A big chunk of last weeks painting time was spent on trying to get a good start on the 6mm's but for this week my aim is to complete the 10mm Elven figures for James' 'For Joshua' project and the 20mm WSS figures you see below for John C. But I did finally decide to throw some paint on the 40mm figures that will crew my planned RHA rocket battery base. A long time in the planning - almost a year - these are the resin prints that Graham Cummings kindly did for me from conversion of the STL files for the gun crews.
The prints are very good, I could not even have conceived of such a thing a year ago when I started out by going down the conventional rout of commissioning metal masters until Ian Smith persuaded me to follow the digital sculpt/3D track which has proven to be very successful.
The two open handed 'upright' figures had one slight issue, which was that the intended 1mm brass rod for the rocket trails could not be passed down as the arms were too close to the body so I had to cut off the right arms at the elbow and then re attach them at a different angle slightly away from the body. A bit of green stuff and I felt they looked OK, I could actually pass a 2mm rod down so there is a bit of wiggle room there. I also removed a head to turn it to face a different angle. Overall I am very happy with the results once painted.
They look a bit shiny in the photos as the satin varnish was still a bit wet. Once the rocket base is finished I will have something that is completely unique in 40mm scale. Next stage is to scratch build the simple launch frames and the rockets themselves, I'll be playing around with brass rod, tubing and green stuff no doubt next week. The legs of the frames will probably have to be cut from plastic card, you can see a few images below of what I hope to end up with!
*Edited to add improved photos!
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| Please don't get hair all over my figures! |
The two unpainted resin officers at right will each command a gun crew. The other 4 crew figures will be metal from the original files thanks to Ian Smith who has them going into moulds at Griffin. The two Sash & Sabre guns have arrived from Andy at Old Glory, the usual 40mm scale bags of heavy metal!
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| Elven archers in progress 'For Joshua'. |
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| Some lovely 20mm sculpts for John C. |
Those rocket chaps look splendid, but not as splendid as the cat!
ReplyDeleteThank you JBM, Sheldon is indeed a rather superior looking cat, I think the Spanish cats were quite impressed with his size too!
DeleteAha! I knew it. It's the cat who has been painting all of these wonderfully turned out figures. Ol' Puss has a good eye for color.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
Cheers Stokes, I trained him well.
DeleteThere is a certain satisfaction in having a unique set of figures. These are very well sculpted ( or very well programmed I suppose ) and very well painted to boot.
ReplyDeleteThose RHA rocket crewmen look great, I'm looking forward to seeing the completed rocket set!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ross, and yes, it is indeed very satisfying. Taken Ian Smith and myself almost a year to get to this stage but well worth it.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous painting on the rocket men! Lots of other nice stuff coming along, seems like you've settled in to Rochester!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Hi Iain and thank you. Lots of painting going on here, possibly due to the rubbish weather, roll on Summer. The package is finally on it's way to you :)
DeleteLee, the speed with which you're painting up those 6mm units on your Horse, Foot and Guns blog is amazing and they look great with three ranks - are you going for paper flags?
ReplyDeleteThank you Rob, I like the sense of mass on the 60 x 30 bases. Paper flags on order from Baccus.
Deleteindeed rocket troops look great, those grenadiers and mounted officer are all Les Higgins, the horse actually from 30YW Polish set from Germany
ReplyDeletecheers Old John
Thanks again John. Grenadiers are done and jolly colourful they look too. Will get you some photos.
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