An Old Hobby Resurfaces

For more than 40 years I have been involved in my "other" interest......assembling and painting model figurines.
At one stage - around 1982/83 - I did several commissions, the most difficult and tedious being the painting of a 30-piece highland pipe band in 54mm (~2") scale. Those kilts and hose were killers!

There was a shop in Sydney which specialised in militaria and war games and I received many requests through them for my work, mostly Napoleonic and in 75mm to 150mm size.

I prime with a grey automotive primer, undercoat in flat acrylics and then the finishing painting is done in artist's oils.
Above and below are just two examples of what I did. Both Napoleonics, with the French Hussar (unfinished at the moment) in 90mm scale and the Zieten Hussar in 75mm.


I took a break for a couple of years after moving from Sydney to Canberra (1984) and spending more leisure time with two growing kids and their various sports and activities, but returned to the hobby in the early 90's, took a sabbatical again for several years and only recently resurrected my interest.

The current projects include "Cassie", a 1/16-scale (about 110mm tall) female militia figure which I just completed today. Painting this figure was a change in my "normal" method in that she has been completely done in acrylics using Vallejo "Model Air" - designed for airbrushing but perfectly suited to brushing using the multiple wash-layer method.
Cassie has been finished in the same outfit as my protagonist in my current play-through of Fallout 4, a game in which I have just racked up over 10,000 hours.





The next figure in the workshop is Felicia - a steam-punk gunslinger of extraordinary fine quality.
This is a 3D-printed model, not a casting, and is approximately twice the size of Cassie....about 19cm tall.
My intention is to undercoat in acrylic and then revert to oils for finishing as it is easier to blend shades using oils.




The fine detail can be seen in the last photo. Amazing!

More will follow as I progress with Felicia.

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