Magic Sculpt - it’s the future! After days and days of going round in circles with lumpy, crumbly Milliput I got the saddle and an arm done with the Magic Sculpt in a couple of evenings; lovely stuff and fabulously well behaved - many thanks for the heads-up Simon. The Mr Hobby Dissolved Putty was excellent too. Hope your eye’s feeling a whole lot better?

So pleased you like it, I could never go back to milliput now. The saddle is looking great and I'm looking forward seeing this progress, might give me the kick I need to attempt a mounted figure.

Cheers Simon

Magic Sculpt. Great stuff, used for the horses neck came out perfect first time

Thanks Nap, I’m very, very impressed with it. After weeks of going round in circles, although there’s still loads to do, the project is actually going forward now - and at a decent pace.

He's coming on a treat Paul, you really are giving him the star treatment. The chin scales look like they have a lot of filler behind them or is that big bushy mutton chops?

Cheers Simon

I don’t think I’ve ever spent as long on a figure as this one but then I’ve never done as much scratch building and discovered the limitations of Milliput before - so it’s really been a bit of a learning curve for future projects. The ‘mutton chop’ situation behind the chinstraps is all coming out and being replaced with Magic Sculpt. The Figurinitaly head is a touch smaller than a Historex head so there’s a small gap between the head and the chin scales so I’ve tried to widen the cheeks a bit and given him sideburns. I think even when they’re redone they might be a little on the voluminous side but I’m hoping a good paint job will give it all the benefit of the doubt.

Yes there is some variation when it comes to a standard 54mm/1/32nd scale head, and other body parts to be fair. I'm waiting on G&G Miniatures in Italy to send me some of their 3D heads, hope they come quick as I'm almost ready to start the next build! I'll try and remember to do a bit of a review on them as I've never used them before. Have you considered sculpting the chin scales straight onto the face?

Cheers Simon

Normally I would have just sculpted the chin scales but the gap starts at the helmet and the scales have to run from the rosace on the helmet - it remains a bit of a question mark. I’ll have another look at it and see if I can come up with a better solution but I’m anticipating that whatever solution I can come up with might not be perfect - so I’ll cut my losses and hope the paint job gives it the benefit of the doubt. The Magic Sculpt being the same colour as the resin head will make it a bit easier to judge things. Looking at photos of extant helmets they might not all have been a snug fit anyway.

I’d be very interested to hear about the G&G heads.

I see what you mean, I think we rely on art work where everything fits perfectly a little too much sometimes. Getting the Historex chin scales thin enough to achieve the same as in the picture would be a very laborious job. Good luck I'm sure you'll fettle it one way or another.

Cheers Simon

Glad you found all the tips on putty helpful, that is what this forum is all about, I have had a lot of helpful advice on here.

You are making great progress, this is looking really good and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks Nigel. I’m not sure I could’ve finished the project without the Magic Sculpt. I was getting a bit fed up going round in circles with Milliput that was either too sticky or just crumbled. Anyway, everything’s moving along a decent pace now. I got the head/chinstrap/mutton chop situation resolved last night (more or less) although his bull neck needs pulling in a bit. I can’t see anything else now that might pull the project down, although. . . famous last words.

The chinscales and facial hair look really good now, I think you really got that just about perfect. I like the collar opening as he turns his head, a very natural looking pose, keep at it because this is going to be beautiful when all painted up.

Cheers Simon

More progress with getting all the Milliput stripped out and replaced with Magic Sculpt - which had turned out to be truly magic and in future should cut my build time in half (here’s hoping). The only really big job left to do is the bridle. I reworked the horse’s head because it was a bit too Arab/light cavalry looking; an operation I thought might have been a bridge too far but seems to have turned out OK - watch this space.

In other news I just put a light in my new display cabinet which pleased me more than is reasonable for a grown man. It’s going to take me a long time to fill that cabinet (even with Magic Sculpt in my armoury).

The amount of work you have put into it has paid dividends.This already looks fantastic.Can't wait to see it in color.

Oda.

Great progress, and it's inspiring to see you create these lovely works in the "classic" style so many of us love.

Looking pretty awesome Paul as Nigel said it's good to see what promises to be a classical Historex mounted figure.

Cheers Simon

A bit more progress and I think I might be starting to see the finishing line - of the building process anyway. I completely replaced the horses front leg as I just didn’t trust the strength of the one I’d wired in and didn’t really fancy remodelling all the shoulder muscles - unlike Madonna’s plastic surgeon, I know when something’s had too many procedures.

I also extended the cuirass lining as I noticed from looking at photos of the real thing the officer’s linings were pretty generous and I’d caught the originals with my Dremel in a couple of places so that sorted that out - they do still need a bit of tidying up though.

The pistol holsters and horses head and neck still need quite a bit of work and I think he sits a bit high in the saddle but I can live with that.

I can now see Carabiniers every time I blink so I’ve started another project that I’m hoping won’t be quite such a challenge and will be a (relatively) quick and easy build - a change is as good as a rest n’ all that. I’ll post him up when he’s a bit further on.