A Call to Arms!

A lot of the work on my Black Hat French soldiers is cleaning up. Tedious filing and trimming of excess white metal seam lines and flash. But the fitting of parts also needs a fair amount of attention as getting the heads or limbs to sit right on the torso is a wee bit tricky (or it is with me, as I keep changing my mind about whether an arm looks straight, etc).

Ironically, Black Hat does give the arms a little nub or 'peg' of sorts (it's tiny) which would be helpful in locating the correct place to mount the arm IF they had also added a hole in the torso's shoulder for it to fit into. They didn't...So, it's down to you to decide where the arm should fit exactly...

Even when you do eventually decide that you have the arm attached just right there is still the little matter of gaps between the top of the arm and the shoulder. This has to be filled with more white Milliput putty...

After filing and sanding away at seven right arms and the seven left arms you feel like a bit of a rest (it's one of those dull repetitive jobs). I'd already been through this process with the seven heads, plus had to fill the gaps between the collar and the top of the torso so the head blended into the body correctly. More putty was needed to complete the process.

Still, once all the arms are on I just have to attach the bayonet frogs (and sword scabbard for the officer) and the jobs a good 'un! On to the priming after that!