WIP: Hunting Mountain Man

Fig 1: Part assembled. I was trying not to attach it permanently to its base yet so I could underspray it with an airbrush but I had to give in because the figure is too big and heavy to support any other way. I filled the base partially with Milliput and drilled and wired the two foot ‘tabs’ together underneath.

The figure is hollow cast and split vertically in sections – so the joints don’t provide a solid bit for the normal pinning and therefore can only be glued around their rims. Filling is crucial. I think most Little General kits are the same.

Fig 2: undercoated in grey Halford primer. The base is screwed temporarily to the wood work base.

Fig 2/3: I airbrushed the body with a basecoat. Tried to shade it but my skills are rusty.

Added ‘mountain man’ accessories. Without instructions and only a front photo, I guessed the back – there were likely dents in the back and hip to take the bag and roll.

The figure is so heavy and big that it came apart at the waist when I tilted it on my ball vice. So I’ve created a stronger join but left it bisected so I could work on it. It’s too heavy to hold comfortably.

The paint was getting chipped so I filled a plastic bag with soft builder’s sand to rest it on. (I use a leather jeweller’s sand-bag to do metal work – so that’s where I got the idea. This is a softer version)

Friday 6th July 2012

After a week or two of focusing on selling (and buying) kits, I returned to the workbench

Still quite some way to go but he is back together in one piece again. The paint was chipping off quite badly in spite of my soft sandbags.
Most progress from the neck up – now I can focus on shading the body.

Painted the axe, bed-roll and knife with undercoat. Painted the rifle – trying out a woodgrain effect on the stock which worked quite well. Must try to find the tutorial.

Seam still visible on the rabbit despite knife work. Will have to disguise it with putty.

(Must learn to take better photos )

22nd July 2012

Almost ready to begin the groundwork. I still have to shade the hands and attach the feather.

Had a disaster when the figure slipped off the stand and fell on the floor. At first, I thought it was unscathed but later realised that one of the bobcat’s ears was bent in half. I tried to straighten it with pliers and a cloth to protect the paintwork but couldn’t see what I was doing and snapped it off (memo to self: dont do this kind of thing in the small hours of the night). Anyway, managed to build a new ear out of milliput – although the paintwork is not a great match.

Decided to pin the rifle to the shoulder for strength. Used slow-drying epoxy.