,Gary ! Looking forward to the painted results.Cheers !
Kenneth

Great work Gary!

Very nice to see these guys comming to an end, and Im definately looking forward to see Joe paint these badboys up!

Guys, Thanks a lot. I feel like I'm running the last mile of a marathon on one leg. I've enjoyed doing the figures, but it was a very involved project.~Gary

Got to see this in the flesh last PM. All I can say is: Gary is very good with Photoshop. This is truly a crappy piece, and Joe, you will be hard pressed to make this one work well. I don't think Picaso could do anything with this one, even though the pictures appear to look good, it's truly craptacular.

I've seen some of Gary's sucky stuff, and this one is the suckiest suckjob that has ever sucked.

Gary,

A very impressive work.

Rafa

Jim, Please tell me how you really feel. lol. It was great to see you and Larry this past Friday. Thank God for Photoshop. lol~Gary

Gary, what can I say - you're among the best. I can only repeat myself over and over again: you're the American David Grieve.

Best wishes, and my respect,

Johan

Johan, WOW! thank you for the kind words and the ultimate complient, it means a lot. I have a lot of admiration for Mr. Grieve's work, and try to keep this in mind especially when doing 120mm figures. Thank you again.

PS, I much rather like Halle Berry for President. what's not to like, she's quite a looker.~Gary

Yep.

Hey, you should come over to Euromilitaire, and meet David - he's a VERY kind, nice guy, I'm sure he'll be delighted to talk to you !

Buttons buttons buttons The only downside to doing 18th century military figures is the large number of buttons on the clothing. For the Highlanders about 23 buttons are required for each jacket and about another 9 for each waistcoat, and 3 for each haversack. This sometimes turns into a frustrating task when it's in 54mm. I normally use the old method of rolling out little ball of putty and placing them where they go and flattening them out after the putty has cured a bit. I started doing this but soon became frustrated doing them this way. Then I tried cutting them from plastic rod with a razor blade. The only problem was they did not always come out as flat disks. If the blade sliced through at an angle they looked more like a wedge. While talking to Joe Hudson about his method the sky cleared and I hit on the idea of making a jig so the buttons will be even.

The jig I made it using plastic sheet and strip stock. Since I am making two diffent sizes I needed two jigs. I basically took a piece of strip stock glued it down and waited for the glue to dry. Then I layed down a piece of rod stock down next to it and then placed another piece of strip stock. This is done to insure that the jig is able to accept that diameter of rod. after "dry fitting this last piece of strip stock it too was glued in place.

Fantastic Idea Gary........How did it work out?

This is the jig with a piece of rod inserted into it. I'm thinking of painting the jig black so it's easier to see the width of the material as I'm cutting the buttons.

This is a button being cut.

Hi Gary, love the body language on these, great job.

About the buttons, have you ever tried punching them out of foil using the base of a drill bit? They can be a pain to glue on neatly (varnish works okay but I doubt it would survive moulding) but they're really easy to make consistently in numbers. I haven't managed to get this to work for any really small sizes - a punch-and-die set would be needed for that I'm sure - but for jacket buttons and the like it works a treat.

For smaller buttons like on a shirt I currently use a paste of freshly-mixed MS and water, dabbing them on with the tip of a cocktail stick. Consistency is tricky but you can get small sizes pretty easily and after the MS has hardened they're surprisingly tenacious.

Einion

Hello Gary,

Apart from your sculpting abilities, what impresses me most is the almost clinical cleanliness of your work especially when it comes to tiny details like buttons or musket firing locks (I HATE firing locks).

Next to your surgical precision, I'm a regular butcher! :lol:

All the best,

Q.

Gary,

I've tried Einion's method and works really well. The best thing I think for buttons though is a Jeweller's Beading set. I got one that will punch twelve different sizes. It's the best thing since sliced bread for buttons. I punch them out of copper sheet over a leather scrap.

Here are some finished buttons.

Thanks, for the comments guys. I hope it's of some help, just another way to do something.


Quang, I wish it was as clinical as it might look. I have a heck of a time with little bits of debris being picked up here and there.

Here is Highlander #2 after applying the buttons.