Little girl

[Jakko]

To add some human interest to my derelict Churchill AVRE, I wanted to place a civilian figure on it. After searching through my stash of figures, I found this one of a little girl by MK35:



I wasn’t enamoured by the Princess Leia hairstyle, though, so I cut the sides of that off and used Magic Sculp to give her loose long hair, and also added short sleeves to her dress because I feel it looks better that way:

 

[colin m]

As a person who just sort of accepts what the manufacturer gives me, changing her hair style, is quite amazing. Dedication to the fullest.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
That has been done very well. Totally changed her look. What you need now is her little dog.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

As a person who just sort of accepts what the manufacturer gives me, changing her hair style, is quite amazing. Dedication to the fullest.

Thanks, but too much praise for some simple changes

 

[TIM FORSTER]

Nice work Jakko.

I have been using a couple of MK35 figures on my 'Liberation, Italy 1944' dio.

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/figures-for-my-wwii-diorama-liberation-italy-1944.30821/

This French company deserves to be much better known. They have some very unusual figures - especially civilians. You never used to see any many civilians on dioramas, but thanks to manufacturers like MK35 they are becoming more popular. Quite right: every town or village fought over was someone's home...

What do you have in mind for her?

 

[SimonT]

Hi Jakko - nice idea but I've spotted a problem


you have left the casting plug on her neck so her chin is way above where it should be

For the hair, once you get your basic shape use a fine paintbrush and some water (or a rubber sculpting tool if you have one) to smooth the detail and blend it in with the kit - that should eliminate the rough choppy look

Hope that helps

 

[rtfoe]

Hi Jakko - nice idea but I've spotted a problem

View attachment 311494
you have left the casting plug on her neck so her chin is way above where it should be

For the hair, once you get your basic shape use a fine paintbrush and some water (or a rubber sculpting tool if you have one) to smooth the detail and blend it in with the kit - that should eliminate the rough choppy look

Hope that helps

Hi Jakko, thought it looked a bit odd with the shoulders sitting a bit low. Trust Simon to spot the problem. Will want to check out MK35 on civilian figures.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jakko]

This French company deserves to be much better known. They have some very unusual figures - especially civilians. You never used to see any many civilians on dioramas, but thanks to manufacturers like MK35 they are becoming more popular.

I think I came across them on some trader’s stand at a model show, and bought and built some for a diorama I had in mind but never built 15 years ago or so. She was intended for that too, originally.

What do you have in mind for her?

I’ll put her on top of my Churchill AVRE, probably on the front or rear mudguard because her feet aren’t horizontal That’s to say, if you were to place this figure on a horizontal surface, she’d be leaning backwards as if against a strong wind.

Hi Jakko - nice idea but I've spotted a problem

Bloody hell, you’re right! How come I didn’t notice that?! I did spot the seam (it’s more visible in the photos than on the model) and thought, “I’ll need to fill that” but I’ll just have to sculpt a throat, I suppose. Her head is a bit high up, but not too much I think.

 

[colin m]

simple changes

Still more than I would take on !

 

[SimonT]

Hi Jakko,

well it is twice as long as it was meant to be, but, it is your build so if you are happy with it then fine

If you do rebuild her it would allow you to get a smoother more blended in look to the hair - I know it can be a pain re-doing things you have already done but I usually feel things turn out better in the long run. I've rebuilt various things quite a few times before getting to the point where I am happy with them

 

[Jakko]

I took a good look at the figure, and the long neck isn’t a problem — women have longer necks than men anyway (on average, that is), and the girl straight from the box has such a short one that that she looks more like a boy to me in the MK35 photo I posted above. I also realised why I probably didn’t spot the casting plug before: if you view the figure diagonally from above (that is, the way you normally look at a model), the lower part of the face completely hides the edge of the neck, so that the casting plug looks like her neck.

However, I do intend to resculpt the hair, because you’re right, it’s too rough, and there’s a bit of a ridge in places where it comes up against the original hair. My intention now is to scrape it down a bit and add a new layer over the first attempt, so as to give it more volume at the same time.

 

[Steve Jones]

Ah the joys of figure work. I am sure you will be able to work your magic on this little beautieee. Good luck