The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Airfix 1/32 95th Riflemen



Initial thoughts.
I intend to do the "box" as shown, with the main scene taking up most of it, but including the white portion with the standing figure on the left. 6 kits are required, and I have them. 5 are used in the main scene and 1 on the left.

Of the 6 figures, only two are directly buildable in the kit -- the standing guy on the left and the kneeling guy on the right. The four in-motion figures will have to be crafted from the basic kit.

I see a small diorama based on a small hill with the 5 figures fairly close together; this eliminates, in my mind, the need for smaller scale figures to provide forced perspective. The backdrop will be the smoking city/whatever, probably curved a bit, rather than flat. The "box top" text will be left on, at least the important stuff. I have already seen some nifty grass at Micro-Mark and will order some sooner or later.

This will be a tough, ground-breaking build for me; I haven't done a figure of any sort, other than a minor aircraft crew mod, in years. OTOH, I have a whole library of Napoleonic-era literature and it'll be tough to keep from wasting time re-reading it for background.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome !!

Sounds like a great idea John.

Obviously check out my Musketeer build http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=14348; and Roundhead in the CBK Newsletter I hope they may be helpful

My two main tips are use Milliput as a filler as it more like clay and can be sculpted while soft. This eliminates the need for sanding. Smoothed and rounded cocktail stick make excellent sculpting tools. Secondly don't bother with the thin card for belts use wine foil. Thirdly (!?) paint the figure and equipment separately.

Thank you James, I remember that build and will refer to it, probably in envy, frequently.

Fortunately I think I have a stock of wine foil; SWMBO is the wine drinker and her favorite Koolaid has a plastic "foil" ... I might have to force her to step up a class or two if I run short ....

I have spent a pleasant afternoon wallowing in my references and studying the kit in detail. The details are all there and correct -- well, I think there are only 10 rows of buttons on the tunic and there should be 12, but two may be masked by the belt so I won't call it a fatal flaw..

The difficulty will be the four running soldiers. The kit arms are in firing position, with the right (trigger) bent and the left (supporting) straight. When running at the port, these would be reversed -- the left (high) would be bent and the right (low) would be straight. So those will take the most work to modify.

Do you have any other figure kits that have more suitable arms & legs?

I have all the 1815-era figures, I'll go looking. It's not insurmountable, a cut here, a Milliput there -- as long as I don't get tagged Dr Frankenstein for my efforts we'll be alright.

Coldstream & Black Watch both have useable arms -- I have several of each so two of each will sacrifice a pair of arms to the cause. Fortunately each kit has two different arm poses so I still can build them (someday).

As for legs, I'll look again, but these guys are more at a fast walk than a dead run and modfication of the kit legs may be the easiest path.

jRatz wrote:Coldstream & Black Watch both have useable arms -- I have several of each so two of each will sacrifice a pair of arms to the cause. Fortunately each kit has two different arm poses so I still can build them (someday).

As for legs, I'll look again, but these guys are more at a fast walk than a dead run and modfication of the kit legs may be the easiest path.

...or you could just cheat:



Italeri No.6878 1:32 British 95th rgt. "Green Jackets" (16 Figures)

Mum's the word

Cheers
Al.

That's sad, I don't think I've ever heard of this set and am now going to find one, just to have it. And I now have one on order.

I think I can stay "pure", but if I have too many issues, this might be a fallback ...

BTW, I spent a pleasant couple hours separating parts and cleaning seams today, so we can check this one off as "Started" ....

I am continuing to sand parts ....

This will help me with painting, although the Airfix instructions and box art seem pretty complete.

I'm still in the body parts business right now.

I have clipped off most the parts and sorted them out into little trays. Then I go over them carefully sanding out seams, looking for things to fill, etc, and occasionally sticking a sub-assembly together. When completed they go into an appropriate tray in the green cookie box thing for later work.



So far so good, I haven't lost anything. I need 6 kits, have 6 kits, and therefore have no spares to pass under the bench to the carpet monster. I am looking for more kits on evil-Bay, because I'd like to have a couple for me.

Looks like Frankinstein's production line!

Yes, and since today is the Daytona 500, a lot of sanding/cleaning will take place in front of the TV !

I'm away from the workbench for a couple weeks, so here's progress at the stop point.



All the parts, less the epaulets, belt buckle, and cap badges have been cleaned up. I've started doing some minor construction, again on the building block concept.

I did find a new problem -- the boxart figures all have sword-bayonet attached to their Bakers, but the kit s-b comes in the scabbard. It'll be easy enough to lop the handle off the kit part to give me a scabbard to hang from the belt, but now I'll have to make blades to attach to said handle. This has been staring at me for I don't know how long and I just recognized it !

Excellent progress John. Sean Bean (no relation!) was on a chat show on Saturday night and was discussing the Sharpe series. an interesting compilation of clips was shown that you may find interesting, and possibly even inspirational if you should have problems with your builds at any point and feel the need to let off a little steam a la Sharpe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVM4zru9JB8;

Contains coarse language - not suitable for younger children.

cheers
Al.