Portuguese Ultramar Wars w.i.p : african force

[sundayhero]

Hi,

In this topic I'll post the work in progress for an african rebels force, mainly for a portuguese colonial "bush war" setting ("Ultramar" war in Angola and Mozambique during 60-70's)

The portuguese force will be created around 20mm Liberation miniatures metal range, mostly from Rodhesia, africans and SADF figures, converted to represent portuguese soldiers. Great miniatures, with a lot of personality. I'll post them soon.


The african force, will be based on 1/72 Italeri plastic "vietnamese army/vietcong" box, in their last "SSM Super Special Material" range (a new material wich should take glue and paint better than the usual soft plastic 1/72 figures. Why I choosed plastic ? Because of the price the plastic minis, to be honest. But after searching info on possible 1/72 plastic africans, I finally made the choice of...vietnamese. First because I discovered great conversions based on these vietnamese figures, using them as africans (greenstuff berets, etc...).

Poses and sculpt was good, and  choice of weapons was nearly perfect for my need (and weapons were not as thin as they often are represented in plastic, wich was another thing I liked). The last thing I discovered, and decided my choice was the new fairly hard plastic "SSM" italeri material I wanted to try.

So here we go, I bought 2 sets, representing 100 (!) minis :




Each box contains 2 sprues, with about 15 poses if I remember correctly. A lot of Aks, some SKS, and a few RPG and RPD. Almost perfect, as I said; even if I will convert some AK into BA rifles and shotguns.









What about their size ? It can be tricky to mix diferent brands of minis. But overall it's OK, some plastic minis are almost perfect match, some other are bigger. Anyway, with the goold old tip of the base thickness, it will probably be good enough for me; I may also do some legs surgery on several minis to make them a bit shorter, if needed. We'll see, but seeing from a tabletop point of view, there's nothing about sizes shocking me. I do mix diferent minis all the time in other scales, nothing diferent here.







Next point often pointed for plastic minis : they are usually thinner than metal minis. This is where I had an idea    Most of my metal rodhesians are wearing shorts. So I'll have to sculpt their trousers, but the minis themselves are pretty thin, for metal minis (compare legs on pics). There is no "awfull" diference of thickness here. Same for weapons (it's why I like these italeri minis).

The only big diference is heads size. You probably guess what I plan to do now. Cutting  one hundred plastic heads, and replace them with bigger ones 


Since I have not 100 heads to do this, I sculpted my own this afternoon. Not 100 heads, but 6 (maybe I'll had 3 or 4 other ones tommorow), all diferent, bold heads. This way, I'll cast them, add accessories (hair, beards, berets, whatever), recast them, etc, etc...and obtain a good amount of diferent heads I'll be able to used for my project.



Here's my progress so far. What I can tell, is that next time, I'll avoid grey neutral putty, and choose something brighter, because after a few hours, grey become really difficult to see correctly (I discovered how the heads really were once I edited the pics   ).









A better idea of scale :









Some detailed views :







TOmmorow I'll cast them, and continue the work. But the main idea is to swap heads with new bigger ones, make fixes on the plastic bodies if needed (making them bulkier for instance). If the good glueing properties of the italieri minis is confirmed, I will also make conversion poses, to obtain as many diferent figures as I can. I will also create some "spare" minis, for instance white colonial farmers, local police, etc... wich should be usefull for scenarios (like the ones in FoF bush wars), that's why I tried to make many diferent faces/ethnic origins.



here's an example pic of the new head on a figure. It's not glued or adjusted (that's why he's lookin the ground), I just made a quick head swap to see how it would look.




I'm quite happy with the result. I will probably have a bit more work to do to integrate it better (like increasing shoulders widht) but it will be very easy mods.

[juergen c. olk]

WoW! That's impressive,have you ever thought of doing complete figures,since your into sculpting and casting? Can't wait to see the finished product. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ModernAfricanBushwars

[sundayhero]

Thank you a lot for your comments

Actually in the past I made a few commission sculpting  works, but mostly in game scenery and field accessories, not figures. I made heavy conversion (about 90% resculpt) works for myself, but never made a figure from the metal wire armature to the finished product. I'm happy with the work i did last afternoon, first time I make such small faces. I discovered that grey putty was not so great for small scale, or at least for my eyes : as you can see it's still a learning curve 

My casting abilities are reduced for now too. I'm using good old latex, or recently Oyumaru putty to make my molds, and I cast small parts in acrylic resin or greenstuff; good enough for the kind of work I do. But I plan to go further this year, with silicon and resin and metal casting too.

Anyway these new year projects should be very exciting, for the portuguese side, with a lot of interesting conversions based on the great metal Liberation miniatures of course, but also on african side : very interesting challenge !

[Marine0846]

I think the plastic figures would be great for Africans.
With a few conversions, which it looks like you can do,
the army will look unique.

[carlos marighela]

Interesting take on one of my favourite topics.

[sundayhero]

thanks for the comments !

Today I tried to create molds with oyumaru paste, I didn't achieve to make it, and destroyed an head. So I created 5 new heads (this way I've got 10heads, for 10 castings), and I prepared all of them for old school latex "sock" mold.

The tiny heads should be easy to cast, I hope to do this during week end. Now the last heads are cooking, i'll post pics later on night.

[sundayhero]

Here's a few more bareheads.








I also prepared them (not visible on pics) for latex mold making. I'll do this tommorow morning. Tonight I also observed the plastic minis in detail, to think about my project (trying to organize my ideas of conversion, basing, etc...).

I also tested the "SSM" plastic, cutting some bits of sprue, and glueing them with superglue and plastic model glue, to see how it works. We'll see tommorow morning.

i also covered some bits of PVA glue, to see how it sticks to this material, since I usually use it to make weapons and other weakest points of plastic minis sturdier.


Finally, I based one of the minis (the one I removed the head for my example) on metal washer, once again to see how the material sticks to metal.


Answers tommorow !

[sundayhero]

Most important thing in modelling : never give up  

Today I made another try with oyumaru putty, I took my time, and tried to make the things correctly. Yesterday, I tried to "poor" the heads inside a ball of putty, and then cut it in half to make molds. Quick, easy, and extermly uneficient way to do a proper mold  

So today, after googling a bit for informations on how to do it properly, I made another try. First I built some "bottle neck" under the heads I sculpted, so I can poor the resin easily later :




Then, with hot oyumaru putty, I made my first half mold. I first place the sculpt by hand, and finished the job with sculpting tools, so the joint before the 2 halfs would be the best possible :




I repeated the operation :





Then, I placed the 2 cd trays (9 heads total) in fridge so it become firm and cold. I finally made the 2nd part of the mold, trying to make the best print possible :





Then, fridge again for a few minutes. Then, with my Xacto I made a flat bottom under the molds, so later I can poor the resin without any extra stand :





Finally, the critical operation, separate the 2 parts of the mold. Really easy in fact ! No need for tools, or  blade, it just removed very easily, with a very decent print :




Great all mighty Oyumaru !  


Now, I'll be able to poor some acrylic resin (like jesmonite, acrystal, wich is not corrosive and will not destroy the mold) inside and make my 100 heads !    

I'll had the details directly on the bareheads glued on figures, with green stuff. It will be faster than making new molds for each version I would need (beards, berets, hats, etc...).  This way, no one fig will be the same. It may sound a lot of work, but it would take me 2 or 3 evenings to complete them. I'd say, I should have my 100 figures ready to paint in a couple of week.



EDIT : by the way, the SSM plastic works with my superglue gel, it allows sturdy glueing. I also tried some old polystiren glue I had (really old), it worked but it was not as sturdy it was with my superglue gel. I may try new polystiren glue in the future. But it's definitly an interesting material ! I can see use for these minis for a lot of light infantry troops, as long as they use russian weapons.

[Predatorpt]

I may be wrong - I usually make silicon molds - but I think that Oyumaru putty won't work with resin because when you mix the resin components the mixture will get hot and that will soften the Oyumaru after some pours.

[sundayhero]

Not this kind of problem with acrylic resin. It remains almost completly cold (you have to pour big amount of it, for example for scenery purpose, to warm it a little), and since it's (as far as I know) solvent free, the mold remains durable.

Of course, mechanic wearing happens sooner or later (because you clean the molds, scrub, pour, etc...), but it's quite durable.

Tonight I casted 34 heads (weird number because I missed a few casts), and the molds still in good shape. I will be able to cast my hundred heads with no problems.

The only difficulty that appeared is that the resin was too thick to pour for such a small mold : so I simply applied the product directly in the mold too parts with a brush, and then assembled them together. I even don't need a rubber band or anything to keep the 2 parts joined, since oyumaru is a bit sticky when in contact with itself 

Really nice product for this kind of work (and also for basing, simple mold scenery accessories, etc...). Of course, for more complex work, i'd go for silicon molds for sure.

I'll post the pics later on morning.

[sundayhero]

Work is progressing, about 40 heads done :




Here's a detailed pic (note that the heads are directly taken from the mold, I didn't cleaned molding lines or anything) :




Not bad considering how "amateur" is my technic  

[Predatorpt]

Not this kind of problem with acrylic resin. It remains almost completly cold (you have to pour big amount of it, for example for scenery purpose, to warm it a little), and since it's (as far as I know) solvent free, the mold remains durable.

Ahh, ok. The resin I use isn't acrylic and it really gets hot when you mix it, even when in small quantities.

[sundayhero]

Task is completed 




Now the interesting work will start : building and customizing the minis 

[sundayhero]

Here's the first pics of the customized miniatures !

Not all of them, some pics were too awfull  I guess my camera doesn't like macro night pic of yellow plastic minis covered with glossy medium 


THe first leaders.Notice the hand forged ( :grin: ) machettes (some flattened and sanded iron wire)





Here's some heavy weapons specialists :




A few sample of soldiers with SKS and AK (I made more, but the pics were awfull). Most of them are barehead, but I also added some caps ("castro" cap and double peaked caps), bush hats, etc...Berets are reserved for leaders (for game convenience).







my favourite figure in this first batch (does'nt he look a bad ass african mercenary ? ):




What I did on this first batch (14 basic poses directly from the sprue) :

head swap
greenstuff details
xacto plastic cutting (corrections, mainly)
coating (only flat large areas and weapons) with a mix of heavy gel and acrylic gloss medium, to make the figures sturdier and rigid (the old school pva glue technic for plastic minis, but revised)
basing (pumice stone and sand)


Tommorow, I'll primer coat the figures in black, I should make better pics then. I will probably paint these minis first, to "validate" my technicals choice.

[sundayhero]

Thank you a lot  :thumbsup:

Here's the pics of the figures, ready to be painted :



















Here's how they mix with my "portuguese" (for now, still rhodesians) liberation minis. Good enough for me, I think I "erased" the typical thin plastic style pretty well.









From a tabletop point of view, the overall result is good enough for me :




Of course, the "heavy coating" technic covered weapons and hands details, and also  created a few bubbles holes. Nothing I can"t fix with paint, on my plastic talibans, the "problem" was the same on weapons, the trick is to paint details on the rough surface :



On the next mini, I also painted the hand. the original one was too tiny for my own taste, so I used the same "heavy coating" technic...A problem I also encountered with some of the african figures : hands didn't match new heads, sometimes. Painting hand details on a blob of acrylic gel is faster than sculpting 200 hands with 2000(!)fingers (wich I would still have to paint !).



On the zoomed macro light of the merciless digital camera, it's a bit crude...But from a "human" point of view, it's good enough for my gaming purpose ("good enough" is one of my favorite english word  :grin: ).





Now, next job is to prove my theory, painting these fellows  ::  I just received my Osprey reference book, so I'll paint this first batch during week end. It's the last stage of "technical validation" for my hybrid acrylic resin/plastic/greenstuff african force !



By the way, here's a comparison pic of before/after modification (same mini here) :




These new figures mix quite well with my modern french force too :








 It's great, I'll be able to bring frenchies in Africa this way, using these as opposition forces, but also local allies !