Paul's Guard Contemplates His Naval...

[PaulBradley]

I'll be converting this chap:




Into this:




No, not a stamp.... A Royal Marine, circa 1805. I think the Guardsman chappie took the King's Shilling....

[DavidWomby]

Now this is something completely different!

David

[rob_van_riel]

Interesting.

Do you have a plan for dealing with the decoration on the buttons? Both have them paired, so you're good to go there, but the Coldstream Guards had bastions, while the Marines had squares. Any good trick to re-arrange the buttons and re-shape their decorations would really expand the possibilities for both this figure and the Black Watch one.

Do you have the smaller shoulder straps in the spares box somewhere? If not, ley me know, I'm fairly certain I have a pair left over from some Highlander somewhere..

[PaulBradley]

Nope, just playing it by ear....! I'll be shamelessly cribbing from Fred's build, as I don't usually do figures and have very little reference material.

[rob_van_riel]

Nope, just playing it by ear....!

My usual MO, although people often seem to think I'm rather more methodical than that.

I'll be shamelessly cribbing from Fred's build, as I don't usually do figures and have very little reference material.

I didn't catch what Fred is planning, so I can't comment on that. Feel free to ask if you need reference material; I may not have much on the Marines, but I can scrounge up a fair bit of info on British kit in general.

I've just taken a peek at a Historex British infantry soldier. As I'd hoped, it contains a torso with square lacing, and I suspect I'll be able to lift the details off that. Sufficiently interesting experiment that I'll start it today. I'll let you know if the results are worth anything before the kick-off.

[rob_van_riel]

Sufficiently interesting experiment that I'll start it today. I'll let you know if the results are worth anything before the kick-off.

The mould came out as expected, and has now been helped to a thin layer of disolved sprue. Tomorrow of Thursday I should know if the results are usable. Up to you whether you want to be the guinea pig for actual use if they are.

[rob_van_riel]

Tomorrow of Thursday I should know if the results are usable.

I got impatient, but it turned out OK..



Let me know if you want a few of these panels.

[PaulBradley]

Cool! Sure, I'd be happy to Guinea pig them for you. Please drop me a PM and we'll work out the practicals.

[Martin R]

How's it going, Paul?


Must get one of your Sea Fury books, too, now you remind me.

Regards

Martin

[PaulBradley]

Been busy with other things this week, and I'm waiting for Rob's lacing to arrive and the result of an e-bay auction for a French grenadier (for his legs) before I start hacking at bits. I might start on the hat though.

[Martin R]

A French Grenadier's legs! On a Royal Marine! You, Sir, are a cad and a scoundrel.

Baaaaaaaaah!

[AndrewR]

A French Grenadier's legs! On a Royal Marine! You, Sir, are a cad and a scoundrel.

Baaaaaaaaah!

Tempted to get a cuisses de grenouille joke in here...

Entente Cordiale

[fredk]

Just caught this.
Historex figures are a different scale to the Airfix figures.
Historex are nominally 1/32 but are actually closer to 1/30
Airfix are 54mm
They are not the same. Historex parts are too big to use on Airfix figures.
I have a large amount of Historex figures, spares and equipment and most is useless for Airfix figures.

I checked out the lace on real Napoleonic era British uniforms. Not on drawings or artwork, but actual material in a local museum. In fact I've checked out and sized both uniform and equipment in a couple of museums.

I found that; Bastion ended lace is longer than square end; its a simple matter of cutting the bastion end off neat and you have square end lace.

I dare say Rob will argue against these issues,
TBH; I don't care.
Follow my lead or not; I don't care. I'm just telling you what I know.

PS; the stamp drawing is wrong. He should not have fringes on his shoulder epaulettes

[rob_van_riel]

Historex figures are a different scale to the Airfix figures.
Historex are nominally 1/32 but are actually closer to 1/30
Airfix are 54mm
They are not the same. Historex parts are too big to use on Airfix figures.
I have a large amount of Historex figures, spares and equipment and most is useless for Airfix figures.

Correct, and I'd even go so far as to suspect scale isn't completely constant accross the Airfix range (or that they cover an impressive range of human and equine physique). Mixing and matching body parts is out of the question. For smaller parts, however, the scales are (at least in my opinion) close enough that it can work. You don't want to measure and calculate in that case, but it can look the part better chopped up Airfix.

I dare say Rob will argue against these issues,

Not really. The scales are mismatched, and all references except holding the unaltered original (that is, never repaired or restored) are suspect. I don't have access to unaltered originals, so I just sort of average the references out to something I happen to like, and use whatever parts I can get my mitts on to get as close to that average as I can.

I found that; Bastion ended lace is longer than square end; its a simple matter of cutting the bastion end off neat and you have square end lace.

Bastion does look longer in what references I have, but it also looks like no part of it is actually straight, and that it is more of an outline style, while square seems more solid. One of my references mentions a third style, pointed, which does appear very similar to what you describe as bastion, ie almost identical to square, with a pointy bit added to the ends. Could that be a source of confusion here?

[fredk]

Paul; using the Frenchies legs may be fine but be aware you'll need to work on them
French stocking came up and over the knee to the first part of the thigh.
British stockings ended just below the knee
French stocking used a larger button at larger spacing
British stocking used a smaller finer button at closer spacing
British stocking had a stirrup strap which went under the boot.
French stocking ended and attached to the top of the short boot.

On the postage stamp the chap is depicted as having the groin flap on his trousers. The common soldier's trousers did not have this till around 1819/20. It was becoming fashionable for officers from around 1812 though civilians of the uppercrust had them from around 1800.