Below are some very smudgy snaps of the initial progress of the bust that members voted to have made for release at Euro Miniature Expo in September. It has been a long time since I wrote articles for magazines so my planning to take snaps at stages during sculpting is a bit rusty, hence there are jumps between the stages. All snaps are from the mobile phone, if I had to set up a light tent etc nothing would get done!

The first snap is of the picture that inspired the sculpt at the start. It will not be a direst copy and I have used other research materials to check details of officers in similar attire at the same period in the Caribbean.


The first snaps are of the head. I started this at Figureworld West. It's always good to get feedback when sculpting, as it enables tweaks to be made. All sculpting thus far is with Bees Putty, which I think is an excellent medium and very forgiving for making corrections. At this stage shapes on the head are being sketched with a little refining of detail.




Next we have the head added to the torso. Still sketching, with nothing baked. You will notice that the top of the head has been trimmed down to take the top hat later in the production sequence. I have also put in the ears although these will largely be covered by hair. There is a danger of not giving enough volume to the hair if they are left off.



The next snap shows the body beginning to be sketched in clay. More detail has been added but at the moment it looks awful with the head seeming to be too large and the hair dreadful, but the joy of working with clay means adjustments are easy.

The final snap shows him where he is at the moment. There has been further sketching of the body and some detail is being added. The jaw line has been changed, hair altered and lapel re-shaped. The collar is still wrong. Loads of finishing still to do before the first baking takes place. Then more detail and the hat can be started.


More snaps to follow when I've added more stuff. Note to self don't get carried away and forget to take snaps...

Looking great so far Robert. I like the expression on the face

Lovely Rob,

Happy putty pushimg

Paul.

Looking great Rob.

Looks very promising so far.

Marc

Looking good so far Rob. Interesting choice by yourself and pf members. I can only remember this being sculpted once before and that was a full 54mm figure that i painted in 1988. It was by North West frontier and was based on the regiment in Martinique in 1793. Watching this develop.

Keith

Thanks for the feedback, I aim to get more done this week.

A quick update.
Some more work completed, with extra refining of detail. The hair has been done twice, as I didn't like the initial version!
He's now off to be baked before more detail, refining and rubbing down.

Smudgy phone snaps below:

This is coming on great Rob, I look forward to seeing the end result and I like the whole concept of making the choice of subject a competition.

Best wishes, Gary.

Thanks for the feedback Kev and Gary.
He's baked now and the sanding down has begun. Then on with the hat.