Marine Captain conversion

My merry band of Corvus marines are going to need a commanding officer. Captains are popular, the ranks in the Space Marines seem to skip from Captain to Masters with no other ranks in-between.

This captain will be assembled from the following parts:

The head used is from the Victrix 1807-1812 French Infantry set.

The bandy RTB01 legs need cutting and pinning to allow the figure to stand up straight.

The right shoulder is a rogue trader power fist with a recent assault squad arm and force axe.

The left arm is a cut and re-positioned original with a helmet held in hand. These helmets seem to get lost in combat with astonishing regularity.

At this stage I'm just using pins (made from paper clips) and poly glue to hold it all in place so I add the beginnings of a cape on the back to brace his wobbly legs.

He will eventually have a heavy cape, tabard and some sculpted iconography and articifer armour details.

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.

95th Rifles character figures, sculpted

In my post about my converted French Sapper I mentioned some original sculpts to be used as Sharp Practice 'Big Men'. They are four 95 Rifles characters, completely original and not based on any existing fictional Napoleonic riflemen.

Sgt. O'Keefe sporting an unusual naval 'volley gun' and his C.O. Major Vaughn

Rifleman Haggis (christian name unknown) who is a bit of a 'wastrel' and Dan Hangman, ex-poacher and the company crack-shot

These figures will accompany the four Perry rifleman I shall no doubt be painting soon and the Perry Peninsular British that will form my 'West Essex Regiment', another completely fictional creation of mine.

More pics.

What a vivid imagination I have?

40K Chaos conversion

A while back my son expressed an interest in Warhammer 40k and used some birthday and Xmas money to buy the Black Reach starter set and some extra bits and pieces, as I was keen to share the interest I forked out on a Tau starter army.

The interest didn't last for very long and he has decided to sell off his plastic figures. During the peak of his interest we found some poorly painted chaos plastics at a local 'Boot Sale' (flea market for all you non-UK fellas). I have since stripped the paint as best I could with Dettol and while I was converting the Sapper in the last post I have been converting a Chaos Marine in tandem.

A Chaos Lord, or Captain. A marine slightly better than the bulk of the remainder at any rate.

Most of the converting was achieved in plastic. This was an earlier plastic Chaos figure (it's a slightly lighter plastic than the more recent releases). The axe is a combination of unused Kroot weaponry the teeth around his loincloth were from an Ork Loota. The belt knife is Kroot. The hand holding the bolt pistol is from an Assault Marine holding a power sword. The spike on his back is a sprue and the helmet also from an Assault Marine and the top-knot is from an Ork head.

The rest was fashioned from Green Stuff to resemble stitched skin and if you look closely you can see a crude face on the back of the cape in the bottom left-hand corner, hinting at human skin.

I don't play 40k (I used to many moons ago) but I do like to model and paint their product if I can get hold of it at a reasonable price. I've been painting my sons Marines and Orks in order to sell them on Evilbay and hopefully make back some money on his behalf.

These are the results currently.

Black Reach Terminators

5 figure Imperial Guard set (that boy just wanted to collect them all)

Only a marine Tactical and Assault squad plus a Dreadnaught and a Predator Tank to go...

...and then all the Orks!

French Sapper - Victrix conversion

I bought some 1807-1812 Victrix French infantry a while back on a whim (like you do). I glued them all and was inevitably left with a box of bits. Since then I have received, as a birthday gift from the family, an opposing force of Perry British and a set of Too Fat Lardies 'Sharp Practice' Napoleonic Skirmish rules.


The game requires line troops and special characters or 'Big Men' as they are referred to in the rules. I've managed to create some French 'grand hommes' from the standard Victrix parts but had the urge to do a bit of converting using the very versatile hard plastic and Green Stuff.

Et Voila

French Big Man 'Marcel Savage', ready to give my British men brown trousers with his big chopper.

The axe was converted from a musket and a halberd top supplied with the kit, the point was cut and used to make the hammer side of the axe. The only part I was a bit unsure about was the combination axe head holder and cartridge box on the right-hand cross belt. I'm inclined to think it might have been more ceremonial than practical as carrying the axe on your back plus your pack may have been quite uncomfortable.

I'm also currently sculpting some original 95th 'Big Men' to accompany the four Perry plastic ones. More info soon.

Cap gets a costume, finally.

I have been looking back at some of my earlier sculpting efforts and have decided that some of them are worthy of a paint job. Captain America has always been one of my favourite heroes, probably because of the WW2 connection.

Nice primary colouring on Cap. Have used the three stage paint method with each colour in a dark medium and light shade. All stars, stripes and emblems are painted freehand (carefully). Finally finished with a green stuff base sculpt as pavement.

Finished 28mm Late Saxons

Four late Saxon Fyrd. Round shields and spears apart from one brandishing his Seax. A mixture of different armours and helmets and a hatless man sporting the same hair style as me.

Four Saxon Housecarls, with Norman style kite shields and hauberks. A mix of helmets styles, including one that might be a loaner from Stamford Bridge a few days earlier. All wielding their Dane Axes. My axe heads are a bit on the large side but my original 'scale' versions looked a bit puny.

Late Saxon (Hastings) 28mm sculpts

I've not posted in a while but that doesn't mean that I've been slacking. This summer, the family and I will be holidaying in Hastings. The boys and I are looking forward to visiting the battlefield, it's a great excuse to buy a book on the battle while I'm there in the name of education. In the mean time I've been trawling the web soaking up as much info as I can, I've also been reading a fictional account of Hereward the Wake which is very entertaining. My own heritage is of an Anglo-Norman origin and my wife's maiden name even appears in the Domesday book (in it's original latin form) which suggests Norman ancestry. However, I've always had a soft spot for the Saxons, I live in a historically Saxon county (Essex) whose emblem is the three Seax (a Saxon sword). 

My next sculpting project is therefore some late Saxon warriors suitable for Stamford Bridge and Hastings. The eight sculpts will be of four Fyrd with round shields and spears and four Housecarls with kite shields and Dane axes. 

 I sculpted the kite shields around an old pot of GW ink to give them a convex shape the round shields was sculpted onto the lid. I then used a simple 'press' mould to replicate the original. You need to take your time ensuring the mould is filled properly, the finished items require a little finishing but a interesting experiment.

Finally, I had an interesting idea to create spears. I used a straightened paper clip, flattened the end using two hammers (one as a makeshift anvil) and used my trusty sharpening stone to form a point. The finished result was good but a bit skinny for 28mm, so I may use this technique if I branch out into any smaller scales. I shall be using these spears as a base to sculpt onto.

These pics are all a couple of weeks old and I'm actually close to completing all eight sculpts. Expect some finished images soon.

Marvel final line up

Here are the last 2 Hydra agents. Rifle and pistol versions.

 The pistol was all GS apart from an inserted wire (paperclip) barrel and the rifle started out as a flat plasticard shape which has added GS and the barrel is also a paperclip.

 Ironman has had a re-sculpt from the waist down after my brethren at TMP gave me some pointers. I clipped him in half just above the belt and re-sculpted the legs. Happier with this version, although he does look a bit heavy on the hips, too many donuts?

Finally all 6 finished and based, I may even get round to painting them one day!

Hulk 28mm scale but 40mm high

Here is the big green guy (oh the irony). Standing a massive 40mm in height. I've added a pic of him next to Cap to get a bit of scale. This figure has been ongoing since the beginning and compared to the others uses a lot of GS.

The face was a real struggle, this is the 3rd version, has a bit of a simian look about it but I'm happy with the hair which used the same 'picking' technique as the torn trousers (that's pants to you colonials). Musculature is still off but improved over earlier attempts. Didn't have a base big enough so had to make one.

The thing that irks me most about this figure is that he appears to be off balance and leaning backwards.

Hydra agent with heavy weapon 28mm

The first of a trio of Hydra agents. Scaled to be considerably shorter in stature than the heros. After trying to sculpt weapon out of GS I eventually saw the light and constructed most of it from some poly tube and a cocktail stick.

28mm Ironman Mk IV

Finished Ironman Mk V sculpt. The wife said "ooh a cyberman", maybe I should give up now. ;) Or 'delete' it?

28mm Captain America

Here is the finished 28mm Captain America sculpt. Please with the final product. After some great advice from some folks on the TMP message boards. I'm taking my time, using reference (character and muscle) and taking the time to get a better finish. Still lots of room for improvement, but I'll give myself a break as it's only my 3rd finished sculpt to date.

28mm Marvels

I've chosen to sculpt some 28mm superheros next. Marvel universe, Hulk, Captain America, Ironman and a trio of Hydra agents. I've skipped the armature stage as I have nothing new to offer.

 Hulk, Captain America and Ironman. My sculpts will be based on older designs for these characters, 80's ish (my teens).

Hydra agents, with assault rifle, shoulder mounted heavy weapon and pistols respectively.

After making the armature I generally do rough feet to anchor the figure to the cork followed by pelvis and shoulders to strengthen the pose. The Hulk and Cap figures have the left over GS added. This was the end of the first application and I let the GS cure.

The Hulk is the most challenging as the amount of GS required makes it feel like a figure of a larger scale. I've found myself having to add small amounts at a time.

 Cap gets his underwear on the outside of his tights (as it should be) and boots. I seem to be more comfortable working from the feet up, is this the best way to work? Only time will tell.

At this point I have also crafted a shield by flattening a blob of GS over the top of a pot of Citadel colour.

Ironman from the waist down. The stripes on his boots etc were a real struggle, I think I used the wrong tool in haste.

Finally the three Hydra agents, an exercise in creating a uniform look, in the most literal sense.

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%.