Svenssongalaxen: From my Collection of Model Soldiers

torsdag 17 januari 2019

From my Collection of Model Soldiers

I have a collection of military miniatures, collected since my early childhood. They are kept in store in a secret location Beyond the Beyond, only accessible by pump trolley along a disused railroad track. This is a selection of my plastic figures. All of them are painted by me. -- The guy in the top picture is from the Airfix 1/32 8th Army "Multipose" kit.

1. German WW II soldier, 1/32, Airfix, of the ready-cast, slightly bendable toy figure type (= polythene). Actually an Afrika Korps soldier that I've painted in regular, "mainland Europe" garb. The highlighting is gained by priming the figure in white, then letting it dry. Then it's about painting it in the pertinent uniform color -- and, most importantly, while the paint is still wet, rubbing some of it off with a cloth. Thus you get the maximum effect of the wrinkles of the uniform, the paint settling in the crevices, resulting in a shadowy effect.

Further, the face is done by first painting it in flesh (and letting it dry), then adding a darker color, then wiping this off. This results in having the darker paint only settle in the cavities of the face, gaining some sort of detailed paint job without having to add every single brush stroke for this.

Details like boots, weapon, belt are then painted, sometimes done with the same kind of highlighting (and sometimes not).

2. From the same series as the above -- ready-cast Airfix 1/32 toy soldier, "Afrika Korps". This one is painted more correctly in khaki color.

3. This guy looks like Donald Trump. 1/32 Airfix toy soldier, American WWII infantry.

4. WWII German infantry, Airfix 1/32 toy soldier. This one is finished in clear coat. Which gives a nice surface -- but -- for photography purposes, it's better to not have this clear finish, I suppose.

5. WWII American paratroopers, Airfix 1/32 toy soldiers.

6-9. Indians, 54 mm, delivered painted but then re-painted by me. Figure 6 and 7 are "Crescent Toys". The others merely have the text, "Made in China".

10-11. Airfix 54 mm toy indians.

12-13. Mounted 54 mm indians of unknown make.

14-17. Napoleonic era soldiers. Airfix 1/32 toy soldiers. Frenchman, Brit, Scot.

18. Esci 1/35 model kit in polystyrene, German MC, a 750 cc BMW. The kit, in reality with another bike and two separate, bystanding soldiers, was rather difficult to assembly, at least the MC:s.