelling genre of large scale sci-fi/horror type kits I was happy to accept Ade’s request.
I approached the project with the view to do it as a purely ‘out-of-the-box’ kit so that what you see is what you get.
THE KIT: As my copy came in a small ziplock bag I’m not sure if a box is provided, however the kit consists of about ten nicely detailed grey resin parts sculpted by Matt Yates, and cast by Greek Producer Yiannis Sagiadinos
I have to say that the castings were all very well cast with minimal clean up required. The only real seam I had to deal with was on the inner side of the leg casting, but this was easy to sort. There was no evidence of air holes in the castings, nor any of those little resin ‘beads’ that sometimes form in hard to reach areas.
I can’t comment on the actual likeness to Paddy Mayne as I was working to a fairly tight self imposed deadline and didn’t have the luxury of doing a lot of research, but it appears to be a good likeness. Parts are nicely sculpted and fit together well; I personally liked the addition of a cricket pullover as this adds a nice contrast to the dull colours of his uniform.
PAINTING: I painted the kit in subassemblies to avoid the inevitable paint transferring to other areas when trying to reach areas where parts will be touching when assembled. I mainly used Army Painter paints although I only had a limited amount of colours to use. Raised detail was dry-brushed for highlights and chalk pastels used for shadows. The face was also shaded using pastels. I believe that Mayne was a red-head although I found this out after completion.
I painted the webbing in as near an Olive Green colour that I had, but weathered it a bit to give a more faded look. For the binoculars I first painted them black, then when dry touched them up with a metallic paint to simulate brass showing through where they have taken a few knocks during their service (I didn’t have any actual brass colour).
The round base while quite simple, has a bit of character to it with three blocks of what I assume to be parts of a destroyed building on it, on which Mayne’s right foot rests. I used a simple wash and dry-brush technique for these which gave me a result I was happy with (having first drilled locating holes to take the pin I had inserted under Paddy’s left foot). The base has a nice textured groundwork effect to it, but I chose to sprinkle some sandy-colour scatter material that I had swept out of an old chimney or something – but I had to be careful to not obliterate the brass cartridge cases scattered on the groundwork.
Assembling the pieces was a simple process with no noticeable gaps needing anything other than a dab of Zap-A-Gap and a light touch up.
SUMMARY: This is my first military kit for some while so I had to aim for something more factually accurate than what I normally do, however it was a genuine pleasure to build and paint and gave me a nice break from my usual range of subjects. I will leave it to experts on SAS uniforms/history to comment on accuracy etc.
M.Y.B.A.T.S. May Your Blood Always Taste Sweet
I was asked by a modelling buddy Ade Cowdry if I would have a crack at painting this 120mm resin kit of Lt Col Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne DSO*** , the first release under his Excalibur Models banner.
Ever up for a challenge, and welcoming a break from my normal modelling genre of large scale sci-fi/horror type kits I was happy to accept Ade’s request.
I approached the project with the view to do it as a purely ‘out-of-the-box’ kit so that what you see is what you get.
THE KIT: As my copy came in a small ziplock bag I’m not sure if a box is provided, however the kit consists of about ten nicely detailed grey resin parts sculpted by Matt Yates, and cast by Greek Producer Yiannis Sagiadinos
I have to say that the castings were all very well cast with minimal clean up required. The only real seam I had to deal with was on the inner side of the leg casting, but this was easy to sort. There was no evidence of air holes in the castings, nor any of those little resin ‘beads’ that sometimes form in hard to reach areas.
PAINTING: I painted the kit in subassemblies to avoid the inevitable paint transferring to other areas when trying to reach areas where parts will be touching when assembled. I mainly used Army Painter paints although I only had a limited amount of colours to use. Raised detail was dry-brushed for highlights and chalk pastels used for shadows. The face was also shaded using pastels. I believe that Mayne was a red-head although I found this out after completion.
I painted the webbing in as near an Olive Green colour that I had, but weathered it a bit to give a more faded look. For the binoculars I first painted them black, then when dry touched them up with a metallic paint to simulate brass showing through where they have taken a few knocks during their service (I didn’t have any actual brass colour).
The round base while quite simple, has a bit of character to it with three blocks of what I assume to be parts of a destroyed building on it, on which Mayne’s right foot rests. I used a simple wash and dry-brush technique for these which gave me a result I was happy with (having first drilled locating holes to take the pin I had inserted under Paddy’s left foot). The base has a nice textured groundwork effect to it, but I chose to sprinkle some sandy-colour scatter material that I had swept out of an old chimney or something – but I had to be careful to not obliterate the brass cartridge cases scattered on the groundwork.
Assembling the pieces was a simple process with no noticeable gaps needing anything other than a dab of Zap-A-Gap and a light touch up.
SUMMARY: This is my first military kit for some while so I had to aim for something more factually accurate than what I normally do, however it was a genuine pleasure to build and paint and gave me a nice break from my usual range of subjects. I will leave it to experts on SAS uniforms/history to comment on accuracy etc.
M.Y.B.A.T.S. May Your Blood Always Taste Sweet
