A few good lads

The first of the Highlanders are gathering.

The one on the far right is one of the first batch of sculpts I did. I thought they were a bit too clunky so I sculpted another batch and tried to make them a bit slimmer/finer-detailed. The 3 on the left are made from those. The painted mini is a Foundry civilian, for comparison.




Back view of the 3 "slimmer" lads, for a better look at some of the details. The brownish bits were made with a mix of greenstuff and brownstuff, which results in a cured putty that can be sand or filed without being too crumbly.


Now I need to paint these guys, and finish adding bits to more of the base minis to make a unit.

And, at the request of Tippelbruder, a non-miniature, the Lion of the West, my cat, Killian.

Bunch of Cattle and a Highland Soldier

1. I drilled a hole through the shoulders and inserted a bit of wire, sculpted the left arm and strap, part of the bonnet and hair on one of the base minis I cast previously. 2. Started the right arm, added ponytail to hair and top part to bonnet.
3. Added pom-pom and cockade to bonnet, redid left arm a bit, and did the hand for the right arm. I drilled a bit of a hole in the musket so it's pinned to the hand/arm armature wire.
4. Added a bit of ribbon to the hair and a buckle to the strap.
Assorted Highland cattle, made from the base beastie with added horns.

Cast Adrift

Here is one of the molds for casting a basic soldier.
And this is a mold for sword, musket and a bird. I hit on the idea of putting a cork in with the mini when I make the mold so it starts out with a good pouring hole. I had to cut a vent for the sword to cast well. The musket and bird cast well as is.

The results of an evening's casting. Poorly cast bits were remelted, but overall I have been getting pretty good casts within the first couple of tries.

You might notice the Highland cows - I made a mold for that mini and started casting it within an hour - and in spite of one of the cow's ears sticking into the mold, not along the parting line, it cast well right off the bat.

Shiny flashy new troops (sort of)

First try at making 2 part molds and casting metal minis.

I got some stuff called Quick-Sil, made by Castaldo. It's more like a soft 2-part putty. You mix roughly equal parts together quickly, place some in a mold box, add mini, add release agent of some sort, add more putty, compress and leave for about 15 minutes. It's pretty easy and fast. I think I just need a bit more practice, but I've already learned a few things.

Then I couldn't wait and had to try casting.

Here are the 4 best copies of each of 2 of the blanks. Not too bad for a first try, I think, but I hope I can do better with practice. I've heard graphite powder helps in the casting process. I think I'll try cleaning these up and try to add more detail (arms, bonnets, etc.).
I need to try making molds and casting the sowrd and musket I sculpted previously.