Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Army Black

I figure that I'll probably be playing FLW in some sort of solo fashion, so I will need two armies. I have made good progress on my Army Red already, so I decided to start on an opponent. I selected Army Black as my second army. I chose them for two reasons, first they are a good enemy for any other army. Secondly, I wanted to try out the Dutkin molds and the WW1 German Advancing looked like a good figure.

I've completed two units so far. The first I painted as regular Prussians in the 1890's color scheme.
I know they don't have the right collar for the 1890's but hey, this is Army Black. For the next unit, I went to the cigarette cards I posted to the FLW Group to create a Bavarian style unit. I clipped the spike on the helmet then added the woolen crest.

Specialty Figures - Nurse and Surgeon, Part 2

After completing the nurse, I purchased a mold making starter kit so that I could reproduce the lady.  The kit, by Alumilite, had a smaller amount of mold making material than I expected, however there was just enough to get the nurse encased.

I used a large medicine bottle for the mold form, which presented only a minor problem in extracting the mold (the bottle did not survive). From the mold, I got eight passable castings. Unfortunately, I did not do a very good job at cutting the mold open, so it failed after the eight figure was removed. I was also somewhat dissapointed in this particular mold material which has a low tear strength. However, on the plus size, the eight figures only cost about $3.75 each to produce.  On the down side, I did have some repair work to do as a result of lost details due to air bubbles. These occured mainly in the area of the apron string's bow.

Below is a photo of four of the painted nurses:

(click on the picture to see the full image)


Thanks to Patrick Wilson for the use of his prototype "Funny Little Cottage" as a backdrop (sorry I didn't have the front step in place). I used a little green stuff to repair apron bows.  All in all, I am pleased with the results.

I have also finished sculpting the Surgeon. The finished master is shown below.


I hope to make a new mold of both figures soon.