Hi everyone,
A while back I bought an Andrea Templar Sergeant bust from Ebay. Or I thought I had. When I received it it was clearly a cheap copy. The worst thing about this was the head which was full of casting bubbles. I don't go out to buy cheap knock offs but if I accidentally get one I always try to make it look good, and that's what I have tried here.
I have kept the body as it is fairly decent and is cast in resin and the helmet is metal (as is the Andrea version) as well as the sword, straps and collar string also being metal. The head I have totally replaced with a spare head that I had from Mitches Models ( He sells spare heads for a couple of quid at shows and they are superb value). The head I used I believe was a Russian sailor so I had to saw off the hat leaving him with a flat head. This wasn't a problem as it would fit into the helmet. I tried a few variations of this, straight on, askew etc and nothing seemed to look right, so I searched for my trusty milliput only to discover that I had ran out. I haven't done a great deal of modelling lately so I had forgotten to renew the putty. I have always wanted to try Green Stuff or Duro as it is sometimes known as. I know that Bill Horen uses this for his figures so whats good for Bill.....
After a few days of waiting for Ebay to send me the green stuff it finally arrived and I decided on giving my Sergeant the full tonsure look as many of the warrior priests of this time used. I haven't seen many bareheaded Templars, and none with a tonsure so I thought I would put one out there. I also gave my Sergeant some facial hair to age him up a bit. I had to use the green stuff around the neck to build it up and all in all I found the green stuff to be pretty good. A bit more sticky than milliput but easier to use as finer details can be put in. I gave him a black surcoat as befits a Sergeant and the mandatory red cross using my favoured oils and the head was painted with a combination of oils and acrylics.
As you can see from the last photo I have paired this up with my other Templar bust, the Sergeants senior officer, the Knight Templar, which has more than a passing resemblance to the late great Sean Connery in my opinion. I feel that these two look pretty good together but I would still like to get an original Andrea Templar Sergeant as the originals face is excellent. Again in my opinion this face looks a hell of a lot like the actor James Gammon. Google him and see if you agree. Hope you like what I've done. Please feel free to comment.
John
A while back I bought an Andrea Templar Sergeant bust from Ebay. Or I thought I had. When I received it it was clearly a cheap copy. The worst thing about this was the head which was full of casting bubbles. I don't go out to buy cheap knock offs but if I accidentally get one I always try to make it look good, and that's what I have tried here.
I have kept the body as it is fairly decent and is cast in resin and the helmet is metal (as is the Andrea version) as well as the sword, straps and collar string also being metal. The head I have totally replaced with a spare head that I had from Mitches Models ( He sells spare heads for a couple of quid at shows and they are superb value). The head I used I believe was a Russian sailor so I had to saw off the hat leaving him with a flat head. This wasn't a problem as it would fit into the helmet. I tried a few variations of this, straight on, askew etc and nothing seemed to look right, so I searched for my trusty milliput only to discover that I had ran out. I haven't done a great deal of modelling lately so I had forgotten to renew the putty. I have always wanted to try Green Stuff or Duro as it is sometimes known as. I know that Bill Horen uses this for his figures so whats good for Bill.....
After a few days of waiting for Ebay to send me the green stuff it finally arrived and I decided on giving my Sergeant the full tonsure look as many of the warrior priests of this time used. I haven't seen many bareheaded Templars, and none with a tonsure so I thought I would put one out there. I also gave my Sergeant some facial hair to age him up a bit. I had to use the green stuff around the neck to build it up and all in all I found the green stuff to be pretty good. A bit more sticky than milliput but easier to use as finer details can be put in. I gave him a black surcoat as befits a Sergeant and the mandatory red cross using my favoured oils and the head was painted with a combination of oils and acrylics.
As you can see from the last photo I have paired this up with my other Templar bust, the Sergeants senior officer, the Knight Templar, which has more than a passing resemblance to the late great Sean Connery in my opinion. I feel that these two look pretty good together but I would still like to get an original Andrea Templar Sergeant as the originals face is excellent. Again in my opinion this face looks a hell of a lot like the actor James Gammon. Google him and see if you agree. Hope you like what I've done. Please feel free to comment.
John
