Well, I'm on the last leg now - forgive the pun 😁 - as I tinker with how I'm modelling the legs of my peg soldiers. I should recap my thinking here; while my original peg figures had painted on detail on top of a simple 'peg' body this was a somewhat time consuming process and making whole units posed a bit of a daunting task (I'm a slow and methodical worker anyway).
In order for me to produce larger groups of peg figures for war-games OR for possible sale - I've been asked so many times about selling figures but aren't as I can't guarantee a speedy turn-around - I need to rationalise my figure making so that it cuts out some of the fiddly precision painting. Hence this series of experiments...
I'm pretty happy with what I'm learned so far and was glad to find that simplifying my process did not mean a commemorate deteriorate in quality. So, onto the last experiment...LEGS.
Now, so far I have been simply indicating the separation of the lower body of my pegs by painting a thin line from the 'crotch' to the 'feet'. I've always been a bit unhappy about this method as I, personally, didn't find it aesthetically pleasing AND it usually means I have to paint my line in a contrasting colour to make it obvious that there are two legs!
So, last night, I started a couple of tests to see how I could indicate the legs by modelling instead of painting BUT - at the same time - tried to maintain the desired level of 'toy soldier' simplicity...
As you can see, I am taking two different approaches; the first is to cut a simple groove that will provide enough depth and shadow to clearly indicate a separation, and the other is to actually make two 'legs' out of some lengths of dowel.
The dowel method is probably stretching my desire for a stylised look to it's limit and is maybe too literal. We shall see!
Have you thought about cutting a section of the peg lower down to incorporate the two 'prongs' as legs? You could then cut off the 'head' from the old top part and reattach it to this new mid-section.
ReplyDeleteAmusingly no I hadn't! LOL - It seems so obvious when someone else mentions it... I'll have a try, thanks! :)
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