I recall as soon as I saw this Osprey book (#414 Russo-Japanese War 1904-5), I picked it up because I loved the Japanese Officer figure on the cover. I wanted to sculpt him, but like lot of ideas, it got filed away until later.



I guess this is later now. Here is the figure as it stands so far.




The body armature was pulled from my scrap box. It is one i sculpted over twenty years ago. The pose was right and even with corrections it was less work than making a new one. Now that I have his accessories made up, I can start putting clothes on him.

Yes, it will be a commercial piece, no i can't tell you who. Watch this space for updates as I complete this piece.

Mike

Hi Mike,
Wow ,the basics look good.I,ll bet the fur coat will be interesting to sculpt.
Cheers
Andy

Very interestng subject. What scale, Mike?

Sorry, 1/24th scale or 75mm

Looks to have potential

Ken

Love the in progress shots! Thanks and look forward to seeing this one develop.

Joe

I really like the Osprey pic, unusual subject matter. Your figure already looks good - face looks great. Will look forward to seeing this progress.

WOW! Like it!

Cheers

Beautiful work Mike. Great work in the face. There is a spanish brand that made the same figure long time ago, Pizarro Miniaturas:

Alférez de caballería japonés

Looking forward to seeing the come together....great face and ideal scale too
Cheers
Derek

love it! great subject matter and i like the 75mm scale.

Excellent work so far, a very unusual subject and that fur coat just makes it look cool, great scale as well being 1/24.

Looking forward to following this one

All the best

Steve

Great to get an insight of sculpting ,very nice off the beaten track subject and a great scale for the aging modeler
and that fur will be a big challenge ,will be watching this one close.

Ron

Very nice sculpting so far.
Gonna follow this closely.

Marc

Look forward to seeing this one progress Mike .


Cheers David

Thanks for sharing your progress with us, Mike, it's very instructive for me. Great subject, too, I agree.

Prost!
Brad

Hi Carl,
Hop it.
Nice subject Mike, sculpting looking good.
Cheeers,
Keith

Hi Mike,
really love this,quality subject matter there is too many in that book and a largely untouched subject.
Commercial you say! Bugger I'll have to get the credit card out
Best Regards
Paul

Thanks guys!!

I have a little progress today. The trousers had to be sculpted, even though only a bit of them will show on the finished figure. This was followed by the felt over boots. I had no references for these, other than the nice illustration by Karachtchouk. So I used my tried and true method: I faked it.



Whenever layering clothing I like to sculpt more of the under garment than will actually be seen. This helps create visual continuity. It is a good thing i did too. After consulting other reference sources, it seems that the illustration (see first posting in thread) is not accurate on the length of the cavalry tunic. The hem should come well above the crotch and not right down to it as shown in the illustration. So, many of those "useless" folds I added to his pants will be seen after all.



The final addition is the front part of his tunic which will be seen inside the open coat. I pushed the pistol holster into his tunic to get its position finalized. I also filled in his upper arms after tweaking the arms into final position. This was not intended to be the final arm shape but only to solidify them. This establishes their final position and will facilitate adding the belt afterwards.