Hi Folks,
Last November at Bugle Call I won the Phoenix set of Napoleon Advancing, (presented by S and D Models) for my vignette "A Moment in Time".
The set is 1/32 scale and comes in a number of pieces. Once the sofa had been stuck together, I was back in deja-vu land (akin to chasing ice cubes round a plate) when trying to get the figures to fit on the sofa.
For anyone wondering what I meant, I refer to my attempt at the "Ribald Dragoon".
At least now I was experienced in 'bum pegs', and got the characters positioned relatively easily.
Neither of the figures sat perfectly on the sofa, which I covered with cling film. With either figure positioned, I filled the gaps between bum and seat with Magic Sculp. Once set, the filler was filed to suit.
The lady's left arm did not fit properly on the cushion; so I had to cut into the elbow and bend out to fit. The resulting gap was filled with Magic Sculp.
The fit was still not perfect, and was corrected with a a little putty on the cushion and the arm pressed into it. The resulting blob was subsequently blended back to the cushion.
This is how it went together:-
I had thought of including an old Phoenix figure from the depths of my GA onto a communal base:-
However, the smallest base that I had which might accommodate all the figures proved to be too large. He is now being painted as a separate figure on his own plinth.
The base I finally selected was a very old Oakwood Bases item which had been lying around for years, and fitted the sofa and two figures perfectly.
I wanted the floor finish to be marble, and had bought a Reality in Scale sheet from Historex Agents.
Note to self … Must remove the accumulated dust!
That left the fixing of the sofa to the base. I had managed to drill the feet and fixed fine wire to ensure a tight fit.
The following photos show the sofa on its temporary base for painting.
However, sticking the marble card to the base, trimming it to suit and then drilling through for the wires was bound to go wrong.
I therefore marked out a paper template of the base and cut a 2mm thick plastic card to shape. Once I was happy with the shape, I stuck it to another section of the card and trimmed that to suit.
I could then mark and drill the holes for the feet pins without any fear of causing damage. Once the fit was checked for tightness, I stuck the marble card to the plastic.
It was then a simple matter to drill back through the underside and create the holes through the marble sheet.
You can hardly see them in this photo:-
Once all the pieces were primed, I was able to start painting.
The sofa in all the photos I've seen of this model has a striped covering. This tallies with many photos I've seen on the net.
Problem … how to get a shaky hand to paint stripes. Obviously, use masking tape. Unfortunately, most that I've come across seem to be a minimum of 3mm wide, which I felt was too wide for my purposes.
A search on Amazon came up with a set of three tapes 1mm, 2mm and 3mm wide.
You can find them HERE:-
I painted the soft furnishing with three coats of Humbrol #103 (Cream) and used the 2mm tape to set out the seat of the sofa. The stripes were painted in Ceruleum blue (oil).
Silly me … each coat took a couple of days to dry, and it took three coats to get the right depth of colour, before I could remove the tapes.
I could then set about masking the ends and side of the sofa.
Six days later I was able to remove these tapes. The following photos show what it looked like before and after removal of the tapes.
There is a little correcting required, but overall I'm quite happy with what I've achieved, and can look forward to painting the woodwork.
As for the figures, I've made a start, and this is where I've got to so far.
Cheers,
Andrew
Last November at Bugle Call I won the Phoenix set of Napoleon Advancing, (presented by S and D Models) for my vignette "A Moment in Time".
The set is 1/32 scale and comes in a number of pieces. Once the sofa had been stuck together, I was back in deja-vu land (akin to chasing ice cubes round a plate) when trying to get the figures to fit on the sofa.
For anyone wondering what I meant, I refer to my attempt at the "Ribald Dragoon".
At least now I was experienced in 'bum pegs', and got the characters positioned relatively easily.
Neither of the figures sat perfectly on the sofa, which I covered with cling film. With either figure positioned, I filled the gaps between bum and seat with Magic Sculp. Once set, the filler was filed to suit.
The lady's left arm did not fit properly on the cushion; so I had to cut into the elbow and bend out to fit. The resulting gap was filled with Magic Sculp.
The fit was still not perfect, and was corrected with a a little putty on the cushion and the arm pressed into it. The resulting blob was subsequently blended back to the cushion.
This is how it went together:-
I had thought of including an old Phoenix figure from the depths of my GA onto a communal base:-
However, the smallest base that I had which might accommodate all the figures proved to be too large. He is now being painted as a separate figure on his own plinth.
The base I finally selected was a very old Oakwood Bases item which had been lying around for years, and fitted the sofa and two figures perfectly.
I wanted the floor finish to be marble, and had bought a Reality in Scale sheet from Historex Agents.
Note to self … Must remove the accumulated dust!
That left the fixing of the sofa to the base. I had managed to drill the feet and fixed fine wire to ensure a tight fit.
The following photos show the sofa on its temporary base for painting.
However, sticking the marble card to the base, trimming it to suit and then drilling through for the wires was bound to go wrong.
I therefore marked out a paper template of the base and cut a 2mm thick plastic card to shape. Once I was happy with the shape, I stuck it to another section of the card and trimmed that to suit.
I could then mark and drill the holes for the feet pins without any fear of causing damage. Once the fit was checked for tightness, I stuck the marble card to the plastic.
It was then a simple matter to drill back through the underside and create the holes through the marble sheet.
You can hardly see them in this photo:-
Once all the pieces were primed, I was able to start painting.
The sofa in all the photos I've seen of this model has a striped covering. This tallies with many photos I've seen on the net.
Problem … how to get a shaky hand to paint stripes. Obviously, use masking tape. Unfortunately, most that I've come across seem to be a minimum of 3mm wide, which I felt was too wide for my purposes.
A search on Amazon came up with a set of three tapes 1mm, 2mm and 3mm wide.
You can find them HERE:-
I painted the soft furnishing with three coats of Humbrol #103 (Cream) and used the 2mm tape to set out the seat of the sofa. The stripes were painted in Ceruleum blue (oil).
Silly me … each coat took a couple of days to dry, and it took three coats to get the right depth of colour, before I could remove the tapes.
I could then set about masking the ends and side of the sofa.
Six days later I was able to remove these tapes. The following photos show what it looked like before and after removal of the tapes.
There is a little correcting required, but overall I'm quite happy with what I've achieved, and can look forward to painting the woodwork.
As for the figures, I've made a start, and this is where I've got to so far.
Cheers,
Andrew
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