Chewie's ongoing conversion

Just a quick update, I've given the Chewbacca figure some more attention after a drastic 'knife job'.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Still not completely finished but I'm in two minds about whether the top half requires any Green Stuff.

Is this the Droid?

Some finished pieces, 3 Sandtroopers and an R2 unit, including my conversion who is a Jedi killer, veteran of the Jedi Temple Massacre.

Let the Wookie win!

Some more Star Wars goodness, I've started converting one of the Sandtroopers, a bit of simple Green Stuff work. A cape (possibly Jedi), a fur pelt (possibly Wookie). I'm imagining this Sandtrooper is a grizzled veteran of the 501st who kept the cape as a trophy after the battle of the Jedi Temple in ROTS, I may even give his armour some blue highlights to hint at this.

As the Green Stuff for the cape was so thin, it needed to be built up in sections.

A Grey undercoat always shows off the sculpted areas nicely

Still a work in progress.

I've also finished painting one of my favourite characters,R2D2. Dirty and a bit worse for wear, this is definitely Tatooine Artoo.

Finally I was a bit concerned that my Wookie was a bit on the small side.

Drastic action was required.

A bit of pinning and glueing and he's looking a bit more like Chewbacca, I'll fill in the gaps and maybe even give him a makeover.

Finally he's towering over Han and the others as he should.

Look sir, droids!

I've been slowly getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus. I've had a change in employment that was a little unexpected but turned out well in the end. Now that things have settled down a bit, I am able to start dipping a proverbial toe into the waters once more.
For Christmas my family bought me a few of the Hasbro Star Wars Command toy packs which are 54mm Star Wars army-men in essence. Like most army-men type figures, the scale is a bit up and down but as you can see in the image below the are about right for 54mm.

Each pack has a theme and a selection of figures and vehicles, although the vehicles are of a different scale entirely.

Each pack also has some character figures, which are generally painted in a metallic finish, I managed to get an Imperial pack that has a particularly comedic 'jazz hands' Emperor.

Just like that!

The bulk of the pack is made up of soldiers or combatants that are aligned to the Rebellion, Empire and some neutrals such as the Tusken Raiders and Ewoks. Sculpting is of a good standard but there are are very minor casting detail differences from model to model, even of the same figure. They are cast in a 'soft plastic' similar in consistency to most 'army-men'. Not as firm as the new Airfix 54mm figures but not as soft as Reaper Bones figures.

The figures take paint as well as any other plastic figure I have ever painted, remember to give them a wash before painting etc. Here is the first test figure, a sandtrooper with suitably weathered armour. There is plenty of reference material available online, mostly from re-enactors and cosplay costuming tutorials.

First sculpting attempts

Not posted for a while (I've been gaming online a bit of late), I must admit the painting of rows and rows of French Line have become a bit of a chore. I decided that the perfect antidote to repetitive painting was to try my hand at a bit of sculpting using Green Stuff or Kneadatite, how hard can it be right?
It turns out that it is hard, very.
I spent a lot of time lurking on forums, checking out other peoples sculpts and/or tutorials before deciding to take the plunge. I bought all of the necessary materials off of evilbay which amounted to:

1. 12 inches of Green Stuff (or GS)
2. Set of 12 sculpting tools
3. 10 x 20mm corks
4. 28 guage copper wire for making armatures

All of those items weighed in at about £15, which I thought was quite reasonable. I wasn't sure if 12" of GS would be enough, as i happens it was plenty. I wasn't sure if 12 sculpting tools would be enough, it was in fact too many as I find I'm only actually using about 2 or 3 of them and my trusty scalpel. Ten corks are plenty as they can be reused and the spool of wire I have should last about 2 life times.
I found GS quite easy to work with apart from one major element. Despite the fact that it is well documented throughout the interwebs, I was surprised at just how sticky this stuff is. The advice about having wet fingers and tools is about the best you can get, second only to the one about waiting a while after mixing a fresh batch as it is at it's stickiest at this point. I created myself a figure scale using some freely available Andrew Loomis proportion illustrations here, here and here. Printed them on a sheet at various scales, very useful for making the armatures etc.
I rushed my first couple of sculpts, I tried to do too much, too soon (like a giddy schoolgirl). It also means there are no WIP shots just the finished article.

First attempt was a 28mm Knight (of no particular era). I chose a knight specifically as I could avoid sculpting fingers and face thanks to a closed Helm and mitted mail gloves. Shield, sword and scabbard are made from some plasticard scraps I had.

I'm legally obliged to say that the next sculpt is only loosely based on the wife as she has been constantly asking me if her arse is really that big (to all you men out there just starting out in a relationship with a woman, the answer should always be NO to that particular question).
This is therefore a 54mm sculpt of a 'generic' female figure, a first attempt at hands, hair and face and a massive learning experience.
I'm happy with the result of my first attempts and all painting has been put on hold so I can scratch my sculpting itch. I am currently working on a series of six 28mm superhero sculpts, I'm taking my time and will provide some WIP shots soon.

I've added my figure scale chart incase anyone finds it of use. Remember to print it at 100%.

Gone in 7 days

As stated in a previous post, I have in the past sold painted figures on ebay. I must point out that I don't consider myself to be a "Pro Painter" and I have no ambition to paint figures for a living. If I were to calculate an hourly rate based on how long it took me to complete these compared to how much they sold for I would be on about 25p an hour. However, the money raised selling these was used to buy additional materials and figures.

This first set is Airfix's 1/32 scale WW2 British Paratroopers.

All seven original poses and 5 unique conversions.

This next set is Esci/Italeri's 1/72 Barbarian Warriors, painted to represent an early German war band that might have typically fought against the Imperial armies of Rome.

Although I'm not a wargamer, I based these figures according to the DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) rule set in order to make them more attractive to wargame buyers on ebay.

As far as I can recall these were bought by a buyer in New Zealand.

I did buy a corresponding set of Roman Cavalry but never painted them, maybe one day?

These are the only sets of figures I have sold on ebay and I have no plans to sell any more, unless I need the money to pursue other projects. These are the actual photos I used to sell them on ebay.

The full extent of the obsession... nearly?!

OK, so technically this isn't the full extent of the obsession collection. This is just the bulk of the collection, due mainly to the fact that these figures are the largest in scale (1/32). I probably have a similar number of figures in the smaller scale (1/72), they would just take up less room on the table.

I also didn't have room to show the the ones I've already painted...

and the soldiers I've bought or given to my son...

and the soldiers in 1/48 scale...

and the scale vehicles...

and the figures that I have painted, got bored with and then sold on ebay to finance the buying of yet more unpainted figures.

Oh dear!

Do I plan to paint all of these?

Yes.

I also plan to live until I'm about 150 years old. I keep telling myself that when I become too old to play video games online and I'm retired from work I'll have a window of opportunity to paint the entire collection.

Maybe?

The collection at all scales falls predominantly into two periods (although not exclusively). The Napoleonic Wars and World War 2. The truth is I really don't have the money or space to diversify into other periods. At least until the kids have grown up and moved out anyway. My TV/Film viewing habits also fall into these periods as two of my favourite films are Saving Private Ryan and Waterloo. My two most favourite TV programs are Sharpe and Band of Brothers.

If I had the time and money my next period of choice would probably me the Medieval/Hundred Years War. My son has a nice collection of knights in this scale, a couple of which I have painted for me him.

Beginnings

I didn't paint these soldiers. They were painted by one of my sons. When I started to paint soldiers as a child in the 70's, they looked alot like these.

To be fair, my son is a much better painter at this age that I ever was. He has had a guiding hand, and has been fascinated by my 'paint box' ever since he first saw it. I had no parent or sibling that shared my obsession as a child but almost every spare penny I could muster was spent on Airfix figures, kits or enamel paints (to think that my Dad allowed me to have a bottle of white spirits/meths in my bedroom at the age of 10 boggles the mind).

My early efforts were crude, my palette limited by my budget and my brushes in a poor state. My carpet was a patchwork of accidental spills covered only by my piped 70's Y-fronts that littered the floor.

The most important colour in my arsenal at that age was red as almost all of my carpet warriors had been bravely injured in combat much like this Gladiator shown here.

Every painted figure was started and finished in a single sitting, the patience required to attain a decent finish eluded me until my mid teens. By this times I had gone from plastic toy soldiers to metal D&D or Games Workshop figures. I continued to paint until I went to college, discovered girls and my figure painting all but stopped.