Thursday 1 August 2013

Artillery crew - Sgt. Albert

Really good day today! Started with a lovely family day out in Dalby Forest - little nature ramble with my girls, my daughter's boyfriend, the wife and a crazy dog. Ended with me managing to get 'Albert' finished!

Left: 'Albert', or my Mk II head sculpture. To this I added my Romanian style hat - the capela.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out, when you consider I have just started sculpting figures in 1/32 scale. And best of all I managed not to make a complete hash of the paint job.

The uniform is my own design for Molatero's Royal regiment of Artillery and a lot of credit has to go to the really nice body which was crafted by Black Hat Miniatures.

The artillery shell was a quick scratch build based on an early Krupp shell and it seems to suit the Britains 1201 field gun nicely.


My Mk II head is - I feel - still a little over sized for 1/32, but I like the style. So I am now trying to make a Mk III head in a similar style only smaller. Hopefully this will match the MK I body sculpture that I am working on.

The hat is, again, my own design too, based on the traditional Romanian capela. The two colour design just seemed to feel right and may be a great way to delineate different regiments or service arms.

The stripes on the trousers were a bit of a pain to paint and probably took the longest to do out of the whole figure. But in the end I am happy with the uniform design (I imagine the tunic would be black as well, maybe with some tangerine decoration).

I have to admit that there is something a bit cheeky about the design of Albert's face which I like. I could have gone down the more realistic or generic facial design route (a la AiP), but I like the idea of keeping the 'toy' in toy soldier.

I really hope you like him - I intend to complete a full gun crew with the Mk II head before moving on to an improved head. Let's see what other little characters I can come up with! Once again, much appreciation to Black Hat and it's metal body casting as it matches Albert perfectly! ;)

1 comment:

  1. I like the face - well sculpted and full of character. James O

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