Neil's Airfix 54mm 95th Rifleman

Neil Merryweather

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Right!
A new build, new energy!
This is what I am doing -a snip at £2.50
IMG_20190407_193853412.jpg

I'm going to convert his pose a little bit, and then make another one from the spares box to make a vignette.
And then I'm going to paint him really nicely with the proper colour paints and a proper brush!
che
 

rtfoe

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Would have liked to get a hold on this one Neil. I'll pull up a chair and sit in for the build and painting if you don't mind.

Cheers,
Richard
 
D

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I remember this one so well - takes me right back to my teenage years and struggling with the over-thick plastic card.

One of my favourite subjects (did a Mitches 120mm German Legion rifleman fairly recently) and relevant locally, a unit being raised in Canterbury in 1805. There's also a Rifle Brigade memorial at Hythe.
 

Steve Jones

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This looks fun. That base looks well detailed lol. Have fun with this one mate
 

Neil Merryweather

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well for me it's the Sharpe books(not the series- although to be fair they got the look right)
I haven't decided whether to weather them fully , yet
 

yak face

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Fantastic bargain neil , ive got this one to do yet , so ill be watching for tips ! These airfix figures still take some beating as far as the quality of the tooling goes , the details are just great . Cheers tony
 

colin m

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It almost seems a shame to open the packet, but then again, we're modellers, and we can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.
 

JR

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I'm in , hopefully will pick up some tips Neil .
 

SimonT

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Have one or two of these in the stash, along with most of the rest of the series (including quite a lot of pikemen for some reason)

This one and the French Foreign Legionnaire are my favourites
 

Neil Merryweather

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Welcome Colin, John & Simon.
I'm going to need more biscuits!
Simon, I was disappointed at the time that the Civil War pikeman was in a passive standing position ,rather than lunging forward ready to receive cavalry. Presumably it was so he wouldn't overhang the series square base.
I tried to convert one back in the day but without much success due to lack of skill. I've just bought one to try and make a better fist of it but I will probably just sculpt the legs from scratch rather trying to use the kit ones.
I like the Foreign Legionnaire too, but they never produced an adversary for him which was disappointing.
 
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Remember it well, did a straight one and kit bashed another for KGL light company. Good stuff.
 

Windy

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Hi Neil. Looking forward to seeing this one progress. I remember trying to build it when I was a kid but it was disastrous! What paints will you be using? You can get a good Rifle Green by mixing Humbrol 76 and 33, or Vallejo 970 deep green and black.
 
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Neil Merryweather

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Right
Here’s the obligatory Sprue shot
IMG_20190428_191933888.jpg

What’s nice about these Airfix kits is they always give you two options. In this case it’s a choice of legs - standing firing or kneeling firing. I’ve chosen kneeling, so I’ve got a nice pair of standing legs for the spares box.
IMG_20190501_184914087.jpg

As I said in my introduction, I’m going to convert his position slightly.

Since reading the Sharpe books I realised that skirmishers rarely used these by-the-book positions so I’m going to try to make him look a bit more natural and under pressure, by having him more hunched and steadying his arm on his left knee.

Here goes!

The first thing to do is to cut wedges out from behind his knees so they can fold more
IMG_20190430_204325395.jpgIMG_20190430_204953078_BURST000_COVER.jpg

I use a jeweller’s saw for this rather than a razor saw, as it doesn’t clog with the plastic and it’s possible to cut curved lines if I want -it’s not important for these cuts to be straight, anyway.
IMG_20190430_205137665.jpg

Here’s his other leg treated in the same way, although I had to bend his ankle as well to compensate for the change of angle of his lower leg



IMG_20190430_205159791.jpg

And here’s the before and after
IMG_20190430_205647937.jpg

thanks for looking,
Neil
 
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Brave man Neil. Taking a saw to something that small can't be easy, but it's worked very well.
 

JR

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Great tip there Neil,:thumb2: so cut and just fold back and fill if required ?
 
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