Figure painting

[healey36]

My memory of that character is that he typically wore a beret and was rather slim; that's a tough conversion, scratch-building a beret. Still, might be worth a try at some point.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

My memory of that character is that he typically wore a beret and was rather slim; that's a tough conversion, scratch-building a beret. Still, might be worth a try at some point.

Typically, but not always:

[healey36]

Well there you go then. I always enjoyed the episodes with the Brigadier in them.

We're going to need Sarge to tell us the significance of the red band (not to be confused with the speckled band) and the red tabs. I think it is, or was, a rank indicator for colonels and ranks thereabouts, but I'm not sure.

[sarge]

Red tabs and hat band are for the ranks full Colonel and above. These are considered "staff rank", as commanders of regiments are Lt.Col. Once you made Colonel, you trade in your regimental insignia for staff insignia, part of which are the red band and tabs.

Your Brigadier (regardless of name and television show) should be tabbed and banded in red, else change his name and rank to Major Unwittington-Smythe. Grin!

[healey36]

Very good, a bit of clean-up still to be done. The cap is a bit of a crush-job, so squeezing in the red band could be tough, we'll see. There's a few other things that need to be addressed as well, the badge on his tunic being an obvious one, for instance.

Stay tuned.

[healey36]

Unrelated to model railroading, a friend of mine asked me to paint a 100+ French infantrymen for a game session he has coming up. Finding details of WWII French infantry kit was a bit of a challenge, especially the helmets (could be because they weren't around that long ). Anyway, thirty bases similar to this one:



These are 1/100-scale, so slightly smaller than HO. Block-painted and dipped, I'm glad they are done and off to the owner.

[robert.]

Most of the helmets have dents from getting dropped on a rifle. I shouldn't make fun of the French . They saved our ***.

[healey36]

I always figured the poilu got a bum wrap for the performance of the French Army in 1940. He was, to great extent, the victim of poor equipment, poor doctrine, a poor plan, and sometimes ghastly leadership. One could argue he was nearly doomed from the get-go. In numerous instances, however, he proved himself a capable and steadfast soldier. The Germans, and the British to some extent, were prepared to fight the next war, while the French seemed ready to resume the last.

Last time through York, I swung by Mike Rosenberg's tables and bought a few toy railroad figures from him for the layout. He has a crap-ton of them, all W. M. Britains, Manoil, Barclay, and others. I think these are Barclay, at least looking at a few sources on the web:



They are hollow-cast, as was the tradition of the toy soldier trade back in the day. My understanding is these are in "as found" condition, which is pretty remarkable given their age. No plans to change that.

I believe the guy holding a "stop" sign in the middle of the bottom image is a gateman. Both Lionel (presumably Barclay) and Flyer had gatemen that featured a missing lower leg. I have often wondered if this harkened back to hiring practices of the real railroads, finding work for injured employees or engaging disabled veterans for these "low-impact" type jobs.

[healey36]

I was recently rummaging for a few 1/64-scale (S-gauge) figures I have around here somewhere, a set I bought from Bowser quite a few years ago. They are repros of the figures Gilbert Flyer used on their MOW accessory, one of which was a guy with an artificial leg holding a warning/stop sign. In the process of tearing the place apart, I found the old tin lunchbox that I keep all of the tinplate figures in. A lot of fun stuff in there.

One of the figures in there was the ubiquitous "running man" by Arttista. This popular guy turns up on a lot of layouts, but I always saw him as a bit of a dichotomy. In a world where only the model train is actually moving, this guy is caught in a stop-action pose of desperate motion, i.e. if he's running to catch the train, he'll never make it, his one leg anchored to the platform. I have the same feeling about automobiles on the layout; stopped at the grade crossing, parked along a street, that works, but sitting stationary in the driving lane looks weird. Maybe it's just me; they are, after all, just props, if nothing else making for interesting photos.

Back to the "running man"; I'd originally painted him with some glossy enamels trying to make him work with other tinplate-style figures, but he didn't. He looks too good compared to the blob-faced Barclays, Manoils, and Plasticville people. So I pulled him out last night and gave him a repaint, then a quick wash, followed by a shot of clear matte. He looks a bit better now, certainly more like he was intended (although his trousers look a bit of a mess):



I've changed up my methods a bit, now relying more on matt medium to assist with the wash-flow. This is something I didn't include in the OST article, as I was still experimenting with it at the time. I had picked up an industrial-size jar of the stuff at Michael's, but the results achieved were less than acceptable. I switched over to Vallejo and things got quite a bit better. The only thing I don't like about using it is that one has to carefully wash out the brush afterwards, as it will harden and ruin the bristles if not completely washed away. You still end up with something that looks decent from some short distance, but not necessarily a closeup.

Anyway, still searching for the one-legged Flyer guy. He's here somewhere.

[gregj410]

Artista never seems to get the eyes just right I saw this on EBay tonight. I just can’t imagine this on my layout.

[healey36]

Nice tattoo!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Artista never seems to get the eyes just right I saw this on EBay tonight. I just can’t imagine this on my layout.

Sure......right by the saw mill!

[HONDO74]

Here is a nice set of those American Flyer station figures on ebay. Only $269 dollars.....

[healey36]

Pretty nice, but $269?

Looks like the gateman has a beard. I have a pair of those baggage carts that a previous owner stripped the paint from. I'll need to repaint them and find a couple of the operator figures.

[HONDO74]

Here is another AF set. Only US $999.99



https://www.ebay.com/itm/175406039518?_ ... %3A2047675