Review WRAF WW2 from Paul Blaber Miniatures

[Nap]

Hi to everyone,

Its very suitable that in this year the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain I have the opportunity to share a release from Paul Blaber Miniatures .

A nice choice of subject and a fitting tribute to the brave women who served in the WRAF , often suffering the same dangers as their male opposites , in addition to this they freed up the menfolk by doing the less glamourous jobs ie clerks , cooks etc ...all vital in their own way .

The WRAF had its beginnings in WW1 and was actually created the same time as the RAF on 1st April 1918 , but the organisation and provision was far from as organised as their male counterparts . Wearing Khaki originally with the same coloured stockings , caps were soft crowned with a single breasted jacket , in 1919 some issues of the blue were made albeit slowly .

In WW2 the WAAF was formed on 28th June 1939 with the aim to release the male RAF to combat roles. Uniform consisted of a jacket similar to the men's , the rank badges were also the same but with different titles to the same rank of their male counterpart, for example a Flying Officer was called a Section Officer in the WAAF.

Books are many as expected all make interesting reading both for reference to the uniforms and to the bravery of those serving.

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So the release we will be looking at is :

Continued in next post

Nap

 

[Nap]

Let look at the release:

Details are as follows:

Title: British WWII WAAF "Margaret"

Reference: PJBB10

Scale; approx 1/9th

Material: Resin

No of parts: 3

Sculptor: Paul Blaber



This release is in Paul's "Home Front" series with the previous one being female despatch rider which I painted up in V Bench..., now all done with pictures in the completed part of the forum.

The Model was received in simple but strong packaging in the form of a brown cardboard box , no box art was on the top , the parts were also in bubblewrap.

Parts consist of the torso , the head complete with cap and the base

Prep needed before primer consists of with the torso , casting plugs to remove from the underside , together with the base having excess to be taken off the bottom part, the head had a casting line to sand away from the top of the hat and on the neck with a couple of bits of resin to take away from the back of the cap and hair , you might also like to reduce the neck length as well , but please dry fit to check .

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Starting with the Torso , the first thing that shouts out to me is that our lady is certainly well built ...in all departments , she is quite full figured but that matters not of course !

The way it has been sculpted seems to make the torso lean back , not to everyone's choice but not wrong.


The torso is sculpted wearing the uniform with the breast pockets as worn , the pockets themselves are nicely shaped , the collar shape looks good with the tie being worn slightly off centre , nice touch this , the collar edge undercuts look okay , the waist slightly tapers down to the belt where the buckle is nicely worked. across the body we have a strap , like the work on this replicating the texture , but painting will bring it out even more .

The Arms are only a small part of the upper area on it we have the shape , albeit a little soft of a badge , the torso overall has folds in appropriate places.


On now to the Head this has been sculpted with the cap well back on her head in a rather jaunty disrespect for regulations!! what this does do is expose the full face making painting easy , the facial features are not a good looking woman IMO but in keeping with the torso , the nose tapers thinly , lips are good the eyes might be a tadge too close together but nothing really to worry about , she has quite a pointed chin as well , with the hair a la WW2 style being good in surface work ...I think I might be doing a redhead when I paint her!!!

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The cap has certainly seen better days IMO with nice folds being done but again in keeping with the sculpt , nice work on the badge ( this looks like an Officers badge as in pictures so the sleeve badges would need to come off , the badge also looks like the WW1 Chief Section Leaders badge ...so maybe that's a possible conversion there as well.​

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I am pleased that the peak looks so good and is not likely to get broken , its well shaped and well done.​

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As I said I would look at the neck length before final fitting , but when in place the torso and head look nice together.

The base is as with the despatch ride a nice shaped and easily fitted and suitable for the job but as I normally do I will use brass rod either 5 or 6mm.

Final Thoughts

This is a timely addition to Paul's range , it has lots of potential for conversion and for detailing up ( keep an eye out on V Bench!!) , a bit of prep needed and perhaps not the most female in shape but when painted up it will look great next to the Despatch Rider .
Pauls range of busts are well thought out and has interesting subjects , they are very reasonable in price and provide lots of fun bringing them to life .
I welcome Paul's work and look forward to seeing more when he can get off his moped Ooops sorry ..motorbike!!!

For more details on this and others have a look at the website :

www.paulblaber1.moonfruit.com

Or you can email him at: [email protected]

STOP PRESS: Paul will be at Euro as well on the CGS stand alongside Graham so why not pop say hello and have a look ...I will be!!

Thanks to Paul for the review model ( mine was one of 3 initial castings) and for you all for looking in

Nap

 

[Nap]

Hi Guys,

Paul has just completed a painted version , which he will have at Euro to see alongside castings to look at closer

Nice one ...and he only had 4 hours to paint our Maggie

Nap

 

[swralph]

Thank's for the review Nap

 

[Nap]

Cheers Ralph

Thanks for looking in

Nap

 

[Babelfish]

I think that having the cap and head as separate parts would have improved this piece, but nonetheless nice overall.

- Steve

 

[Nap]

I think that having the cap and head as separate parts would have improved this piece, but nonetheless nice overall.

- Steve

Good suggestion Steve but it probably makes casting harder

Thanks for looking in see you at Euro

Nap

 

[Zastrow.cuirassier]

- "Pilots, pilots, yes wonderfull boys... But Hugh (Dowding) told me it will be a great review of WRAF !!!!
I'll go on Planet have a look, perhaps Nap will find some WRAF to review!!!!"