The proud gentlemen of the Loyal Irish Guard await their new clothes! These are, of course, the Zvezda Swedes, primed and mounted on painting stands. I used the new Krylon "Fusion" flat white to prime them, as I've heard great things about this paint on the various plastic sites. I will still coat the entire figure with Mod Podge (diluted PVA) after painting to seal everything before I varnish them. The new standard bearers have been made, and their sashes of distinction will be added with built-up tube acrylic as part of the painting process. The conversion is pretty straightforward, cut off the pike, use small needlenose pliers to slightly flatten and "curl" the hand, replace the pike with brass wire and LocTite it in place. The only problem that I ran into is that the sword scabbard, as cast, sort of "melts" into the pike. I carefully carved these two apart, but I'm not totally satisfied with the finished product. In the future I may just trim the scabbard off completely and replace it with a small staple glued in place.XXXX
The mounted Colonel is unique, as Zvezda forgot to provide one with this set (its only shortcoming) I used a spare British AWI horse, somebody's Napoleonic Staff officer (probably Italeri), and a spare head from the Zvezda Swedes. I pinned the head, as I did with the Cuirassiers, and then coated the joint with PVA, which you can still see in the pic. The primer will completely cover this. Each of my three Guard Regiments will receive a unique personality Colonel like this one, whereas my other Regiments that use the Zvezda figures will probably use a spare Revell Austrian Dragoon as a Colonel. The Revell Austrian and Prussian Infantry sets come with mounted Colonel's, as do the Italeri AWI French Infantry and the Accurate AWI British. If I'd wanted, and I may on some unit at a later date, I could have used a mounted AWI Commander from Musket Miniatures, but I want to use as much plastic as possible.
XXXX
Now I just need to get the brushes out and get to work so these lads don't freeze in their "artic wear". More to follow...
XXXXX
Sir William
8 comments:
I look forward to seeing them with their finished uniforms.
-- Jeff
Bill,
Take a look at Stokes site. He has a post (no longer the top one) about some plastics he's looking to trade:
http://grandduchyofstollen.blogspot.com/
-- Jeff
Jeff - Have already been in touch with Stokes, his "recruiting" problem is being addressed.
Sir William
Thanks for the information; and excuse my delay in replying as I had a mild flu and a cold all last week. And frankly, if these figures had been available 15 years ago, I’d have happily used nothing but the plastics (especially the excellent Zvezda ones) for my 18th Century project.
I’ve got three types of plastic primer that I originally bought to use on 54mm plastic figures; but reading that you use the Rust-Oleum on the 1:72s has me willing to give them a try on that scale, too.
I’ve got Armor Coat’s ‘Plastic Primer’ that has a matte, white cap; Rust-Oleum’s ‘Plastic Primer’ that has a matte, very-light grey cap; and Krylon’s white ‘Spray-on Gesso’. (Gesso is a type of plaster used by artists to prepare canvases for painting. And I understand it’s also available in black for those that prefer the black basecoat method. The spray-on was rather expensive—$8 for the can—but it is also available in various sizes of tub that’s much less expensive.) So, I’ll give all three a try and see which, if any, is superior to the others.
Regarding figure size, now that I’ve got some of the foot at hand, I don’t know that I’d be ‘comfortable’ using the 1:72 infantry on the same tabletop as the true 25mm metal figures that I already have. (Although I’m holding out hope for the cavalry being a better tabletop mix—especially after seeing at one of the E&E blogs that the Revell Austrian SYW Dragoons are a similar size to Minifigs’ mounted troops.)
Still, I’ve got plans for the ones that I have bought—so it’s no waste.
Bye.
Those infnatry look nice; will be nice to see them 'fully clothed'
-- Allan
Andy,
After reading your post, I do need to clarify one point - I did not use the Rust-Oleum. I used a relatively new paint that Krylon has called "Plastic Fusion". It is advertised as being compatible with PVC and polyethylene plastics, which our little fellows are. In fact, their can art and brochure advertising shows this paint being used on the Rubbermade and Playschool and other similar children's toys (playhouses, tricycles, etc.). I went to Krylon's website, where it is specifically advertised as being compatible with "most" polyvinyl and polyethylene compounds. I also talked to the manager of a local children's resale shop who has used the product to clean up Playschool toys that have been donated. Apparently (and I'm not a chemist or scientist), this paint has been formulated to actually create a chemical bond with the surface of the poly materials, unlike Gesso, which shrinks to form a coating over the poly. If you've ever worked with the Plastruct brand of model railroading plastics, or with PVC plumber's fittings, you know that conventional adhesives don't work on them. You need to use an adhesive specifically made for PVC products. Apparently this paint has some similar properties. I'll address this issue of priming and painting a little more in my next post, which will feature some "test" figures that I painted 3 years ago.
Bill
Bill,
Another Plastic Figure gamer in our "Emperor vs Elector" group (although he hasn't posted in a while) is Allen M. of Lagerburg-Slobbovia:
http://lagerburgduchy.blogspot.com/
If you scroll back a bit on his blog to his "Pass in Review" post, you can see a lot of his troops.
He's in Virginia, I believe.
-- Jeff
Thanks for correcting my con-fusion, Bill.
;^)
Post a Comment