135
Sparrow

Tip: Gluing
Never put glue directly from the tube/bottle directly on your part. I put whatever glue I’m using on a scrap piece of plastic card and dip the wire into the glue so there isn’t an excessive amount on the wire. Or I will use a sharpened toothpick to apply the glue from the plastic card to the wire or part.

Once the glue is set I fill the gap with putty. Once the putty is dry I sand it down. The beauty of this whole procedure is the ability to tweak the position of hands and feet. You are better able to make figures ‘hold’ implements and equipment. You can also create more realistic gestures. You can do this with any type of figure; I have done this extensively with resin figures and a number of type with injected plastic figures.
This is the basic technique for replacing hands with After Market sets.
The feet went together using the same technique. I added a second extra long wire to the base of the foot. The long wire would serve two purposes. It gives me something to hold and put in a vice while I am working on the figure and it will act as a final positioning post. When I drilled a hole in the foot I had to select a location that would give me as long a hole as possible to give me as much support as possible for the final pose. The length of the foot was the decision and with the hole drilled and the wire glued in I was able to bend the wire to a more realistic position. The point here is that the wire does not have to go ‘straight’ in and stay that way.

The rest of the assembly was straight forward. I used some two part epoxy and glued all the upper body parts together and the lower body parts together as separate subassemblies. I always save the waist for last. It’s a critical connection that can hinge on arm and leg positioning. There was some sanding on the torso and waist to get a nice clean fit, once that was done I glued them together. I always save the accessories for last. This is because they too may be affected by where legs and arms end up.

Tip: Hollow Out things
With these figures there were two specific pieces that needed added attention. The gun holster and the scarab needed an extra touch. They were both molded with a solid end and no representation of depth. This is an easy effective way of adding great detail to your projects. I hollow these out to give them real depth. I first use an appropriately sized pin vice and drill some pilot holes to get out the majority of the material. Then I use a combination of a sharp #11 blade and a dental tool to pick out the remaining material. This can be done with holsters, sleeves, helmets, helmet rims, gun barrels, etc.
  • 5_2_drilloutdetail1
  • 5_1_Hollowoutholster
  • 5_3_figurepreputty
  • 5_4_figureputty
  • 5_6_glue_on_plastic
  • 5_7_glue

About the Author

About Scott Lodder (slodder)
FROM: NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES

I modeled when I was a teenager. College, family and work stopped me for a while. Then I picked it back up after about 12 years off. My main focus is dioramas. I like the complete artistic method of story telling. Dioramas involve so many aspects of modeling and I enjoy getting involved in the ...


Comments

Excellent article Scott.
OCT 07, 2006 - 08:09 PM
GREAT article Scott!! And great subject/model too! well, 14 pages is a lot for my english skills and i will have to start all over again but you prove that dioramas is the king of modelism genres because here you can really DARE, you are only limited by your imagination!
OCT 07, 2006 - 08:21 PM
Arrrrr!!! Nice work matey! It's got a great sense of action/motion. Excellent job documenting the build too! Cheers, Jim PS: About those links... try putting them back in. I need to see them in action to figure out why they are failing.
OCT 07, 2006 - 11:55 PM
Thanks for the complements It was a blast to build and I hope some people can learn a tip or trick. PS - the links are on page 14
OCT 08, 2006 - 12:46 AM
Hi scott, As somebody who has an interest in the subject of the time of the Pirates and often enjoy playing a variety of games, I have really enjoyed both the review and the pictures that accompany the text. I have often looked at the Pirates series by Verlinden and may well look again with an intention to buy as I feel a little inspired by the work that you have done. Many thanks, and this is my first visit to Model Geek, so I may now visit again. John
OCT 08, 2006 - 02:13 AM
Great article Scott, well written ,easy to follow with and great photography. I always wanted to do something with water and waves and I had read many others on how to achieve such, but your has a bit more since to it. You put in a ton of time and effort into this article feature, you deserve a round of applause. Joe
OCT 08, 2006 - 09:28 AM
Thanks Joe - the encouragement makes the work worth it Hopefully you jump in and try some water - just ask any questions, I'd be happy to help. John - pirates are Great, a bit of color, a bit of 'fantasy', total creativity, and you keep a bit of military base too. Hope to see you around MG more often - it's a fun place
OCT 08, 2006 - 04:12 PM
Great article and well executed dio. It's well worth reading and learning a few new tricks and also getting a reminder of a lot of features already showed on Modelgeek. Well done Scott Cheers Claude
OCT 08, 2006 - 06:03 PM