discussion Historex 54mm Grenadiers Hollandaise de la Garde, Chapeau Chinois player

[Neil Merryweather]

I am still a little bit khaki’d out at the moment, and I’ve been promising myself for AGES that I would make a start on my collection of Historex figures. I really don’t want to lose momentum with the GIs but the temptation has been too great and so I have decided to go for some COLOUR , in the form of this little chap.


This is the Historex colour illustration for the Dutch Grenadiers, which doesn’t, unfortunately, show the Chapeau Chinois(Chinese Hat) player.

So I had to do a bit of googling , and thank goodness for the internet, because I found these two great, albeit slightly conflicting, pictures.

I wanted to do one straight out of the box (more or less...) so I had to pick something relatively simple to make. The only things I intend to do much work on are the always awful Historex arms and hands, and the Chapeau Chinois itself will need some refining.
So here are all the bits


Everything went together rather nicely, thus far.



I have separated his head and drilled the collar out, but it’s going to need rebuilding as the plastic melted with the heat from the Dremel.
DOH! Rookie mistake.
I like to have the head separate for painting, which means I don’t have to strip the whole figure if I c*ck up the face.
The next step was the sash, and I spent a while trying to figure out which of these bits was the front and which was the back, assuming the squarer folds are for the mameluke sword.


Then I decided to dry fit the waistcoat to see how much would actually be seen, and I found there was no need for the weird bit at all because the whole back of the sash is covered.
Next up are the arms and, as I said, the Historex ones are not that great


I don’t really want to get into sculpting new arms for this one so I just dumped the hands and fettled the arms a bit . I drilled out the cuffs ready for a couple of better, 3D printed hands.


I used a length of brass rod to line up the hands, but whether I use it for the actual instrument I haven’t decided yet. It was quite a fiddle getting all four connections to work, but I got there in the end.


So now it’s time to break out the Magic Sculpt to make the collar and the wrists, and don’t worry, I will use it to do some work on the GIs at the same time - they haven’t been completely forgotten...
Well that’s it for now
Cheers
Neil

 

[flyjoe180]

More magic Neil. An intriguing figure

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Time to look at the actual Chapeau Chinois. For a start it was a bugger just to clean off the mould lines.
With a bit more time at my disposal I would probably replace the whole shaft with a brass one and done a bit of miniature ‘turning’ , but life’s too short so I contented myself with just replacing the straight bit. I could probably 3D print one, but there was nothing available ready-made so I would have had to create it myself, and anyway, this is supposed to be ‘out-of-the box’.
I used some 0.4mm piano wire as a core which I drilled into the two funky ends, and sleeved it with some 1mm diameter brass tube .


I also carefully drilled out the bells.
The top part was rather crude in comparison


Those lumpy bits are also supposed to be bells. To be fair it’s a pretty ambitious bit of mould-making for the period, and I do think Historex performed some revolutionary stuff at the time, but I can improve it easily, so I will. I found a digital model of a bell for free online and scaled it down(to 1mm across) and printed a bunch of them, including plenty of spares to feed the carpet monster....


They were fun to attach; I used a very thin PVA called aliphatic which worked very well-I didn’t risk using superglue because I wanted some ‘wriggle-time’



Next up were the cuffs and the sleeve trefoils. Historex provide pointy cuffs which I used in the spirit of ‘out-of-the-box’. I don’t like the extra thickness of the cuffs so I will probably avoid using them on subsequent Historex builds.
But I didn't fancy trying to paint the trefoils freehand so I had a go at creating them in three dimensions using 0.2mm solder wrapped around a 0.3mm drill bit.
That was also VERY fiddly but I got away with it I think.


The sash ends from the kit are shaped to hang over a sword, I think, but my references show the sword more at the rear and the sash ends hanging straight down at the front left hand side.

I flattened it with a hairdryer and he was ready for primer, especially in order to see if his wrists need work



The chapeau chinois is separate for painting, as is his head, and I may be forced to remove his hands to paint behind them; but I’m going to gamble for now.
So this will be a first for me, painting properly dark flesh.

Cheers
Neil

 

[PaulinKendal]

That looks great, Neil. I love how boldly you attack figures, and the success you achieve with it!

Those printed bells look much better than the originals. Were you not tempted to replace them all with the printed ones?

 

[PaulTRose]

Very impressive stuff

 

[Jim R]

Great skills and patience Neil. Really looks good.

 

[Airborne01]

In awe yet again Neil!
Steve

 

[flyjoe180]

Looks fantastic already Neil

 

[Neil Merryweather]

That looks great, Neil. I love how boldly you attack figures, and the success you achieve with it!

Those printed bells look much better than the originals. Were you not tempted to replace them all with the printed ones?

Thanks Paul
I did consider replacing the bells if the drilling had gone badly, but I got away with it so I was happy. The point was to keep interventions to a minimum in this case for the sake of speedy progress and getting back to the GIs

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks everyone for the interest and comments.
I’ve finished this boy now and I’ve learned a lot about making a Historex model in the process- which was precisely the point of the exercise. I chose to build a relatively simple subject in order to find and avoid some pitfalls when I get into the more ambitious subjects that I have planned(if I ever get round to them, of course!)
So what have I learned?
1. Don’t use the arms or the hands
2. Don’t use the separate cuffs, or at least incorporate them properly into your home made arms
3. Read the uniform notes BEFORE you start - I missed the crossbelt for the mameluke sword altogether. I only discovered it when it came to painting, by which time I had already primed him and made slings like a cavalry sword. Never mind- who’s to know, eh?
4. Be very careful using a Dremel because it melts the plastic
And it’s no fault of Historex, but next time I have a subject with a white uniform I'm going to use a white primer and not a dark grey one!
I’m not sure if the blue is correct, my two colour illustrations are conflicting. I based it on photographs of Hussar re-enactors; I think it complements the yellow well. But the model is never going into a competition so it doesn’t matter. I decided against any kind of weathering as I figured this is probably more of a parade uniform than a campaign one.
Anyway, here he is





And now I really must get back to the D-Day GIs

 

[flyjoe180]

A lovely looking figure Neil. I think you are right about the blue complimenting the yellow shade. And we've all been there with the grey primer only to have to cover it in white or yellow...

 

[pjgtech]

Nice, turned out well, cheers

 

[Steven000]

Great work Neil, he sure looks ready to go on parade now, cheers

 

[Tim Marlow]

Just seen this. Great subject nicely painted Neil. Colourful chap with the Mameluke influence and a Jingling Johnny to boot…..great to see Napoleonic stuff in the go. What else do you have planned?