Eehaw!!, a Donkey, a Bedouin and a Snake vignette

[rtfoe]

Hi, the donkey gets some attention now.
I modified the donkey from the Dragon Fallschirmjager set. It was quite stiff looking and wanted it to look as if it was forced to move forward. Also I was going to burden it with a heavy load.

It starts out like this...with the one on the left with neck down...

I cut the neck at two points, positioned the head upward and filled the spaces with plastic scrap.

Checking with a figure that will eventually be a Bedouin was correct, I proceed to putty and sculpt.

I searched for an appropriate picture to reference a defiant cheeky donkey and arrived with this which meant a major surgery on the snout and lower lip which I cut at the mouth and a wedge across the top of the snout just behind the nostril...

The empty space where the teeth is was built up with putty and sculpted.

The neck around the jaw needed wittling down and the putty cleaned up and shaved down.

His left cheek looks better than his right.

Latest I've done is to add the load...these are the basics, fine accessories like water bags and rifles will be added.

Notice that the neck has been defined and there is a pronounced jaw line.

More to come later.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Thanks Paul. It was fun researching and scratching it.

Cheers,
Wabble

[minitnkr]

Excellent.

[rtfoe]

Hi, some last few details on the Bedouin before we move onto the donkey...

I've beefed up the dagger with putty and scribbed detail. Needs cleaning up.

A Bedouin isn't one unless he carries one of their iconic weapons...the North African or Arabian heavily inlaid Snaphaunce Lock Jezail musket. These things were handmade and usually two are never alike. Which means I don't have to worry about being accurate.

I started with carving out a Mauser rifle...

These rifles were very long at about 54 inches in length. So somewhere along the barrel I have to add an extension of 2 cm. Also the butt needs a bit more work.

I didn't need to show the extension as the rifle was going to be wrapped in a blanket I made with thin Magic Sculpt. Extra left over of the putty went to the butt and flintlock...

I wasn't satisfied with the Jezails butt stock so I mixed a tiny bead of Magic Sculpt and shaped a larger butt...

Once the putty cured on the butt stock I refined it by sanding and shaping it smooth.

Now we can move onto the donkey.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Hi Wabble really jealous of your sculpting skills mate the figure is looking excellent.

Ha ha, I'm jealous of your scratch building and etch detailing so I guess we're even.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Great progress.

Thank you Paul. These are old WIP's which I'm replacing with larger images so it looks very fast. I mentioned in my previous post as snails overtake me on the highway of building.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Looking good Richard. Great details especially at this scale

Thanks Jim, 1/35th scale is rather a nice scale to work with. You can get away with a lot of less detailing. Anything larger means more detailing.

Cheers,
Wabble

[scottie3158]

Hi Wabble really jealous of your sculpting skills mate the figure is looking excellent.

[minitnkr]

Great progress.

[Jim R]

Looking good Richard. Great details especially at this scale

[rtfoe]

For some reason or other my posts doesn't show up in the new topics section even with the new title...hhmmm.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Hi,
I have moved on to covering the feet. With the extra putty I made sandal straps and eventually even the soles which I was going to do with plastic strip. They're square at the moment but when cured I will snip them into shape and sand them down.

I waited until the putty stiffened a little before shaping them around the ankle and feet.

Now he won't burn his feet...
The sandal soles have been trimmed so now my Bedouin homey has semi-covered feet.

I've added a dagger and beefed up his belt with a bulge and buckle. Might raise detail on the dagger hilt and scabbard later. The extra left over putty was used to make the straps on the rolled stowage.

Surrounding him are items I made with the extra stuff and putty I had lying around. I'll show you later how i carved the urn.

Cheers,
Wabble

[rtfoe]

Well, I'm glad you're back in the driving 'seat' mate!
Steve

Hi Steve, I don't know what's under my seat but it sure is driving me with some weird mojo.

Just a little tease as of what stage I'm at...

The figures are just placed flat for now. Some improvements were done to the donkey/mule, long pants added to the Bedouin and the snake has a rough head. The base is almost there and have already printed my placard. You will notice this time that there is nothing to support the figures but just the desert so I will have to up my painting with lighting effects and shadows.
Well back to the early WIP...

Cheers,
Wabble

[Airborne01]

Well, I'm glad you're back in the driving 'seat' mate!
Steve

[rtfoe]

I crafted the vest in three parts...the right half, back and left half. It is still curing as I type. I teased the front halves as if blown by the wind. This was done when the putty got slightly harder so it stayed in shape.

I made stitched sections with the end of a blade and used the same to do the gap at the shoulder cut outs.

I will clean up the edges when cured as any touching now would alter the look of the vest.

Pockets will be added and at this point I pushed in the folds with my toothpick. He may need leggings for his pants.
Later I cleaned up the vest and took off much of his butt...

More later...

Cheers,
Wabble