International Scale Modeller

Hi all. My first post of my work on this forum. Nervous? Ohhh yes

I've just this last week finished this in time for my local club figure painting competition. Usual case of panic late night sessions to meet the deadline, but I did it. I humbly share my efforts

Some pics of finished article first. A friend lent me a pyrograuve, so I had my first play with one of these on the bearskin and the back pack.











But the real story is the musket.
I managed to lose it to the hoover, and in a fit of madness thought I'd have a go at scratch building one.

So here's a mini build thread for that:

Basic blank from two bits of 0.35mm plastic card stuck together




Test fit on headless soldier after some shaping..



Bit too thick. More shaping and a guitar string barrel added



OK so its a bit bigger than the picture, but the picture is a bit smaller than scale.

Then I thought I'd have a go at the flintlock mechanism, trigger and guard with wine foil. Sometimes you get lucky, I even managed to get the jaws that hold the flint. Bic Biro is for size comparison.



A bit rough compared to those pristine things you see in the magazines, I don't know how they do it. But it'll do.

So now more wine foil (hic) for the strap. Also used fine copper wire wound round the end of fine forceps and then squashed in pliers with plain jaws to get buckles. Not as neat as I'd like, but will add a bit of life (he hoped)



Then finally the bayonet. This is beading wire squashed, filed and bent and then glued onto a tube of wine foil (you can sense a theme here). Not the strongest of joints but has actually worked fine









..and that's it. I'm aware there are lots of things I could have done to improve the painting, but you have to start somewhere. All comments/criticisms welcome.

Sean

Looks great to me mate and an amazing scratch build on that gun!

Agreed. Great stuff. That scratch-building is really impressive work. You must have eyes like a hawk. Thoroughly agree with you about the usefulness of wine foil.

That gun is a brilliant piece of scratch building. The finished figure is excellent too, thanks for posting it. Good luck in the competition.

You mentioned that you used a "pyrograuve" on the bearskin and back pack - sounds interesting, any chance of letting us know what it is and how it works?

Cheers

Thank you all for your kind comments, much appreciated.

Rob - a pyrograuve is like a very fine soldering iron, i.e. a fine needle electrically heated. I used it to give more depth and detail to the bearskin and also try and make the back pack look like fur, rather than the smooth finish of the original. I learnt that the packs were made from calf skin and some pictures I've seen show they were pretty furry. Basically you stab and streak at the plastic and hope you don't make a complete mess, especially if its your first time.

A random internet search returns
http://www.rai-ro.de/product_info.php?products_id=1

as an example.

I get the impression that these were all the rage in the 70's, but as casting improved and other techniques evolved they became less popular. The seasoned figure modellers here may know more. As this guy is a 1973 mould he is a valid target

Also, bless him, he got first in the competition - it was a very small competition I must add, but its my first first (yay)

Ah, hang on, the spelling is 'pyrogravure', meaning 'poker work'. I am, after all, new to this. Apologies.

Wowo impressive work on this musket.

the painting job on the figure in also very nice.

Good job

Goose

SeanH20 wrote:
Also, bless him, he got first in the competition - it was a very small competition I must add, but its my first first (yay)

That's brilliant the hat is off to you. Very well done indeed

Thanks on the pokerwork explanation too

Thank you Rob, Goose, Willem and FullMoonDrummer. Indeed time for me to find...
I wonder - would a little thread on other examples of wine foil in use, maybe in the Scratch build section, be of any interest do you think? I'm not sure if I'm ready to do videos yet.

Go for it mate. I'm sure that people can learn from you. Doesn't have to be a vid, photos are fine. I've learned that I can use foil for seatbelts but there must be a myriad of uses.

Wow, this is amazing sir! the extra work really payed off. It is a piece for every model show for sure

Great figure ! And the musket build is very nice and very well done ...

Like a lot the Napoleonic period and this figure is very , very nice !

well done .