Le Groginarde

This is Verlinden's bust of a French Old Gaurd campaigner that I've been working on since January.

Historex Conversion, Pt2

Progress has been slow on this one to say the least. I've been working with Games Workshop green stuff and it has been very frustrating. I read a comment somewhere that working with this stuff was like sculpting with used chewing gum. Ew - but I get the point. It may be good for small details but I should have picked a more forgiving material for my first project like this. Of course, I probably bit off more than I can chew.

I'm not entirely disappointed though when looking at this as a learning experience. I did learn a lot just by trying. However, I still have a long way to go before I get to painting. There are still quite a few details to finish.

GB

Success

Okay! I think I've sorted out the new template and added back all the links. I hope to put up some new content this week. ;)

GB

Under Construction

I'm trying out a new template and while I like the layout there are some issues. I have to figure out how to get rid of the advertising section for example. Also there doesn't seem to be any access to the Blogger dashboard or even the sign in/out link.

However the biggest problem is that applying the new template blew out my link lists which means I have to rebuild each one. Hopefully I will get that done over the weekend as it is a fairly time consuming and tedious task.

GB

Ortona

Here is my latest drawing. It is rifleman from the Loyal Edmonton Regiment during the battle for Ortona.

GB

And Now for Something Completely Different...

No it's not a man with three buttocks, it's something that I've been busy with that has been keeping me away from the modelling bench lately. I have been working on some military artwork. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I've started off with some pen and pencil drawings of some WW2 subjects but I will be working on other eras and hope to do some coloured artwork as well. I need to experiment some more with my scanner - I don't think the settings are optimal yet.

12th SS
Falschmirjagers


Major David Currie, VC

101st Airborne Paratrooper

GB

Historex Conversion, pt1

I have been working on converting/creating a couple of figures for a vignette I'm working on. The vignette is to be set during the Napoleonic Wars depicting an officer of the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard and a staff officer on reconaissance. It took me awhile to come up the look I wanted. I finally found inspiration in a print I found on the NYPL website and a pair of Alpine figures.

The figures themselves are based on Historex parts. Unfortunately I didn't have any standing legs for cavalry men but I did have some light infantry legs. Light infantry wore boot-gaiters that were made to look like Hungarian boots (that's the scalloped cut around the top plus the tassle). However to make them look like riding boots took a lot more work than I thought at first. The buttons has to be removed and the gaiter around the ankle cut down. The toe had to be reshaped and most of all the taper around the leg had to be fixed. The gaiters are more leg hugging than boots. To fix this I tried two techniques - one using Tamiya putty and the other using plastic. Both involved building up the boot and carving/sanding it into shape. I think looking at the pictures I would have been further ahead to redo the boots with green stuff because they still don't look right to me. I am going to have to break out the green stuff to build up folds and other details to I may end up revisting to boots yet.

GB