Friday 7 April 2017

Tudor sculpting conversions & first foray into casting



Here's the latest addition to my Tudor Army, a rather stout looking standard bearer.

This conversion follows what has become a fairly standard method for me; the use of an existing torso and legs as a dolly over which a base coat is sculpted ready for the addition of plastic arms, head and equipment.

I have usually used a plastic Perry figure as a dolly but this figure represents a rather interesting twist.

Oliver James of Steelfist Miniatures got in touch with me a while back for some assistance in finding Landsknecht source material for his latest Gendarmes & Landsknecht Kickstarter which I'm happy to say achieved funding today.

In putting the Landsknechts together Oliver first created some dollies in various advancing poses and he kindly sent me a set to experiment with.

These were a step up for me as the torso had to be built up which took a little while to master with trial and error. After a few weeks I had created the figure above, here's a pre-painted shot;


This tested my ability considerably but I was very pleased with the result, the only problem was that it took quite a while to do, as they all do. However with a metal dolly I now had the option to get something cast so with permissions sought that's what I'm embarking upon.

Here's the first set of converted dollies;



They're all wearing a skirted base coat with the exception of the last figure on the right which is in a jacket. Each has a belt and is wearing oxmuhle shoes typical of the period. The shoulders and head sockets are modelled to take the arms and heads from the Perry plastic sets.

Once cast all I'll need to do is add the arms, head, and sword, sculpt the top sleeve of the basecoat and they're ready for painting - this will save me considerable time in bringing my existing ranks firmly into the early sixteenth century. 

As the dollies were in an advancing pose I built these figures up with the intention of using them as Tudor billmen;



I'll be doing a fairly limited run initially to enable me to update my collection and we'll have to see what comes next, I'm already considering getting some standing dollies made to convert in the same way for Longbowmen.

Though these were not conceived as commercial there's always the option of getting more cast so let me know if that's of interest.

I'll have to see how they come out and paint up first but it's looking good so far.

Bye for now

Stuart


14 comments:

  1. Love the standard bearer, and great use of the GW head.

    The greens are superb - they open up options for all sorts of early 16th century infantry! To say I was interested in some of these castings would be a massive understatement!

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  2. Very cool, my first thought half way though reading this was, "I wounder if he will do a group up for longbow men."
    Which you seem to be keen on. Get some hand gunners and you will have a pretty complete range set up.

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  3. Standard bearer is superb! I will be watching developments quite closely.

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  4. Your latest addition is absolutly splendid, outstanding details!

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  5. Nice sculpts - they are a game-changer for your early Tudors (raising that high bar even further!). Am sure others will want to buy body castings and convert.

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  6. I'd be interested Stuart.

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  7. You keep amazing me with your lovely conversions...great work!

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  8. I'd be most interested Stuart.
    Alan

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  9. Great looking standard bearer, very interesting torso work too!
    Best Iain

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  10. Really cool. Have you got any tips for mold making and mold making supply as well?

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    1. Thanks Michael, I'm afraid not, my mold making forays have only been in making press molds of small items - bags, caps and the occasional head. For those I've used Siligum which has achieved reasonably good results when using green stuff as the medium. I haven't tried anything in metal.

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