Tudor Dollies Update

I'm very pleased to say that the first order of Tudor Dollies has sold out, thanks all for your support and interest, it's been good to see where these have gone and to learn what you plan to do with them. 

I've ordered a further batch and will aim to keep these in stock permanently, from today there will be a delay of about 2-3 weeks but thereafter they should be easy to get yourself some. The price remains the same at £6 per set of 6 figures plus postage and Paypal fee. If you're interested just send an email stating how many you'd like and your address, I'll respond with a total price and arrange payment. My email address is

stum_23@hotmail.com

Note that the dollies are just that, they are supplied without heads and arms. I have put together a sculpting guide via this link which shows you step by step how to sculpt the sleeves of a base coat.

The dollies were designed to be early Tudor infantry advancing / attacking with bills and halberds using the Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses plastics set from which you can easily create a satisfying unit such as this;

The next step for these would naturally be some Longbowmen to support their bill armed colleagues. I've found that with the use of a hacksaw you can easily create some static poses with satisfying results;

As with the bill these just need the sleeves to be added but they are good. Here you can see that one of the dollies lends itself to a straight up assembly without further work for a good nocking pose whilst the others just need their legs sawn off and new ones added, 2 from the Perry boxed set and one from the new Warlord Landsknecht set. The latter is particularly good as they have the bear paw shoes as well as ribbons and some slashing visible at the knee. When doing this conversion you just need to get the height right so use another figure as a reference.

As well as archers you can also create handgunners, crossbowmen and pike using the Perry Mercenaries and Warlord Landsknecht plastic sets;

I do intend to create possibly one more pack of standing figures but I cannot commit to when this will be, it could be quite a while but I hope this shows the versatility that can be achieved with the existing pack.

Bye for now, several projects on the go as usual hopefully I'll have something to display soon.

Stuart

Painted Tudor dollies

Further to the last post here are some of the Tudor dollies assembled as Billmen and painted with the eagle claw livery badges of Lord Stanley.

As per the Perry WOTR boxed set here they are in en garde and attacking poses, the dollies are adaptable to either pose as you can see;

The coats are very neat casts and the folds in the skirt are easy to paint with satisfying results. They work well with the Perry plastics arms, heads and accessories. The Tudor heads work well too and I've also made my own Tudor heads using those from the Perry Ansar box as they're particularly expressive.

Orders are going well for the first batch from Griffin, these are certainly going global ! There's still time to get yours in as I'll be making the first bulk order on 1 June. if you'd like some just email me via the address below stating the number of figures that you'd like and your address. I'll get back to you with the postage cost and arrange payment.

stum_23@hotmail.com

Bye for now and thanks for your support

Stuart

Assembling the Tudor figures

Further to the last post here is a brief tutorial on how to create your own figures using the Tudor dollies, Perry miniatures plastics and green stuff.

It's perhaps easy for me to say but sculpting sleeves is quite straightforward. In developing these dollies I considered having arms on them but I wanted them to be versatile so that the whole range of Perry plastics was there to apply thus sculpting sleeves became the compromise.

If you haven't sculpted before this could well be your first steps to simple and confident miniature conversion.

In the first instance you will need some green stuff and the sculpting tool shown above which is available from gaming suppliers or as part of a wax carving set which is useful to have as some of the other tools come in handy too.

In addition you'll need some soft paraffin cream such as Vaseline or E45.

To begin select a dolly to use and the arms and head of your choice. These dollies were created in an attacking / advancing pose so work best as bill though they also look quite good as advancing crossbowmen and hand gunners.

You'll then need to cut and mix some green stuff to the sizes shown above, one ball for each arm.

Take the first ball and place it where the arm meets the shoulder then press it down with your thumb with a slight push into each side of the armpit.

Put a little blob of Vaseline / E45 onto your palm and very lightly moisten the end of the sculpting tool and wipe it off, you just want a very very light smear of it on the tool. This will make it easier to work with the green stuff.

Using the sculpting tool push the green stuff into each side of the arm pit then push down from the top of the shoulder in the direction of the arm. Then use the side of the tool to give an edge to the bottom of the sleeve.

Continue this process to build up the shape of the sleeve, it won't take long, just remember to push down from the top of the shoulder in the direction of the arm first so that the position and weight of the sleeve is natural.

Repeat for the next sleeve. If you're worried about obscuring or touching the other sleeve you can wait until it is dry but you should be able to do them both in one sitting.

Here you can see that as the arm is in a different position it needs to be worked a little differently but the principle is the same; place the ball of GS at the top of the shoulder and press downward and into each side of the arm pit then use the tool to continue this.

When you start the sculpt do so from the top of the shoulder down the arm to dictate the necessary sleeve position and shape. It doesn't take long and it'll feel right when it's done and be obvious if the shape isn't correct.

Here's the end result; there's a clear line down from the neck and shoulder of the metal dolly which is continued in the sculpt of the sleeves. Provided you get the right amount of GS to begin and let the arm dictate the sculpt the rest will fall into place. The whole build / sculpt took me around 15-20 minutes.

If you'd like to have a go yourself with a pack of dollies they're £6.00 for 6 plus postage which starts at £1.00.

Just send me an email with your address and state how many you want and I shall quote you the postage and give you my PayPal details, my email address is;

stum_23@hotmail.com 

I'll be putting the first order to the mould maker on 1st June and the figures should be ready for posting around 1 month thereafter.

Thanks

Stuart

Tudor Figures available for pre-order

It's been an interesting month....

Further to the last post I completed final detailing on the sculpts that I was working on and sent them off to Griffin Moulds to have the master mould made, these are the first castings back for inspection and review prior to production.

The castings are very clean and required minimal filing as is the standard I've seen from Griffin who do the castings for Steel Fist miniatures. They're true to the originals if not better, it's very satisfying to see them.

I must add that without assistance and support from Oliver at SF and Griffin these would not have been possible, you can read more on the project development here.

Having prepared the figures I set about the final part of this project to check that they fitted neatly with the Perry Miniatures plastics and that the base coat sleeves were easy enough to sculpt and joined naturally with the figures. Given the time invested thus far this was a somewhat nervous process but all was fine. My main goal of speeding up the process of creating Tudors in coats was immediately obvious. When making previous figures I had to allow for drying time and couldn't sculpt a figure in less than 4 days, with these I made 9 in 3 hours and they just needed an overnight dry for the sleeves, I'm very happy !

Here are a few completed pieces ready for painting;

These were principally designed as attacking/advancing Bill but a couple work fairly well as archers and they all work quite well as advancing crossbow / handgunners using the mercenaries sprue.

As I've mentioned in the development post these were never principally intended as commercial pieces owing to the further sculpting work that is required but I've always appreciated that these may be useful so I've been considering my options to make them available.

I'd rather not cover the cost upfront and keep a stock of them as it's difficult to gauge demand so to keep things easy I'm going to pay for the production mould and put in an order for some figures on 1st June.

If you'd like to add to that order they're £6 for a pack of 6 plus postage & packaging. If you're interested just send me an email (see below) stating how many you'd like and your address and I'll work out the P&P and take payment upfront via PayPal.;

stum_23@hotmail.com

I'll put in the order on 1st June and they should be available around a month later, I'll send a notification prior to posting.

Thereafter I'll have a think about how best to make these available (suggestions welcome) but this works easiest for me at the moment.

Hopefully I should have a few of these painted up soon.

Bye for now

Stuart