~I have missed a day posting...but have been at work here and there,attaching some of the British troops' equipment, touching up and completing the leg-gear.
Here's the lot of them, before weathering thier Ammo Boots
And here I've used the pigment powder mix from the Dio base to make a wash, and carefully aplied it to the footwear, as I'd imagine they'd be pretty dusty, and the black just about invisable
Of course at this section of the figure work, it's essential, particularly in the usual case of using figures sourced from different manufacturers, to ensure the equipment is consistent throughout. Not quite everything is attached to the figures yet above, but I wanted to show how I spread-out the equipment load among the team, and make sure to vary the load-out from one man to the next somewhat, to avoid the 'toy-soldier' look of matching packs.
Alot of equipment items can be easily placed, others will not look right without some grinding-away of the underside of the item, or the attachment point on the figure. You can usually use your fingtips to handle the parts, but I find if I loosely hold many items in tweezers, it's far easier to see the placement as you set it--without your 1:1 scale hand in the way.
These packs we're often stuffed-full, and fit high & tight. I placed the bayonet to be hanging according to gravity, but portrayed it swinging on the other, running, Enfield man.
I'm really happy with the results I've gotten using these Dragon figures Ken sent me,
(thanks again Ken!) though it was a good deal of work getting them into shape, and some details are just inferior, like the boots, which I think are better covered in dust.
I noticed when modelling Commonweath troops before, that the large ammo pouches need to hang away slightly, as above, when the soldier is in certain positions.
I'm still working on getting the right look to the canteens, but there wasn't much point before placement because they we're very difficult to complete while stuck to the sticks. At this point I use a palette that's just a little of this and that...kind of a muddle really to fill in the blanks and solve and errors found when assembling everything. There's always touch-ups to do when attaching the painted gear items, but getting most of the painting done off the figures goes a long way towards completion when painting this many mini-men.
One of the things I'm personally most proud of of on this entire big build, this Tommie's scratchmade Hobnails fitted to the soles of his Ammo Boots.
~~Thanks you guys, for sticking with me to the end...............................