This 1:6 scale project began exactly one month ago with a headstart (pardon the pun) on a lovely DiD headsculpt that I received.

The headsculpt
With the headsculpt in hand (bottom right pix of montage), I imagined it as an ideal representation of a 19th century gentleman, albeit with crooked nose and perfuntory stiff upper lip. Based on a popular European celebrity, hthe headsculpt's balding pate was wigged with mohair and a pair of manly sideburns. The hair was retouched with some acrylic painting. Skinworks was more of accentuating certain features with layers of Vallejo acrylic washes.



The Jacket

The jacket and pants came from the DiD 96th Rifles rifleman, and had to be reworked. The pants were resewn to a tighter fit, but the worst part was next. The 1/6th scale metal alloy buttons of the DiD jacket had over the course of time, sadly degraded into undistinguishable blobs, hence their removal. I resorted to using metal pronged studs. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't as tedious as I had imagined it to be... (Well, actually it was damn tedious, who am I kidding?). Once attached, they looked good sans regimental crest. Buttons were attached to the front, back and collar cuffs.

The next step was extending the lower back of the jacket to make it into a coatee. I used green felt fabric painted a deep blackish green and glued the piece when dried to the jacket. A piece of fine off-white fabric was painted white and glued upon the back extension when dried. I think I won't bother with the central bottom vents of the jacket, as my references don't provide enough clarity. Besides, the back of the jacket will be covered by the haversack and other accoutrements of the rifleman.
A note of deep appreciation to my dear friend, Tony Barton, who kindly sent me 1:6 scale pewter accoutrements, leather strap and fabric ribbon stripe, and the resin Baker rifle that he had casted for this project.
The shako


The above images show DiD's stovepipe shako with modifications made to the peak. Apoxy putty was used to reshape the curved edges to a square edge. The braid was repainted and adjusted. A metal stud button was placed in the cockade's centre and the little tuff above repainted. Tony's painted green fabric stripe was carefully glued to the bottom of the shako. I also replaced the original DiD regimental badge with the pewter badge sculpted by Tony. The badge was then given a wash of black enamel paint to set off the details.
The Baker rifle

Above: This is a glorious piece sculpted and casted in resin and pewter by Tony Barton. Everything is perfectly to scale.

Painting begins with a basic coating of Vallejo Dark Flesh, when dried Mahogany Brown stipples were added to the surface. I let dry before spraying Clear Coat.
Vallejo German Orange was used to get that orangy glow that I love seeing in wood surfaces. We'll see how it eventually looks when the final painting of dark Walnut Brown is applied.

Below images: A wash of mahogany brown was applied after Tamiya's Weathering Master Soot was smirched in areas of the wood stock. This was followed by another coat of Clear Coat when dried.


Leather stock
Around his neck the Rifleman would wear a black leather stock as mandated by regulations, this being held in place by a brass or alloy stock clasp. The stock, a high collar of stiff leather was worn around the neck and meant to keep the head up. It was uncomfortable and unpopular with soldiers as it dug into the chin and neck. I based my stock on actual references but left out the clasps as I planned to glue the ends together where they will be hidden by the jacket's collar.


I reused the DiD gaiters but made some changes to the position of the strap buckle, repositioning them higher on the lower part of the gaiters. The legs of the pants were taken in to give a tighter look. This was easily down by sewing. The shoes had to be Modge Podged as the surface was breaking up in cracks.
I discarded the little haversack by DiD and fabricated one based on dimensions provided in Pierre Turner's Soldiers` Accoutrements of the British Army 1750-1900. The haversack is big and lengthy, and was supposed to carry 3 days rations. It was weathered with acrylic washes and scruffed up with weathering pencils. All leather work - ammo pouches, shoulder and canteen leather straps were scratchbuilt by me.


The completed figure sans diorama setting (Below):



Thanks for viewing!

Absolutely stunning, in every respect, Ran, a wonderful piece of work. Museum quality, without a doubt.

Alan

Beautiful work, Ran!

Scott

Excellent work!!!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support! I’m now pondering what kind of diorama to build for the figure, certainly not too large, and not too small. Having very limited display space is always a nagging constraint. Let’s see what happens.

I have the feeling stocks were not popular in the 95th, interfering with the aiming of the Baker rifle. However The dress of the Rifle Corps 1801
(As found in the so-called Green Book, or, Regulations for the Rifle Corps - as reproduced in the Rifle Brigade Chronicle 1897 pp 26-112)
' ..the stock black polished leather, high necked and bound with velvet, or black silk plaited;'

I'm a bit surprised you didn't sculpt the hands to be a bit more natural, though (or is the idea of these 1/6th scale dolls to be able to re-pose them like a GI Joe/Action Man?)

Good question. This is a pair of generic ‘relaxed’ hands, I haven’t thought of any particular pose that I would like the figure to be in, however these will be substituted for clasping hands when I’ve decided on the diorama.

Regarding posing them like GI Joe or Action Man, it’s really the choice of the modeller, as the articulation permits the mannequin to be tweaked for a certain pose after which all joints are sealed and set; or partly sealed or not. It’s just a preference. Once I’ve decided and confirmed on a pose, I seal the joints so that I end up with a statuette for display.

This looks very realistic! Nice work!

How do you do eyes in this scale?

Adrian

Hi Adrian, painting eyes? Very, very slowly and patiently exploring different techniques with extra fine paint brushes… and a magnifier. I’m still trying to improve on my process, not there yet, a long way to go. Thanks for the interest.

Attached eye painting chart, if I can get to stage 10, I’m one happy old man!