At the time, I'd always intended to add to the group, and as I'm not really working on any projects to a particular deadline currently, I decided to go back and finish off the southern style gent I'd planned.
Colonel Sanders Del Monte was intended to evoke the sort of cream linen suited type who might oversee their large estate (or possibly the careful selection of tropical fruit). He might also pass as the sort of gentleman with enough enthusiasm to bankroll a xeno-archaeological dig.
The figure was made from a Rogue Trader psyker with the addition of a pair of arms from a Foundry historical figure. I actually made the first rough conversion in (I think) after picking up the Foundry figure from the £1 bargain shelves at Bring Out Your Lead 2014.
As this WIP photo shows, I filled the gaps between arms and torso, as well as adding a little goatee beard and the bootlace tie. It's not immediately obvious from the photos, but I also resculpted the rear of the bald head because of the devastatingly bad mould slip on the figure.
When I came to painting up the Colonel, it was obvious that I should have taken better care in prepping the figure when I converted and undercoated it two years ago. The psyker model is a shocking cast, with gigantic mould slip and undefined details at the sides of the torso and in between the legs. Because I only really grasped quite how bad it was part-way through the painting, I decided to plough on and hope that paint would hide the worst of it!
The resulting Colonel is certainly rough around the edges, and is nowhere near my best work. That said, I'm more than happy to get him finished after being WIP for around about 6 years!
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| Colonel Sanders Del Monte (honorary rank), leads local troops in search of his missing tea-set. |
The colonel might not be your favourite work, but I LOVE this fella. I foresee him being highly entertaining in future games.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr Saturday! Hopefully that means his character is shining through all the rough edges ;)
DeleteGreat job, I really like this conversion. Also, I never would have noticed the imperfections...I find paint covers up a lot really....
ReplyDeletePaint really is a blessing isn't it? I guess on the table it doesn't matter, as long as you don't look too closely at the horrible mould slip lines between his legs ;)
DeleteGreat work on this guy. I wouldn't have noticed the casting issues at all. The new arms work very well. I like the converted commissar too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Toby! The commissar is definitely the enforcer of the group!
DeleteThey look awesome. Marshall Bravestar comes to my mind.
ReplyDeleteThat's the classic space cowboy touchstone! Thanks
DeleteSometimes "good enough" really is good enough. I am currently struggling mightily with a sculpt I quite like simply because the details on the faces are so very very small, and I've grown both older and more accustomed to working with models with more, shall we say exaggerated?, . . . with larger features.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah, mold slip can be a royal pain. I've seen some very nice sculpts ruined by bad castings that made it into official packaging anyway. But you know, you've done a quite admirable job "saving" this miniature. And if it's not your best work . . . that's just because you're very good and very demanding of yourself. It's darn fine work indeed! :)
I'm 100% with you - done and finished really is fine, and is significantly better than perpetually unfinished! I know what you mean about some of these figures with fine features. They don't help the painter sometimes.
DeleteThanks!
Wow, it really takes 'something' to sort out the bits and turn them into something, not only coherent, but charming. This is the case; you built a complete character from scratch. Lovely at so many levels.
ReplyDeleteThanks Suber! I think the stern face on the Perry sculpt really helps. I only really added a cane, hat, tie and beard ;)
DeleteFantastic work on his facial details. Nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much!
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