Tuesday, March 10, 2015

New Horse - Toy Town Soldiers 4



After completing the newly sculpted horse master shown above, for better or worse it was into the casting fires.  I was definitely concerned about being able to mold it but it turned out okay.  The main problem was the base collapsing under pressure. Otherwise it cast to the extremities well enough.  Certainly I encountered none of the problems with the impression as I did with the Toob horse mold. I gave up on the cast base, just sawing off it off at the hooves and making new bases from 1mm styrene.  As the scribe and break is easy, that's the way forward.

One other issue, couldn't free the right leg from the mold after the first casting. I cut some of the silicon rubber to free it up but clumsily cut a bit too much, leaving metal residue to be cleaned up on all subsequent casts, but the results are tolerable. At some point I'll make another mold but this will suffice for now.

So how does the completed horse look ?



And in comparison with the Toob pony.

Steve's horse left, Toob horse right

One last shot.



I'm reasonably happy with it. If I had a do over, I'd have made it smaller but at this point I'm not about to spend more time sculpting another.  I think the same horse can serve for the heavy cavalry, just need to file the shabraque into a rectangular shape. And now I'm out of riders until the next shipment from Eureka. 

12 comments:

  1. Your new horse looks splendid, especially when painted, and is a great improvement over the previous Toob pony. It has just the right 'toy soldier' look: quite realistic like a Britains horse with a simple paint job that complements the rider, but doesn't distract from him. Bravo!.

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    1. Thanks very much, Arthur. I really appreciate your observations.

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  2. New horse does look splendid.Perhaps the toob ones could serve for light cavalry mounts?
    Alan

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  3. Excellent work, much better than the Toob horse which was a bit 'clumpy'. Look forward to seeing more Toytown militia appearing.

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    1. Thanks, Springinsfeld. I agree on the Toob horse, the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. Not to say all the Toob horses are bad, but for this particular selection the pony dimensions didn't seem to translate as a full sized horse all that well.

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  4. That looks a lot better. I find the original Toy Style cavalry keep falling over. I ended up sticking them to 2p pieces for stability. My current staus on the armies of Fort Nott and Fort Sew are in abeyance until I can find the time, but I am enjoying your progress..

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    1. Thanks, Joppy. I appreciate the feedback. I'd like to see your Fort Nott & Sew figures, I'll check your blog(s).

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  5. Congrats, I treid making a mould for a horse years back and failed dismally, keep up with the good work and this interesting project!

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    1. Thanks, Eric. I appreciate it. Perhaps a case of beginner's luck for me.

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  6. The new horse looks quite good and appropriate. I'm not sure you really need a bigger heavy horse, esp in this context. Maybe just paint the heavies black.

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  7. Thanks, Ross. Right you are, I think this horse will do as well for the heavies, just need to file down the shabraque and paint in a square shape.

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