Highlander Bust

[Joe Hudson]

I have posted some of my sculpting pictures but I wanted to show some painted work as well. Here is the Highlander bust from Elite. The bust was not a good casting at all and I even considered throwing it away. It set dormant for a long time and then I went back and worked on it again and I am happy with the end result. All comments welcomed.

Joe

[Guy]

Beautifuly done Joe.......I have the same kit in the closet now. When I got it, it must of been like yours, and I put it in a box and up on the shelf. May have to get it down now as I've seen yours. Great skin tones too.

Guy :thumb:

[Joe Hudson]

Guy,

Thanks. If your kit was like mine I had thoughts of never buying another Elite kit, but I have and the metal ones are pretty good. I painted him all in acrylics except for the flesh, I still use oils for them. Can't get the nerve to switch.

Joe

[Guy]

Same here Joe, I swore off Elite until I was at the Washington Show and opened up a metal kit......big difference.......I just got 2 Elite kits this week. The new Mongol and the Celt warrior. Both are beautiful castings and I eagerly await the chance to paint them.

Guy :thumb:

[Joe Hudson]

Guy,
I agree the need to stick with metal. Did you see the paint job on the Mongol that Rod Curtis did in Chicago? I had it on my site but I may have deleted it to make room. When you get ready to paint it let me know and I will send you several pictures.


Joe

[LCoote]

Joe, beautiful work indeed. I've always liked this particular bust

Leigh

[RobH]

Very Nice Joe

Like Guy, I have this too. In fact, I got it out again recently and looked at it again; no the poor fit of parts didn't go away! My poor attempts at filling the gaps were still there too.

But I think you've maybe inspired me enough to give it another go!

Thanks

Rob

[Joe Hudson]

Leigh and Rob,

Thank you. I enjoyed painting the figure after I was able to make it paintable:wacko: I did not mind the poor fit per say but I had to almost resculpt the tartan and look at the picture and see the air holes that showed up after I had already spent 2 weeks filling and resculpting! I hope that yours are better than this one.

Good Luck,

Joe

[RobH]

Hi Joe

Wow! Mine was nowhere near as bad as that! should count myself lucky.

Strange, but his beard growth does look like something from a Sci-Fi movie.
I had another look this morning at my unprimed one and am now considering sculpting a bit more beard on him, even age him somewhat (enjoying facial sculpting these days). I'm feeling adventurous!

Rob

[Guy]

lol.....you guys have got me doing things with a figure I never thought I could do.......ty
Guy

[Joe Hudson]

Hey Rob,

I agree, if I had to do all over again I would just carve it all off. I think that would make it better an not so weird. I look forward to seeing yours.

Joe

[RobH]

Guy

Yeah, this is working into a really good site!


Joe

I'll post some pictures as it's done, but have promised myself to finish my Roman Cavalryman first (in my gallery on this site).


Rob

[John Long]

Joe, I remember seeing this in Chicago. You did a beautiful job on it. It would have been my pick on your display. I didn't realize you had to do so much work on it. I think the European manufacturers that primarily work in metal have notoriously bad resin casting ability. I've heard that they don't have access to the better casting materials available for resin csating.

[garyjd]

It's beyond me that a manufacturer would even place in a package a piece that is as bad as that. They should be ashamed of themselves. A few air bubbles here and there is okay, but that's crazy!~Gary

[gordy]

and in such difficult areas to fix as well :o

[Joe Hudson]

John,

Thanks John. I thought this was my best figure and to this day I can't think or I am not even going to try to figure out what the judges were looking at. :)

Gary and Gordy,

I agree a few air bubbles here and there is ok but you have not even seen the rest. I am including 2 pictures of the bust. The back and the bottom. Look at all the different colors of putties that I used and you can see where I had to correct the kit and these were deep holes not just the small one in the other picture. To make matters worse I tried contacting the company and asking for a replacement and to this day I have never heard from them and the person who sold the kit, I will not say who, but I will say not Chuck, told me it was not there problem! :angry: I will say that this is why this kit is so special to me now, it seems like I have had to hold more than my 2 babies!

[Joe Hudson]

the back of the bust

[Guy]

gawd Joe............you can almost claim credit for sculpting that one......It is far worse than the one I have.

Guy

[Joe Hudson]

Thanks Guy.

Like I said I almost gave up on this company and it still leaves a bad taste when I think about that they did not care to even respond. All I wanted was a new casting not even the money. I really like this figure but my money is worth something a little nicer.

[LCoote]

Wow Joe, I've never seen a piece of resin as bad as that ,I would have expected much more from a manufacturer like Elite. I have to say though that their metal casting is second to none.

The finished piece is a credit to you.

Leigh

[Joe Hudson]

Leigh,

Thank you very much. I agree, I expected more from Elite. I am glad that their metal kits are far superior to the resin. Maybe I just had a fluke but I am gun shy from ever buying another resin kit from them.

Joe