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British Army at Waterloo |
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Review by Jack Kennedy, DLC #12511 |
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When I received this figure for review from John Noack, I had mixed emotions. The figure was great, but I’m not too thrilled about painting tartans. If God had wanted us to paint plaid he would have also given us plaid paint. Upon opening the box the first thing I noticed was how clean the casting was. It reminded me of the beautiful Ft. Duquesne figures that Jim Johnston produces. There was no cleanup required at all. A few pieces were in base metal, and these were just as clean as the resin. There aren’t many pieces to this figure and they are pegged for a perfect fit. When assembling, no filler was required since the fit was so snug on all the pieces. The figure is sculpted by David F. Grieve and anyone who has ever done a Grieve figure knows that the sculpting is first class. The animation is very nice, and not as stiff as some figures on the market. I was put off a little by the odd scale of 100mm since I am used to the standard 54mm, 90mm or 120mm. I think that this piece will be a stand alone since it is a little small compared to the 120’s. I primed the piece with a light gray auto body primer in light coats so as not to obliterate the fine details. Since I am not a fan of painting kilts, I thought I would try a different approach. A few years ago when I was in Scotland, I bought a book on all the different clan tartans. I took a few from the book and used my copy machine to make a decal of the ones I liked. The decal came out fine, but after a few days it lightened up a bit. Rather than resorting to painting, I used the decal anyway. Using about a gallon of setting solution, I finally got it to conform to the pleats on the back of the kilt. (Why anyone would want to fight in a skirt is beyond me). Once the decal was dry, I trimmed off the excess…and it actually looked pretty good! Not bad for about an hour’s work. Painting it might have taken a week and a full bottle of Prozac. Now the easy part arrived. I assembled the figure (actually just the arms on to the body) and mounted the whole thing on the base. The haversack, canteen, sword and lance were painted and added later. Painting was straightforward. I used Vallejo acrylic colors, which I have found to be superb. The whole painting job only took a few hours thanks to the rapid drying time. After the painted accessory parts were dry, I CA glued them in place and the piece was finished. Would I recommend this piece? Yes!! I am looking forward to the release of more by this manufacturer. With the kit are a listing of five other British Napoleonic pieces that look very interesting. They may be purchased online by contacting Ms. Raymond at |
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