I tried posting this yesterday in the 'General' forum but I believe it was accidentally deleted during moving. Hey ho!
As I mentioned in my intro post, in recent months I have been perfecting a method for making my own figures. No particular reason, other than like many I hanker after something that is unique, and if I have been able to make it myself then so much the better!
From looking at the various US-based forums, there are many who follow the teachings of Mr Chris Walas in this respect. Chris is an extremely talented sculptor and railway modeller, but try as I might I have never been able to get to grips with that armature, sculpey, baking in the oven etc malarky. Particularly when it comes to modelling faces - mine always looked like they were some hideous genetic experiment gone horribly wrong...
Instead, I hit on another approach, based on the excellent Preiser figures. The idea I had was to dismember a Preiser figure, and rebuild the figure with the various parts reunited in a different pose, held together with a 'skeleton' from copper wire and any gaps filled in with an epoxy putty.
For me, the best Preiser figures to use as raw materials are those contained in the 'track worker' set. A set of six bodies, with various arms, heads etc which are easily cut up and rearranged to suit the desired end result:
You could of course use the pre-painted figures as well, but bear in mind the extra money you'll invariably pay will essentially be wasted as you will almost certainly find yourself repainting the finished article anyway.
Anyway, my first foray into this murky world was to produce a figure sitting casually on a bench, enjoying a beer. Fortunately one of the limbs in the box is actually holding a beer bottle, so straight away I was half-way there! Once the figure was cut and rearranged and filled, I was left with this:
The brown filler is Milliput, a two-part epoxy putty available from most good model shops in a variety of colours/consistences. I deliberately went for brown as it showed up nicely against the white plastic of the figure. The filler goes hard after about 12 hours, but the longer you leave it the better. It can be sanded, carved, drilled etc. I sprayed my figure with grey primer first, which immediately showed up all the lumps and bumps etc which needed smoothing down. I would recommend a Dremmel or similar, with a small abrasive 'cone' for that purpose.
Once done, I then set about detailing the figure, in this case by adding a waistcoat hanging open at the front. This was done with another 2-part modelling putty, called Kneadatite Duro, or "Green Stuff" (GS from here onwards!) GS remains slightly flexible even after being allowed to set, and is more difficult to sand. But its ability to stretch to a thin sheet lends itself most readily to adding layers of clothing and other fine details, such as berets, scarves, shirt collars etc.
Once that was allowed to set I resprayed with grey primer once more to give the figure a good keying surface for the final painting - I tend to prefer acrylics for this, in particular the Games Workshop range which covers a figure well, and comes in a staggeringly wide spectrum of colours and shades.
Here then is the finished article - I named him 'Cyril' for no other reason than the name seemed to suit him!
To date I've done quite a few different figures for different poses and situations, all using the same technique, but with varying degrees of hacking -
A French wine-taster (!):
Here's a slide-show showing the various stages he went through:
Then of course, we have...
A MoW crew member (on his lunch break obviously!):
A French tram driver (my own interpretation of one anyway):
A passenger sitting casually reading his paper:
A gendarme (this was a commission build at the behest of a mate of mine who lives in Chelles, east of Paris):
A loco driver (holding a single line token in readiness):
And finally (for now!) a war veteran:
Has anyone else out there done something similar? If so I'd like to see some pics - if not, why not have a go?
