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Junior Officer, 2nd Afghan War


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I did a lot of figures back in my early teens, but nowadays build 1/72 aeroplanes. Every so often the figure bug bites still, however. One figure I did back then was of an officer on the Northwest Frontier, firing a lanyarded pistol. I forget the maker, but the thing stuck with me, and a few years ago I wanted to see if I could find it and do it again. This was the closest I found. Recently I took it out, did a little touching up and took some new pictures with diffused flash.

 

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It is an Art Gerona 54mm white metal figure, sold as an officer of the 66th Foot at Maiwand, but I expect it could represent most any junior officer on campaign in the Second Afghan War. I did a few modeler's things to the casting, like opening up the skirts of the tunic and under the topee brims, and putting  a bore in the pistol barrel. The kit (arms and head and sword have to be attached) provided lead foil for the flapping sword straps, but I used 1mm x 0.25mm plastic strip, something I am more familiar with and that did not need paint. Paint is PollyScale acrylics cut with Future, with Tamiya flat base in Future as a matte coat. The 'khaki' employed was the standard white uniform colored by various improvisations: one frequently employed was boiling in strong tea, so I boiled a white denim dishcloth a good long while in some 'English Breakfast' tea, and tried to match the color with a mix. The paint was pretty hard to find when I put a bit on the cloth before I took it to the figure, though once it dried it had a bit less red to it than the cloth had had..

Edited by Old Man
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I like that Old Man, for a 54mm figure (just over 2" right?) you've got a great amount of character into it, the facial expression on something that small is outstanding & gives the figure a real intensity. :thumbsup:

Steve.

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On 4/21/2017 at 6:06 AM, arbrownra said:

Very nice, you have done a really attractive job there.

 

Thank you, Sir. I am glad you like it. I felt pretty good about it, though I know there is room for improvement. I am sure I will do another some year, probably something Napoleonic.

 

On 4/21/2017 at 6:45 AM, stevehnz said:

I like that Old Man, for a 54mm figure (just over 2" right?) you've got a great amount of character into it, the facial expression on something that small is outstanding & gives the figure a real intensity. :thumbsup:

Steve.

 

Thank you, Sir. I expect most of the credit for the expression should go to the sculptor.  I am not sure, but I believe the 54mm dimension is from the feet to the eyes, not to the top of the head, as there is so much variation in headgear. 54mm figures are generally rated as 1/32 scale. I suspect this is probably an overstatement in many instances. When you get back to Napoleonics and earlier, people ran a good deal shorter on average than they do now. Napoleon' regulations for light infantry voltigeurs excluded men much over five feet tall, for instance. But I expect a late nineteenth century English officer would have been well enough fed as a boy to reach modern height....

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11 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Thank you, Sir. I expect most of the credit for the expression should go to the sculptor.

Maybe so but even the best sculptor needs some with a deft hand to bring out their skills, a happy union in this case, the eyes are especially well done to my mind.

Steve.

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