I have finished my first 80mm figure. It is the HINCHCLIFFE 80mm BRITISH PARATROOPER. Now for those of you who have never seen this company, well you will only see these rarely on eBay. Which is where I picked this one up. It is a great figure for being manufactured in the late 1970’s the detail is quite good. Unfortunately my camera is not the greatest, I will update the photos shortly.
So these are just “preview” ones for now.
I started the build Saturday night and finished the vignette today. I used Tamiya, Model Master, and Citadel colours for the figure and groundwork. The rock wall is scratchbuilt from DAS modelling clay. The tree and vines are scratchbuilt using wire twisted together and diluted Squadron green putty to form the bark of the tree. The tree “growth” is made from teased out stuffing from a toy my German Sheperd shredded. I dyed the stuffing green with fabric dye and coated it with dried seasoning from the cheap seasoning aisle of the local dollar store. The vines were coated with white PVA glue and sprinkled with the seasoning mix. I added the usual static grass etc. The ground work is Celluclay with a lot of white PVA glue added during the mixing. The figure was drilled and pinned to secure it to the base. The base was .75 cents at Michaels with a little black craft paint to cover the rough edges. Final touch was to paste maroon felt to the bottom.
I enjoyed the build. I am really pleased with the paint job on the Denison smock it turned out great. I am starting another figure shortly, haven’t decided which one yet. I will post it when it is done.
It was her toy a stuffed Canada Goose so no need for forgiveness…lol. The idea for using the stuffing actually came to me after reading about using rubberised horsehair from a furniture repair shop for the basis of the tree. The stuffing in the toy is actually finer than what I could have got from the repair shop and there was plenty in the goose. I could make an entire forest…lol
I am going to have a friend (pro-photographer) snap the pics and try my hand at submitting this to the readers gallery of photos for a future FSM issue.
I am going to add a couple more items to the groundwork to complete the base, a few wild flowers, some tall grass, and a little dead fall to the undergrowth.
I am really pleased with the build, I have been away from figure building for awhile. I have plenty of completed, but as yet unpainted figures so it feels great to have this one completed.
Thanks Carpe Diem, I am really pleased with the result I achieved on the Denison. I used an actual swatch of the smock material to match paint colours. I also had a few great references to use,
British Parachute Forces 1940-45 - Howard P. Davies - Uniform Guide 2
The Paras British Airborne Forces 1940-84 - Osprey
The Verlinden Way Vol 5. - Francois Verlinden
Once I get my friend to shoot the pics I will have them posted.
For those of you in the Toronto area. I just put this figure on display at my favourite hobby shop Northstar Hobbies on Dundas St. If you’re in the area stop in and have a look and post your comments.
Well back to the workbench, I picked up a new set of figures to work on.
Thanks for the kind words. I really enjoyed building and painting this figure. I am currently working on another figure of a Para in full jump kit from the Falklands. After that is completed I have a pair of figures to put together in a vignette of a Para instructor and Candidate. As the builds progress I will post more photos.
