The Curse of Being 'Creative'!

 I'm gone a bit 'off-piste' over the past week or so (not by choice really). I have had to comply to a few friend & family requests and this has cut into my valuable toy soldier making schedule.

However, you have to look on the bright side and think of these unrelated project as 'opportunities for good practice' (I say that through gritted teeth). 😒

So, what have I been up to? And here, I'm not going to try and fool you into believing they were all relatable to my toy soldier hobby...

First of all, I was given a stone garden ornament that the mother-in-law wanted painting up to look like their pet dog. Somehow because I 'paint models' that means I am an expert in doing anything vaguely 'creative'...

I could not conceive of any part of this 'project' that could positively impact on my peg model making except that by doing the wife a 'favour' (order) she would cut me some slack for a while. And that's about it, so I did it. 

The second little job was - at least - my idea. I wanted to make a little gift for my work colleague (we are both NHS operating theatre domestics) as she has been very supportive as we have worked throughout this pandemic.

She happens to have a couple of donkeys on her bit of land and when she saw the 3D models I had been making she mentioned she would love to have a 'little donkey'! I was happy to do this as she has really mad a bit of a stressful 12 months bearable and has got me through the times when my own health issues have plagued me at work. So, I made her a little Eeyore (from 'Winnie the Pooh')...

This was definitely worth taking the time away from toy soldiers to do, especially when she was so pleased when I presented it to her! 😁

And finally...

Now, this was very useful! I've been wanting to have a go at 3D modelling slightly more feature detailed figures which would involve some slightly more complicated 3D modelling using the TINKERCAD software I have been using lately.

Along-side my super simple 'pegs' I wanted to experiment with the possibility of making larger one-off display models of historic soldiers but which would still be modelled in a cartoon format. Trouble is that I needed some sort of initial project idea to spur me on to trying out the idea...

As it happened, another work colleague asked me whether I could 'make one of these' and showed me a blurry photo of his football team's mascot! He supports Barnsley FC and they have a mascot called 'Tony Tyke' (really) and so after doing a bit of research I had a play with TinkerCad and knocked up a rough approximation of Toby!

I decided to start with the head as that was the most identifiable part of the mascot and feature rich element of a model...

It took a while but I managed to put together something that looked a little like Toby, well dog-like anyway! My friend was very happy with this design so I forged on with the rest of the body...

Getting the right pose was a bit fiddly as this was the first time I had tried anything like this, but after several iterations and modifications I managed to come up with a pose I was happy with...

Now, how does this relate to toy soldiers? Well, having worked out a fairly OK anatomy of a cartoon figure - albeit a footballer, in this case - I could now see how I might further modify this into any other figure that I might like. I reckon it might be an easy project to alter this into a uniformed mascot, varying the head into something appropriate for a particular regiment - a bulldog for a US Marine, for example, or a French Bulldog for a Foreign Legionnaire!

You see where I'm going?

Again, I apologise that this post seems a little left field BUT these distractions - particularly Toby - have given me some ideas for future toy soldier projects that I think will be very interesting indeed!