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Creating casulties.

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  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: The Great Wet North
Creating casulties.
Posted by jaysun on Thursday, March 10, 2005 11:46 PM
I work a lot in 1/72 scale and was having the hardest time creating the illusion of dead or wounded figures. (I don't buy expensive figures, mostly soft plastic and then I hack em apart and creat my own poses) Most of them would seem to float above the ground work or have a limb sticking randomly up in the air. I wanted them to look as if they are heavy and pardon the term, a dead weight. After trial and error and mounds of frustration I found a way quite by accident to give them the look I wanted. Here's what you do.

- First find a figure that is in a pose close to what you want. Like the German Soldier hucking a grenade or a soldier lying down firing an MG. Cut away the weapons an discard them. Most weapons are lost upon injury or impact. You can find many spare weapons out there and if you are really good with a knife and paint you may be able to salvage ones off of other figures.
- shave off the bottom parts that will be exposed to the ground so that that side is relatively flat. Don't get carried away as you don't want to make the figure look too skinny.
- cut off the limbs and head and then place ( not glue) them back in their original place. They should now apear to be laying closer to the ground as if they were completly relaxed.
-use gap filling super glue to glue them back on w/o picking any parts up. Just glue them while the figure is still on the ground ( not on your ground work but on your work bench).
-once the glue is dry look for any inperfections and do necessary touch ups. Do this in small doses as too much glue can make the figure look like popeye.
-paint your figure and your ready to go.

A few more things to try. cut off the original head and replace it with one that doesn't have a helmut. Then find a helmut off another figure and place it nearby. Heads can be glued back on turning to the side for more realizm.
Oh yea, these figures may be a little fragile now so take extra care hadling them. Well good luck amigos.
Jaysun out.

I love the smell of super glue in the morning. Smells like...victory.
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Massachusetts
Posted by ajlafleche on Friday, March 11, 2005 6:04 PM
Some good ideas there, Jaysun. As you look to larger scales. however, You'll need to remember the sculptor designed the figure to have closthing responding to gravity in a standing position. Folds that look great on a standing figure will look starnge on a prone or supine figure.

Remember, if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: USA
Posted by philp on Sunday, March 13, 2005 9:44 PM
Famous movie quote:
"I's hate dead guys." (think it is from a Western).

One of our best small scale builders really likes this quote due to the fact that it is very hard to find wargame figures as casualties (when your figure gets killed in a game, you remove it). Gavin had to make his own for his Rourke's Drift dio as he did it in 15mm scale. He modified several figure and then used them to cast a few of his own. He has also done a few using the Warhammer Skeletons (no clothing for folds).
I have recently noticed several figure manufacturers have casualties in their figure lists. Obviously they are aiming more at the dio builders out there.
Phil Peterson IPMS #8739 Join the Map http://www.frappr.com/finescalemodeler
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: The Great Wet North
Posted by jaysun on Monday, March 14, 2005 11:54 AM
Thanks for the tip ajlafleche. I only work in 1/72 though. Like I said this was just a quick accidental discovery when I was trying to fix a couple of 1/72 scale figures to my diorama base. The arms popped off and they looked more natural. so I chopped all the limbs off and was impressed at how more relaxed the figure appeared. I touched them up with paint and vola. Watch the Diorama forum for my pic of my first Dio. As soon as I fugure out how to get this dam camera working.
Jaysun
I love the smell of super glue in the morning. Smells like...victory.
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