The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

rob_van_riel wrote:

celt wrote:Hi rob van riel,I am envious of all you figure builders,I could not paint a figure even if my life depended on it.You are very all talented.

I think you overestimate the amount of talent involved. Just lots and lots and lots of practice

All talented people say that.

I've laced up Mr Fournier's dolman.



Just a load of piping on the dolman and breaches left to go in the gold department. And Mr Dupont of course.

Mr Fournier is complete save for his spurs, dragon (no, not the big flying lizard, the cord attached to his sabre and wrapped around his wrist), and hair.
Mr Dupont, meanwhile, is ready for some gold. Actually, a lot of gold



Mr Fournier must really be starting to hate me, and not just because that's his default opinion of everyone. I've lost track of how often I've had to straighten his sabre after bumping it out of shape. Good thing these metals can take some punishment

Mr Dupont's dolman has defeated me. Some of the loops just outside the outermost rows of buttons are missing, either due to problems with the sculpting, casting, or my hamfistedness so far. Whatever the reason, I just cant find them, and painting them on without any relief to assist me, is beyond my abilities. I've just painted over a botched attempt with dark blue, and will be leaving them off entirely. 75% of them would have been just fine, but the gaps in the rows of loops would have been absurd, and the splotches which are the closest I can get to improvising them on would be even worse.

Fortunately, the vast majority of people won't even notice, and I doubt the overall effect of the pair will be degraded. Bugs me though

rob_van_riel wrote:Mr Dupont's dolman has defeated me. ... Bugs me though

Well, that was the first round, but this is the story of always coming back for more punishment until you beat the so-and-so, and who am I to break with that theme. Round two turned out rather different



Now here's a nasty advantage I have over any kit: I decide when it's over, so once I've won, the kit doesn't get a rematch. Not fair, but who cares

Awesome!

Now we get to what to modern eyes is a jarring contradiction about these folks. Fierce, super macho warriors, taking considerable pride in their super cutesy pigtail braids

Different time folks, and of course, it was traditional to have pistol balls hanging from the ends of the braids, so no giggly girly jokes unless you want to find out what those sabres are for. They also have the traditional tightly bound ponytail at the back, which in addition to getting the hair out of the way, had some utility in reducing the effect of nasty old blows to the back of the neck.

As can be seen in the first picture of Mr Dupont, Art Girona rather oversized the braids, so I chopped them down a bit. The braids were attached with CA gel, which should reduce the inevitable gaps, but I'm still somewhat worried about the joins to the rest of the hair. This fight is not quite over yet

The figures are done.









What remains now is to take them off their blocks, and translate the whole affair onto a permanent base.

Oh dear, I messed up. I've got red barrels on yellow sashes, but this should have been the other way round

This cannot be realistically fixed; the odds of trying to work the sash back down to white, then yellow, then red while not slipping up and getting paint into the surrounding areas are just too nasty. I'll just have to pretend the rather non-regulation sashes are a bad case of officers' vanity; it's not like officers didn't indulge in that sort of thing in real life. Maybe I've stumbled accross the real reason for the over the top animosity between the gents: "How dare you imitate my sash!!"

Regards celt.

I must watch the movie again.
And extremely well done.

The gents are stuck to their base. I'm calling this a wrap

Watching this has been a great education. Lovely result.

David

Most excellent, Rob.

Outstanding work.