Thirty Years War Spanish Arquebusier by king derelict - Art Girona - 54 mm

[king derelict]

I was very impressed with the white metal figures from Art Girona and thoroughly enjoyed painting them so I decided to try a few more. 

Here we have an arquebusier from the Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648)

Learning (I hope) from the previous effort I have used the heavy duty double sided tape to mount the figure to the pill container doing duty as holder. I decided to keep the head separate to make painting easier and the arms are only attached for the black priming and the directional white highlights.

Next I will start building up the coloured glazes onto the primers

Thanks for looking in

Alan

[CDW]

Beautiful, crisp mold!

[king derelict]

25 minutes ago, CDW said:

Beautiful, crisp mold!

Hi Craig, yes Art Girona make some beautiful casts. I think they will be seeing more orders from me. Their range of subjects is also very wide

alan

[Jack12477]

I'm here too! Up in the nose bleed section. 

Edited July 28 by Jack12477

[Old Collingwood]

This will  be lovely.

 

OC.

[Canute]

I'm in too, with Jack up in the cheap seats.😄

[king derelict]

On 7/28/2024 at 4:28 PM, Jack12477 said:

I'm here too! Up in the nose bleed section. 

Great to have you along Jack, Looking forward to some expert advice.

Alan

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

This will  be lovely.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. Its another lovely casting with well delineated details so I hope to make a decent job.

Alan

[king derelict]

10 hours ago, Canute said:

I'm in too, with Jack up in the cheap seats.😄

Its great to have you along Ken.

I just got an Aldi air fryer so I can serve all sorts of "healthy" fried snacks

Alan

[king derelict]

I removed the arms and drilled them so they can be held on a cocktail stick during painting. I them started adding the first glazes to the jacket and hose. This is more of a yellow ochre than the deep yellow of Skinners Horse. It seems to build up more easily than the brighter colour. 

Following the thinking of others out there, it occurred to me that the casque is polished metal and the figure is metal so rather than trying to paint the helmet maybe I should try polishing it. I started with cut down very fine sanding pads and then moved to solver polish. It looks better in real life but I think I will give it another go with the polish. Its small and awkward to hold (and I am nervous about deforming the collar below). I think a gloss coat and then a black wash to bring up the details

Thanks for looking in, the likes and kind comments

 

alan

 

 

[Jack12477]

Take some jewelers rouge on a Q-tip, try polishing it with that, it's a little grittier than silver polish. Finish it with silver polish. Another trick if you have a woodcarver friend, ask for a small chunk of their green stropping wax. Rub the Q-tip over the wax to load it up, then rub the helmet. I use the green wax on a piece of leather to get a very sharp edge on my knives, woodcarving as well as pocket knives.

[king derelict]

Q Tips! They are sitting on the work bench and I never thought of them. Thank you so much Jack. I just ordered a three pack of compounds from Amaon which has the rouge and the green polish so I will try them as soon as they arrive.

Thanks again

Alan

[Jack12477]

This is the green stick honing compound I use. Along with my stropping pad. As an aside, you can use this stopping pad to rehone, resharpen, your Exacto knife blades.

 

 

Stropping pad

 

By the way the stick will last several lifetimes. I inherited it from a fellow woodcarver when he passed.

 

Here's a couple links Strop pad and Small green stick

 

Edited July 30 by Jack12477

[Jack12477]

Alan, if you don’t have one of these WeCheer micro engravers (misnamed IMO) I highly recommend them. The take all the standard Dremel bit, get into tight places, portable, cordless and will stall if you apply too much pressure. I have two, one corded and one cordless (shown in link). You can use the cotton Dremel bits to do light buffing. 

[king derelict]

Thanks Jack

I found what I think is a small stick of jewelers rouge in a box of Dremel accessories and used it to good effect. I do have one of those micro engravers and may do another attempt using that.

Thanks for the great tips.

Alan

[king derelict]

I added further coats of yellow glaze to the jacket. I also notices a mould line on one of the legs in yesterdays photos so I filed that off and built up teh colour there too. I have added glaze to teh breeches and I think they are good so its onto the detail

Following some very helpful input from @Jack12477 I used jewelers rouge tip on Q Tip to further polish the casque. Its coming up quite nicely. I may try one more iteration.

I added some white primer to the face to bring up the details ready for the flesh tones.

Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments

 

Alan

[Jack12477]

Like the color on the figure Alan, looks real good 👍 helmet looks nice and shiny also

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work  Alan,   so much detail  in that figure  -  cant  wait for more.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

Like the color on the figure Alan, looks real good 👍 helmet looks nice and shiny also

Thank you very much Jack.

The green polishing compound arrived today so I might give the helmet one last polish but I think its not bad as it is. The collar under the head is a bit fragile and I am reluctant to break it off chasing perfection

Alan

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Excellent work  Alan,   so much detail  in that figure  -  cant  wait for more.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC. Its a treat to paint although I need frequent rests to let the eyes cool down a bit. The nail brush suggestion has proved very valuable too

Alan

[Jack12477]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

The green polishing compound arrived today so I might give the helmet one last polish

Be very gentle with the green stick ! I would leave the collar as is if it's that fragile. It will okay if it's a tad tarnished

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

Be very gentle with the green stick ! I would leave the collar as is if it's that fragile. It will okay if it's a tad tarnished

Thanks Jack. I decided to leave well alone but I have a few more of these that feature armour so I will be using the polishing compounds again soon.

Alan

[king derelict]

These are great little things to absorb time. Its so easy to just do a little more, and maybe a little more....

This is moving along rather quickly. I think I might be assembling the pieces tomorrow if I get some time.

I added details to the main figure and I like how its coming out.

I think I need a lighter red to highlight the bows to make them stand out a little better.

 

Then I started on the head and worked flesh tones and the beard. I added a gloss coat to the helmet and I will add a little black was once the rest of the head is complete. The moustache is a little untidy at this point.

I have rather set myself up by enlarging these shots to this level. The actual face is about 1/3 inches in height.

 

Thank you for looking in, the likes and helpful comments

Alan

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work mate,    aint that just the truth   with  figures  -   you  can just loose  time  and  just keep adding more  painting  levels.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Excellent work mate,    aint that just the truth   with  figures  -   you  can just loose  time  and  just keep adding more  painting  levels.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. I find the painting to be very absorbing and time passes quickly. I’m enjoying this far more than I expected 

alan

[druxey]

Looking really nice so far.

 

Two suggestions: One, skin tones are always darker than you think. Two, blend the upper edge of the beard into the skin are a bit for a softer natural edge.

[bobandlucy]

May I say that I never saw the appeal of this kind of figure modeling until now.

 

Thanks

 

bob

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, druxey said:

Looking really nice so far.

 

Two suggestions: One, skin tones are always darker than you think. Two, blend the upper edge of the beard into the skin are a bit for a softer natural edge.

Thank you druxey. Yes, the skin is a little pale (especially for a Spaniard) although I am working from the warmer end of the skin tones. I probably allowed too much highlight tone onto the face. The beard does need a little attention too.

Thanks for the useful input

Alan

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, bobandlucy said:

May I say that I never saw the appeal of this kind of figure modeling until now.

 

Thanks

 

bob

Hi Bob,

I sort of fell into this by accident; painting the Nabopolassar figure for a friend who is a professor of Ancient History. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and I've started painting a few more. As with everything there's a lot to learn.

I find it very relaxing and absorbing. Its really all about the painting so there are no tiny parts, almost invisible PE and they don't command a lot of space both when building and when displaying them. 

Alan

[king derelict]

After tidying up the face its been a day of building up the parts of the figure. I decided head first, then the sword because it will be baulked by the arquebus , then arms and the arquebus itself.

The head was easy; the wide collar gave plenty of area for the glue to grip and it is also mostly vertical. The sword and the arms were another matter. Their weight makes them very difficult to keep in position while the glue sets. I'm using 5 minute epoxy and the best results come from applying the glue to the mating surfaces then waiting for the glue to become almost a gel and then making the assembly and holding them in position for the last few minutes.

I need to come up with something better; maybe drilling each side of the joint and pinning it with a short piece of brass rod.. I'm still trying to decide the merits of assembling the figure fully before painting. I suspect that it might be something to decide on a case by case basis. In this instance the position of the arquebus makes some of the figure difficult to work on with the paint brush. Possibly a better idea would have been to have added the arms to the torso before painting and added the arquebus at the end. 

Adding the arquebus (with the attached hands) was a fight. The hands had to be carefully twisted to line up with the arms and then had to be filed to fit. Even so I had to use some putty to build up the wrist and cuff to get a better appearance. The upper arm is still a little awkward but I'm scared to go any further in case I damage something irretrievably.

This is where we are now.

I need to repaint the hands and cuffs where the putty was added. The arquebus rest has to be added and the base has to be painted and some grass added. Oh and that cat hair needs to be removed.

Thank you for looking in, for the likes and the helpful comments

Alan