Angus Tura

This is looking good, David. You're a lot quicker than me. Can I recommend tomato puree tube to you? As @Troy Smith says above, a lot of wine foil is laminated with some sort of plastic covering. Tomato puree tubes don't. They are painted on the outside which comes off pretty easily with cellulose thinners. It's a lot more robust than the foil often provided with white metal figures. I'd cut it with a scalpel but you do have to sand down little burrs that it gets on cutting it. Looking forward to your paint job. Alan

'My sympathy. Eyes are important in figure modelling at many levels! Maybe less so for Mr. Dustbinhead. Get well soon. A very interesting build, this, and I do hope you can progress. Alan

Hmm. Yo might not know them as well as I do! Also, "Hmm"! I don't think there were any masters for the original Historex injection molded figures. According to old Historex Catalogues, they were engraved directly into steel molds, much as Zinnfiguren are directly engraved into slate. Certainly the original people were Eugene Leliepvre, a Painter to the French Army, who designed the figures, and Rene Gilet, who was an engraver. Thanks for the lexicological fame. Probably "Historexesque" would have been better. Anyway, I have shortened the horse, by about 2mm. I learnt a lot making this, albeit it's still not painted: Not least was how much easier it is to detail/improve parts before they're stuck together. So, here is the horse's bridle carved back for undercuts and better definition. Also the one hoof off the ground has had a shoe added and a "frog", while the ones on the ground just have notched squares of 20 thou to carve back around the edges. Then here are the main parts all cleaned up/shortened in the case of the horse half-halves, and detailed. These are spacers cut from strips of sawn up Historex base and they've gone between the sides of the horse and the body and neck to get the position I want. Here it is all assembled front and back: I've previously noted on here that Google does make instant, if facile, experts of us all. My expertise of the day is in the appearance of Arab Horses. Apparently they have concave faces, long arched necks, flat croups, high tails and short backs. Many of them , but not all, apparently are missing a lumbar vertebra and a rib: I think many officers would have horses with at least some Arab blood in them, and I think that's shown in my reference, but I also think I'm almost perfectly ignorant about horses. Next up is going to be adding 5" epoxy to all the joins to avoid spontaneous disassembly which I've previously seen and been annoyed by. Then carving back the plastic and filling and smoothing out before starting to try to fit the shabraque, which is already giving me neck pain. See you shortly and thanks for looking. Alan

Ian, this is great (green) stuff! I am just starting to try sculpting and haven't got very far with green stuff. I've found it very sticky. I'd better try more. I do find Magic-sculp good and it carves very well after it's dry. I think your blue colour is perfect and a nice thing. Alan

Hello. This is the Historex NCO 13th Light Dragoon model figure released in 1980 but, incredibly, still in production and bought from the makers ~2years ago. It was one of the earlier "Historex Collection" figures which featured both mounted and foot alternatives in one box: So, there are two pairs of legs and two bases but only one of everything else, except arms. I want to build it as this man, who is in "Undress uniform" in about 1840. His outfit is pretty simple and I'm hoping that it's do-able. I've got a few add-ons: The shabraque in the kit is just the right shape but made to go under a sheepskin. So, it doesn't have any depth for the saddle. or details of harness. The pointy one here is a French one which should be OK to cut down, I think. There are some arms, and torsos twisted left and right which hopefully reduce the cutting needed. There are a selection of Figurinitaly heads which are just the right scale and are better sculpted than the Historex choice. I've previously thought about putting him on a Figurinitaly horse but wanted to make it as Historex-y as possible and found that I had the halves of Historex horse halves already cut to copy the Figurinitaly horse's pose: He's a bit long n the back and will need to be shortened. The base is by PD who are "Dino" from North Italy. His bases are lovely. Thanks for looking and see you later. Alan

Ross. I wouldn't dismiss Prolene brushes. I have largely stopped using sable because I find it so fragile. I really like "Pro-arte" 5/0, 10/0 and 2/0. They're not dear in art shops but the traders, Brushes4Models and ABC, have them very cheap. Alan

Thanks Yg. The plate is engraved by Nameitplates whom you will easily find on-line. The text is copied from a Boissellier uniform plate. Alan

Hello. Here is a 1970s figure with some re-sculpting of his face and hat. The natural metals are all polished white metal and Tamiya clear acrylics, except the grenade on his gorget which is Culture Hussle "Mirror Silver". That is great stuff! It is an oil/enamel brushable chrome. Everything else is oils over enamel undercoats. The base is covered with Modelscene grass-mat and flowers. Thank you for Looking. Alan

Hello. This is done! There has just been more shading needed and then gluing together. I've photographed his back here as this was where the problematic shading was needed, or, rather, highlighting: the shadows around the gold lace were much too stark. Thanks very much for looking, advising and inspiring @Shotandshell @Hunter Rose Alan

Make that two pushes. Here is fun fur painted green. This was a 1:4 dilution of "Uniform Green" Vallejo with water. The fun-fur is from Treemendus whom I spoke to at the Bolton show and who told me that there's no demand for fun fur anymore because everyone has gone over to static grass. Luckily I have enough to keep me going for years at current, extremely low, productivity rates. I think most of Treemendus' business is for model railways and I certainly wouldn't fancy doing more than a few centimetres of the fun fur. The tugs in the fur need to be brushed out for which cat-grooming brushes are good. It feels like it'll be completely bald before you're done. In fact not too much comes out. It then needs to be fluffed up again and I couldn't resist letting the horse have his first meal for 1675 years. Then I've painted where I'm going to cut the backing to fit the base with PVA. I was worried about this soaking in to the grass itself but it doesn't. In future I'd more fully PVA the whole of the backing: it gets pretty difficult to see where is and isn't PVA-ed when the PVA is dry. Then the two bits needed were cut out and glued in with 5" epoxy starting at the outsides and cutting off the spare to leave the path uncovered. 'Needs a haircut. The PVA worked well and I just had one bald patch along the back which was caused by bungling.... ...which brings me to the point. My one last push has been ruined by a nasty bit of Traveller's Gastroenteritis which I started with four days ago and which is only now better-ish. We went to Ireland for a Tura-Distaff-Side wedding. I didn't think one could catch Traveler's GE in Ireland. Wrong again! I was hoping to take this figure to a show next weekend but woke up this morning to think that that was a rotten idea: this is supposed to be enjoyable, you know? He can go to the next show. He doesn't need much: the pinks and oranges, red embroidery and skin are half painted; he needs to put his teeth in and the dent I just put in his cloak shouldn't take too much fixing. Aaaaaargh. Not much point in rushing now, after all that lot. Alan

The dreaded voodoo gray.

Affa fine, son. Also a bit cheaper than Gunze! Alan

Ta Dave. I really want to find a spray can to increase the chance of finishing! Alan

Hello. I wonder if anyone here knows what colour RAF E-7 wedgetails are. According to BPK instructions the RAAF ones are FS36495 which would be Mr Color 338. TIA Alan

Hello. A little update. I didn't post this last time to show him looking at the cat. This is a second more successful try of painting the Tamgas on the javelin quiver. The first picture is of tape with circles punched out to place them regularly. I've painted them with my leather base (Humbrol H186) with W&N Raw Umber. It has dried less lumpy than it looks here. Then this is where I've got to: The grass-edge has been carved back to about 2mm height and then the outside sanded smooth with the base and then multiple coats of Humbrol enamel satin black: 5 so far. The spear, shield and javelins are undercoated as are the decoration on his tunic. The spear and the tamga on the shield took a lot of masking. The milestone is done apart from highlighting the "EB MP XX"-bit which I imagine might have been kept a bit brighter than the names of long-dead emperors. One last push needed! Thanks for looking, Alan