A Return to Home Sculpting

 

I continue expanding my 28mm 17th century Eastern European collection. I just placed a hefty order with Warlord Games for that purpose. While they do not specifically carry much besides their Winged Hussars (of which I bought a box), their generic pike&shotte troopers are easy to convert or be used as dollies for more unconventional types.

However, that order has left my wallet a little bit bare, so instead of investing in another heap of lead, I turned to more economic solutions. I still have a lot of Green Stuff and Magic Sculpt, and also a bunch of Oyumaru/Blue Stuff for making press moulds.

I'm in awe of Master Tidmarsh's homecast figure collection, and started thinking along the same lines. However, I don't have a shed or other secluded place where I can tuck casting equipment safely away from pets, so I shall remain with my tried and tested method.

I made a previous post about experimenting with the thing, and learned a few things since:

1) The figure shall be cast without the arms attached.

2) The best end result occurs when you add a bit more resin to the mould than the volume of the casting, but just a little bit more to avoid excessive flash and/or distortion.

3) Applying constant, but not very strong pressure to the mould while curing makes a better result (as the oyumaru itself is a bit flexible).

4) Static poses where the figure can be easily 'cut in half' vertically generally work better.

With that in mind, I made a master sculpt from a Perry HYW archer's body and a Frostgrave crewman's head. All it needed was some filling, sanding, classic Cossack hairdo and a few buttons on the coat.

Now if you look at images of Cossacks, be it art or reenactors, you can see that their dress varies from the plain to the very garish, and I thought it's easier to have a very plain master and dress the figures up later once the basic one is cast.

So that's what I did, I made a pair of moulds and started producing clones of Oleg Basikovich. Fortunately I've got an abundance of spare arms and weapons, so the first four troopers and a sergeant are already complete and await their first lick of paint. As you can see it's rather easy to vary their headgear, add a longer overcoat or lacing etc.

My final goal is to build 2x8 pike-armed Cossacks and 2x8 with muskets, for the latter I'll use spare arms from the Warlord firelocks set. With the two moulds I can produce two to six figures a day, so it's not a far fetched goal at all. I also have some artillery crew and rabble foot in the making.

Later on I'll of course expand the collection with commercially produced figures, but these shall serve well as a core for my army.

The Cossacks Are Back to War

These are the Gripping Beast Arab Light Cavalry & Horse Archers figures converted to represent generic Eastern European 17th century cavalry. The figures do more or less lend themselves to that with their garb and weaponry, so all I did was use laced torsos and sculpt fur hats on the majority. For the lack of firearms I'll just suppose they are of the poorer type.

(The title of course harkens back to the now more than twenty years old Cossacks: Back to War PC game, playing which I spent countless hours.)

The First Cossacks Assembled

I managed to assemble, base and prime the first three Cossacks out of the dozen originally intended. The master is in the center, with a bardiche in hand (a Bloody Miniatures metal Lochaber axe with the hook trimmed off); a pikeman in helmet (with a Bloody Miniatures head swap) is on the left, and a sergeant in a large fur hat, a partisan (Bloody again) and a drawn saber (sculpted along the scabbard) on the right.

The loss of detail with the press mould is minimal now that I cast the lower arms separately, and as you can see with a small variation in weaponry, headgear and/or hand positioning I can avoid all of them looking the same. 

Cossack Test Casting #1

Join me today as I create a two-piece press mould for the Cossack pikeman from the previous post, using Blue Stuff. 

First thing to do is The Coffin. It might look a bit creepy for the poor sod, but the point is to have the two parts of the mould fit as snugly as possible. Press moulds are going to have a lot of flash no matter what, as the material has to go somewhere, so we do this to prevent any excess.

Many people use Lego bricks for The Coffin, but I just superglue this hard foamboard, using the original dimensions of the master as a guide, to a sort of brick shape, with the top open. I also cut a piece that is the size of the aperture, to apply pressure later when both sides of the mould are set in place.

Cossack Pikeman Master Sculpt

 

Here's a short WIP post to show what I'm working on. This is the master for a Cossack warrior, intended to hold a pole weapon, which I will replicate using a two-piece press mould, something I'm quite proficient at by now.

The figure itself uses the body of a Warlord WSS artillerist, and head and arms from the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic crewmen set. The rest (including moustache and hair) I sculpted with Magic Sculpt, making the original torso a bit bulkier and lengthening the bottom of the overcoat. 

Karl XII and Ivan Mazepa

Still working on the Strelets figures, this time a small diorama of Karl XII of Sweden and his best buddy. Not as limited in use as some might think (for a while I was thinking about a Maurice de Saxe conversion instead).

Orion Cossack Cavalry + Help Wanted

Two boxes of the Cossack cavalry made by Orion. I made the distinction between the two groups by alternating the main color, one is blue and one is red. These have been sitting primed on their tray for quite a long while but now they are done.

Orion Foot Cossacks & Artillery

Here is the whole bunch finished - 33 figures and two guns (I apparently lost one figure as the set has 34). Neat little figs and painted up rather easily.

All of them has the same treatment: black undercoat, blocked parts, Vallejo Umber wash, then highlights. The guy in the yellow robe has been washed with Vallejo Sepia as I found it more suitable.