1/12 WW1 Figure scratchbuild

[2lefthands]

Great work so far. Model Mate!

[Model Mate]

Nearly back to the clay…

 

I really enjoyed putting the gun together and so moved on to helmets. Both of my boys need war-hats. I saw a WW1 German helmet available on Shapeways, but in the spirit of the Lee Enfield, I should really have a crack at scratching them both.

 

Starting with the (simpler) British Brodie helmet, I culled some dimensions from the web and cut out a base-blank from fairly thick plastic card and mounted this on a copper wire and cork in turn. This is 5% smaller than the actual helmet dimensions; the idea being that I’ll make a milliput plug and then smash/plunge mould in plastic or burnish in thick metal foil over this.

 

I duly squashed some superfine milliput in place, smoothing it over with meths (which really does work with milliput). I have to say, coming back to milliput from Fimo is exactly as Niall pointed out earlier. It’s so sticky and unwilling to sculpt. I think the trick with this stuff is to get your basic form and then shape and smooth when sanding later. I’m not exactly over the moon with this tin hat so far. I’ll see how the sanding phase goes, but at this stage it looks like a pith helmet made of rhino hide – if I can’t improve it a lot, then it’ll be back to 3D prints for the headgear….

 

So I sanded and cleaned the plug up as best I could ready for the next step. I tried burnishing some thick wine-top foil over it but it was hopeless, as was the thin (i.e. £6 per bottle cork as opposed to £4 screw-top... I'm such a classy drinker!) wine-top foil. I don’t have enough thin plastic card with me to try smashing it, and I fear that without a full vac-form, it won’t hug into the dome/brim crease anyway.

 

I resorted (unenthusiastically) back to milliput again. I smeared a dose of Vaseline over the plug and rolled out some thin milliput, draped it over and smoothed it into place using water this time. Once dry, it popped off pretty easily and wasn’t as bad as I’d feared.

 

I tried it on the 3D printed head I’d bought for size – not bad after all (after some further sanding). I was worried that the crease between dome and brim wasn’t as crisp as I’d seen in pictures, but searching for some additional references online, I found that the early WW1 Brodie hats did have a softer transition than the later types so I think it’ll pass. I drilled some holes and added the top nipple and strap fixings, finishing off (for now) with a quick dollop of thinned enamel grey.

 

Having taken a closer look at the head I purchased, I realise that whilst he has the suitably fearsome scream I’m looking for, he also (a bit like Jackie Stewart) has rather a lot of hair – thin beard and  sideboards as well as a hefty mane. I gave him a lockdown-trim, using a scalpel and sandpaper. I managed to keep his ears, I’m happy to report.

 

Meanwhile, I threw some paint on my 1/24 running man test piece. I foolishly spent a half hour doodling with his camo jacket which was great fun, but of course doesn’t really reveal how his sculpting turned out as it’s all obscured by dots and splotches. He’s not looking too bad all things considered; certainly there are no obvious finger-prints and so on. I can’t see that the meths smoothing did much though – the whole lot looks pretty smooth to me. 

 

While I was making the tin-hat, I found myself with a small dollop of left-over milliput, and not being one to waste, rolled it into shape to form Tommy’s Mediaeval trench club. I drilled some holes in this once dry and snipped some lengths of copper wire to poke through as spikes to make it even more barbaric.

 

This got a coat of Vallejo medium flesh followed by streaky Vandyke brown oil paint to simulate wood grain. The rifle (after a few minor additions in aluminium foil) got the same treatment, with some dark grey enamel for the metal components.

 

And so back to sculpting – I did promise….

 

I made a start on the 1/24 sitting German test piece. Using the photos of me I took earlier as reference, I built up his trousers and added folds and creases in Fimo. I sculpted some not very convincing boots, but left his puttees off – I’ll try them using thin strips of masking tape. I moved up his torso and added thin (not the cheapest) wine-foil straps and belt together with Fimo ammo pouches.

 

I rolled out some thin Fimo for half his coat, cutting it to shape based on the pattern I’ve got, and applied it, folding and creasing as I went.

 

For my photos, I was sititng on a “box” (actually a pile of books)  but I want the German to be sitting on a bench with his coat lying flat on the bench rather than drooping down to floor level, so I abandoned the reference here and just winged it. I think I need to work on this a bit more – it looks pretty dynamic, but not particularly convincing. For firing/baking, I propped the coat up on a wire goal-post to stop it drooping. I’ll try the other half of the coat in thin wine-top foil, super-gluing it on and fairing it in with Fimo as I complete the arms before re-baking. Finally for now, I trimmed the copper neck armature off and glued on his head just to see how he looks.

 

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Wow! Plenty to learn here. 👍

[Model Mate]

Quote

 

Emboldened by my Brodie success, I decided to tackle the altogether trickier M16 (German helmet).

 

I cut out a slightly off-circle from thick plastic card for the base and glued on a tapering block to simulate the front cut-out visor profile. This was all trimmed and sanded to shape. As with the British tin-hat, I added a copper handle and fixed the whole lot to a cork ready for milliputting but this time I painted it with grey enamel to better see the boundary (hopefully).

 

I then slapped the milliput on to form the plug, smoothing with water.

 

I tried the second half of 1/24 sitting German’s coat. I superglued the foil pattern on his shoulders and back and then folded and bent the foil to shape around the rest of him.

 

Once I was happy with the new half-coat, I broke out the Fimo again and added his arms, turned-up coat collar, and hands. I also faired-in the foil.

 

I applied a good brushing of meths which did smooth his shoulders and remove a thumb-print pretty effectively. The Fimo seems to be able to feather down to nothing, but it’ll need a coat of paint to see if this is really the case.

 

Once he had been re-baked, I unplugged him from his cork base and added his puttees from strips of tamiya tape. I also realised that he’s mostly bald, so I scratched some hair n the top of his head with a scalpel; a bit late really; it would have been better before his head was fired but he will most likely have his hat on when he’s scaled up anyway.

 

 

He’s far from perfect, but overall I’m really chuffed with how he’s turned out. In order to sit nicely on a bench without his coat "floating", his bum will need a fit of a sanding (ouch!) and I’ll give him a coat of paint to see finally how the foil and Fimo compare for the coat.

 

Last bit for today; I stuck the spikes into the trench club. Unfortunately I managed to split it in half, but a dab of superglue and it was all back together. The spikes got a coat of grey after they were all attached.

 

[Model Mate]

As everything seems to going pretty well, I thought I’d knock up the armatures for the eventual 1/12 figures.

 

I’d already made one from twisted thinner wire, but I’ve found that having a “neck” is a bit of a pain for the way I’m working, so I snipped his off and started to pose him as the sitting figure. The thicker wire one will be the standing/charging Tommy. I tried a fresh approach to forming him, minimising his neck from the start. I also used a separate piece of un-twisted wire for his arms – that way his arms/shoulder can slide through the twisted wire of the chest/neck and provide him with level shoulders to start off with. I clamped him together using wire rings at the hips and chest. I’m finding that fusing these joints is a real benefit, to stop the figures drifting apart when I’m posing them, though the application of milliput/green stuff later will keep these joints together anyway.

 

By the way, this wire all comes from regular household solid-core cable (not sure what amp rating, but pretty thick and cheap) just a bit of a pain to strip the PVC coating off. It also pays to roughen it up using a file before the clay goes on.

 

I stuck each armature on wooden blocks ready to start sculpting. The “seat” is screwed in place, so is removable.

 

The german helmet popped off the plug ok and was sanded smooth. The peak is a bit short, more like a WW2 helmet, but it’ll be a pig to extend it now, so I think I’ll live with it. Once the charachteristic vents are on the side, it will hopefully be a bit more recognisable as a WW1 hat. This is the screaming Tommy’s head just for the shot; I’ll attempt sculpting the German’s head. If all goes well, I might model the figure “head-up”.

 

My 1/24 test piece got a lick of paint – not the correct colours, but I wanted to see what it would look like painted up regardless of colour, and I had these to hand. He doesn’t look amazing in unforgiving close-up, and I really need to improve my painting skills, but he’s a lot better than I would have imagined when I started this, so I’m delighted. The Fimo stands up pretty well compared to the foil and I can roll it thinner than this. That combined with the larger scale for the finished thing means I think I’ll stick to Fimo for the big chaps. Also, at the larger scale, I think I’ll be able to airbrush the main colours, so I can pre-shade/highlight which might work well.

 

 

[Model Mate]

I’ve had a slight re-think regarding the planned vignette. I’ve decided that the two figures are in danger of becoming a bit too remote – there’s a danger they will be two separate figures rather than a coherent piece of action, so I’m now planning to have the Tommy grabbing the German’s arm or sleeve; pulling him and opening him up for the attack. This will expose the German’s face, so I need to sculpt one for him.

 

I had a first attempt and it went pretty well in the end. I am finding though, that pushing Fimo around tends to distort overall shapes. The German’s head started with a reasonable overall basic shape, but as I cut a wedge out for his eyes and got on with pushing the clay around for his features he kind of slumped, with his chin and neck getting fatter while his forehead and scalp shrank. His helmet has Shrek ears already, so his crying, slumping face is in danger of reinforcing this visage – better not paint him green… Luckily I can build up his unseen bonce and hide it in his hat, but I’m thinking that maybe I should make a very simplistic milliput or baked Fimo head shape and form the “flesh” over it to try and maintain a solid core.  This seems to work on the limbs, so perhaps the head too? Any thoughts out there?

 

Once I was happy with the basic features, and not wanting to risk him slumping any further, I baked him and then added ears and teeth. He’s got his dentures in place in these shots, but not yet ears.

 

Whilst I’m reasonably happy with the results so far, I can see that there is a considerable way to go in terms of realism and consistency – if I use the resin print I have for the Tommy, he’ll be noticeably better than my home-brewed chap, so further practice is required.

 

I sought out some very helpful tutorials, and concluded that, yes, baking a hard “core” to work on is a good idea. Further to this, baking a full head shape, carving the main features out and then applying clay on top is a perfectly valid approach (to be honest, there appear to be a whole host of different valid approaches) so I baked a couple of head “blanks” along with a re-bake for Shrek’s ears and teeth. I started carving into the first blank and added a basic nose and a bit of extra chin before a re-bake.

 

I gave Shrek’s face and the Helmet a coat of grey to better see how they’ve turned out.

 

I need to stop procrastinating and get on with the figures for real, so I tweaked the sitting armature, matching the pose on the body-kun for reference and added the first body cores using milliput.

 

[Model Mate]

When I started this project, I invested in a whole bunch of (cheap) tools to get me going. These included a selection of sculpting loops, none of which I’ve had any success in using. Fimo seems to prefer being pushed rather than scraped and I’ve found myself using only a couple of tools – a spear-head shaped blade and a thin spoon spatula that’s my main tool. I could do with some rather more pointy tools though, so I re-purposed three of the large loops by fitting them with lengths of copper wire. The wires were filed, sanded and polished to rounded tips and bent slightly – and they work very nicely – hurrah!

 

Right – back to the task at hand.

 

The second head blank had his first major surgery and then he and his mate returned to the oven for another half-hour.

Once out and cooled, I started whittling their noses and chins before starting to build everything up again. It’s a really nice, controllable process, sculpt, bake, whittle, sculpt…. and so on.

 

The shouty Tommy has had his major features done and spent another half hour in the oven. Teeth, eyelids and ears next… He’s turning out a bit like Shrek despite my best efforts to start off with a reasonably proportioned head. I must be going wrong somewhere, but both of them will have hats on, so I can hide their rather neanderthal skulls. I think I need to trim his eyebrows a bit too.

 

I did a bit of additional surgery (and dentistry) plus hairstyling and so on. Shrek got green-stuff hair (rather appropriately) in a fetching quiff to try and compensate for his lack of forehead, while shouty-Tommy had his formed with Fimo in a rather 70’s style racing-driver style ironically. Virtually nothing of these will be seen beyond a glimpse of sideburn once they have their hats on, but it was good practice.

 

I had a pretty free weekend (as usual this year of course!) and so managed to get quite a lot done on the full-sized sitting German.  I had my girlfriend’s boys pose for me to see how the coat would fold when grabbed by charging-Tommy, and set about modelling him, starting with the trousers….

 

Moving onto his torso – shirt and jacket with metal foil belts and straps. I fitted his head in place using a fresh copper pin and was keen to make it removable so it can be painted separately later. I applied a smear of Vaseline to his neck socket and sculpted the neck onto the head with Fimo. It popped off ok, but I then realised that his green-stuff hair would prevent his head going back into the oven – damn! I stripped the Fimo off and tried the neck again using milliput superfine. Again, it popped off ok – phew!

 

Here’s how the revised vignette should look. I’m planning to title this “heroes and villains” – questioning our preconceptions about each of these…

 

After another bake, I added his ammo pouches (Fimo blocks with metal foil stuck on) and Fimo belt buckle, then it was onto the coat. This took a mammoth late-night session of rolling and applying thin sheets of Fimo. The seat got a coat of valseline to prevent his clothing sticking to it. The next day I added the various folds and creases and popped him back in the oven.

 

His milliput neck got sanded and smoothed and fits reasonably well. All he needs now are some jacket buttons, boots, coat pockets and hands. I’ve ordered some blue-stuff to try moulding hands, but it seems to be stuck in transit – some form of Brexit bureaucracy I suspect.

 

[Model Mate]

These boots are made for….modelling!

 

I cut out a pair of soles/heels from 1mm plastic card and started slotting them to fit over the legs pins. Just in time I realised that being plastic, they’ll probably melt (or at least warp) in the oven, so I rolled out some Fimo and cut around them to make oven-friendly copies. After a quick bake, these were fitted to the legs and the boots were modelled.

 

Round the back of the coat, I added the pockets and back strap.

 

After another baking, I fitted masking tape (nasty household stuff, as it’s got a bit of texture) puttees and drilled out lace holes for some thin steel wire laces.

 

The thin back of the coat is starting to split – presumably it’s had quite enough of the oven. I splurged on some superglue in the cracks and left it at that. I need to fit some buttons to his tunic, but these will be glued on balls, so I’m hoping he needn’t go back into the furnace, and he’s ready for paint – result!

[Model Mate]

I started slapping some paint on Shrek. I only have Vallejo’s medium flesh, which is a bit too tanned for my liking – at least for a pasty-faced German, so I’ve ordered some of their “Basic skintone” which looks a bit paler/pinker. Of course, the whole thing will get various altered shades applied, and I’m happy that the medium flesh can form the background to build on.

 

While the paints were out, I put the camouflage pattern on his skid-lid, finished off with a smattering of dark grey sponge-applied chipping and a diluted Vandyke brown oil wash.

 

I’ve also ordered some basic uniform air-colour paints for spraying the bulk of the figures.

 

I got started on Shrek’s gun too, which will be on the floor or propped up against the trench step.

 

Along with this, the Fimo came out to model his breadbag and canteen. I’m quite pleased with the breadbag; I tried gently pressing tea-bag fabric against it to impart the fabric pattern in lieu of the usual finger-prints, but it may be a bit too subtle to count for anything to be honest. The canteen isn’t great, and I may try making it from plastic (or at least partially from plastic) instead.

 

Finally for now, I started posing charging Tommy and applied a little milliput to his hips, chest and arms.

 

[Big Dave S]

A very busy, intricate project.

Interesting to watch.

[Model Mate]

I started work on the base using a small, cheap picture frame as the basis. I added a trench wall and shooting step for Shrek to sit on. This was built up from plywood with corrugated cardboard, coffee stirrers, Fimo sandbags and plaster filler.

 

The floor then got a layer of filler, mixed with a little diluted PVA and sprinkles of tile grout, cat litter and tea leaves. On reflection I should have tried mixing some brown paint in with the filler to reduce the amount of painting later.

 

Shrek got a coat of Halfords plastic primer followed by enamel black overall. Grey was sprayed at 45 degrees and then white from above.

 

I then sprayed model-air US forest green which seemed to me to be the best match for the uniform Feldgrau.

 

After fleshing him out a bit, I’ve started on Tommy’s trousers. I’m really not happy with this so far but it’s not baked so can be re-worked or stripped off easily. He needs to be at least as good as Shrek, who I’m pretty pleased with so I think I’ll try a smaller scale tester for him first as I did with the German.

 

That’s all for now folks….

 

 

[Tcoat]

WOW

I now feel totally inadequate in my figure scratch building skills.

 

I made a 1/35 hat once!

[Model Mate]

Well it's a start!

 

This is my first foray into sculpting and I thought it would be really tough, but it's gone a lot better than I could have hoped. Once you get stuck in it's really intense but very satisfying. I'm not sure I could do anything particularly convincing in 1/35 yet - 1/12 is a bit more forgiving and less fiddly.

[Model Mate]

My blue stuff finally arrived, hurrah! I put the kettle on and squished a few of the hands that came with the body-kun doll into it. After smearing in a bit of superfine milliput, I was left with a bunch of smooth white hands. They were fairly poorly aligned and I lost a finger or two, so I gave it a second go that was much better.

 

This allowed me to stick a pair onto Shrek to allow him to do his Marcel Marceau impression.

 

I carved a few lifelines (short ones!) onto his upraised palm and attempted to add a few veins onto the back using green stuff, which I also used to give him wrists.

 

Back to Tommy. I smoothed his legs flat again and added a little more bulk. I had intended to try a 1/24 test piece but decided to just crack on with the full size one.

 

I browsed the internet looking for similarly attired fellas in appropriate poses and stumbled across a 3D warehouse type site with a selection of “toy” soldiers. These were previewed at various rotations, so I could see front, sides and back without having to download them (not free). Best of all, they are displayed in a smooth, single colour render, making reading the creases and folds relatively straightforward. I didn’t copy the folds slavishly, but they gave me a good indication of where they should run.

 

I modelled Tommy’s legs and into the oven he went. When he came out, I rolled out some flat Fimo sheets and got his coat on.

 

After another bake, I smeared some Vaseline into his neck socket and fitted his head temporarily in place to model his neck in milliput.

 

Once his head and neck were severed again and left to cure, I added sleeves, pockets and epaulettes. Back in the oven again, along with the soles of his boots. His arms are looking like they might be a touch too long, so the ends of his sleeves may get a trim, but I’ll have to see once his feet are in place and he’s fully there.

 

Lastly, the base got a bit of colour in the form of some acrylic khaki and brown on the sandbags and a touch of dark grey on the corrugated tin. Tommy got his boots fixed and here’s how they stand on the base. I need to tweak their positions a little to get Tommy grabbing Shrek’s sleeve, but it’s close.

 

[Model Mate]

Tommy got a black/grey/white preshade just like Shrek did, followed by a coat of model-air IJN brown.

 

Unfortunately, I’d forgotten his buttons, so they had to be glued on afterwards. 0.8mm Nail caviar balls were superglued in place. Luckily, these were a classy pink-gold colour and so look rather like brass buttons.

 

Most of the shadow and highlight shading was already in place thanks to the pre-shade, so I only needed to add a little shadow paint to both characters, along with acrylic washes and dry brushing of various tones to add a bit of variety to their puttees, trousers, coats etc. I also did the detail painting to pick out belts, boots and so on and finished with some black and brown oil washes.

 

 

Tommy got his hands fixed with superglue and faired-in with green stuff.

 

I made up Tommy’s webbing using metal foil with masking tape glued on, and this was all painted with Khaki and ochre paint and washes followed by oil pin washes.

 

The heads were painted – not brilliantly I’ll admit, but I’m really only starting to find my feet with figure painting and of course I didn’t have the best heads to start with.

 

Nearly there for these two....!

[Hunter Rose]

That's some bloody nice work, I'm doing a figure sculpt in the Sci fi section (link below if you're interested) and I've been researching creases and clothing and yours look excellent! 

 

 

Following with much interest

[Model Mate]

Just checked out your T'au build - superb stuff! I'm looking forward to see how it develops. As you found with your neck creases, they can either look spot on or really off, and it's quite a challenge to achieve one and not the other. I still haven't figured it out to be honest, but the soldier 3D renders I found were really useful to clearly see where creases fall for a variety of poses. Here's a link for them....

 

https://free3d.com/premium-3d-models/soldier-ww2

 

There are pages and pages, but the green and grey chaps are pretty helpful. They have views from all angles as previews.

[Model Mate]

Last knockings….

 

I fixed their hats in place using green stuff and made some wine-top foil straps. These were primed with grey enamel and then painted with Humbrol leather brown acrylic. The Lee Enfield also got a strap made in the same way.

 

A few more pieces of webbing kit were knocked together for Tommy and fixed in place along with his rifle and trenchclub. I’d already made a bread bag for the German using Fimo, which I was quite pleased with. This means that the opposite sides now have very obviously different appearances for their bags. I’ll get them all painted up and see how they look. I may feel the need to make a masking tape bag for the German….

 

I knocked up a German gas mask cannister from a bit of plastic tube and wire which I’ll hang on a hook from the trench wall. I painted it olive drab, added some sponge applied grey scratches and a bit of graphite. The guns also got this treatment on the metal parts.

 

And that’s it pretty much for these two chaps. They'll get a matt coat and a fair bit of pastel and grout dust/mud etc.

I’ll admit I’ve got to that “just want to get finished” stage, but there’s only the diorama base and weathering to go, so nearly there. Here they are…..

 

[Hunter Rose]

12 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Just checked out your T'au build - superb stuff! I'm looking forward to see how it develops. As you found with your neck creases, they can either look spot on or really off, and it's quite a challenge to achieve one and not the other. I still haven't figured it out to be honest, but the soldier 3D renders I found were really useful to clearly see where creases fall for a variety of poses. Here's a link for them....

 

https://free3d.com/premium-3d-models/soldier-ww2

 

There are pages and pages, but the green and grey chaps are pretty helpful. They have views from all angles as previews.

 

Thanks appreciate the compliment! And cheers for that link, that's a very handy reference

 

They're looking great, nice work with those bags

[Model Mate]

Thanks Hunter, just the diorama to go really. Like you, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this sculpting lark. These two have turned out much better than I’d have imagined when I started off. Sculpting is very intense, but very rewarding.

[Hunter Rose]

Oh totally I agree it's very rewarding! 

I find it really enjoyable, it's great making something from nothing. 

And it's a real buzz when it goes well! 

 

And good work on the hands, that was a neat idea! When I did my first sculpt of a 1/6 space explorer I used a spare set of bare hands from a figure which I wrapped in clay for gloved hands. 

[Model Mate]

Final touches….

 

Working on the base, I stripped off all the floorboards and gave the mud areas a thorough wash of acrylic brown. I also made up a poppy to sit on the top of the trench wall, looking down on this dismal scene.

 

The floorboards were then epoxied back in place and the fellas also epoxied in position. Shrek had a little difficulty sitting straight so I had to add quite a few more seat logs to build up the seat height and angle it to meet his bum. Positioning the figures was rather tricky, I’ll be honest, but the glue stuck, and they finally settled in place.

 

I found some period family photos (not my family) and a WW1 letter online and printed these to lay on the floor between the German’s legs. I cut some thin plastic rod into sections, sharpened one end of each and painted them brass and grey to represent bullets which he’s given up loading into his gun. The base got a sprinkling of autumn and a little summer static grass in strategic locations.

 

And that’s pretty much it. I’ll add a load of mud in the form of ground up pastels fixed with white spirit and tile grout using diluted PVA to dirty up the figures and base a bit more, and do a couple of puddles with gorilla clear glue with a dot of pale colour mixed in. RFI coming any minute…..

[James G]

Wow, excellent work! I am dabbling with some sculpting, converting a Tamiya tank crewman to a US Navy carrier deck crewman. Not nearly so ambitious as you! I have found a couple of internet tips useful so far: I work with a mix of Alteco 2-part epoxy resin and 'green stuff'. The mixture is very, very pliable and fairly sticky but holds detail really well. The other invaluable tip was to use a touch of hand cream to stop the stickiness on your fingers and tools, any brand works apparently. I use 'Epaderm' cream, which I have plenty of as I have dry hands anyway. One other tip I found was using silicon brushes, they work very well at smoothing out my putty/green stuff mix when used with a little water. If my figure conversion comes out half as well as yours I will be happy!

[Model Mate]

Thanks for the tips James - I've noticed quite a few people mix and match products. When I use Greenstuff, I keep a dab of vaseline on my tool (ooh-err missus!) which seems to work well, and water for milliput. One of the nice things about Fimo (and I guess any polymer clay) is that it's really not sticky at all, so you don't have to worry about this, though everything needs to be able to go in the oven of course - no plastic basically.

[AdrianMF]

Amazing work. It’s a really good tutorial format so thanks for that too.

 

Regards,

Adrian