Victory Miniatures 120mm Officer Royal North British Dragoons Scots Greys Crimea 1854

[Fenlander]

This is was a bit of a gamble. Having never built or painted a horse above a 1/35 before I got this just on a whim to see how I could do. 120MM has become my preferred figure/bust scale so this appeared to be a good idea.

Sadly the horse, and to some degree the figure, has issues with regard to fit. The detail is fine but the two sides of the horse appear to have distorted in the mould which means that the profiles do not match. I even thought at one point I had two halves of different horses!



This wasn‘t the start I wanted for my first horse and, initially, considered doing what I do best and bin it. Thankfully, I was overcome with calm and started to formulate a plan to sort it out.

I didn’t like the boxart pose as it was in full gallop with just the right rear hoof in contact with the floor making for a lot of stress on the thin ‘ankle‘ of the leg (I know nothing about horses....)

So, apart from having to do extensive work to get the thing to fit together, I also wanted to re pose it.

After some grinding away some resin (always observe safety rules. I did this outside wearing a mask) I drilled and pinned the horse parts and the rider and applied liberal amounts of putty after waiting for the approx resin used to glue it up to set.

I then ended up with this



Still not not happy with the pose I decided to cut the left rear leg so that I could pose it rearing up rather than galloping like this To allow both rear legs to touch the floor enabaling a stronger joint.



Having the horse rearing up, I had to consider the rider who would not have stayed sat in the saddle so I drilled into his groin (ouch) and pinned him to the front of the saddle hump so he was ‘out of the saddle’. When the stirrups are fitted, it will appear he is stood up on the stirrups (I hope).

so more putty in the cut and epoxy pinned leg and I had the pose I wanted



Some sanding and fettling later, I gave it a quick blast of primer to highlight the areas I still needed to attend to on the horse and, for me, I am quite happy the way it is turning out considering it could have gone in the bin. The boxart shows the change in pose

 

[scottie3158]

Graham,

Nice work on the conversion.
Paul

 

[Fenlander]

Graham,

Nice work on the conversion.
Paul

Thanks Paul

 

[rtfoe]

Graham,

The change of pose for the horse has worked out well and the painful attachement of the rider too.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jim R]

Hi Graham
All the hard, patient, skilled modifications have worked a treat. Your pose is better than the box art. Shame about the poor fit - just more work. Glad it wasn't binned.
Jim

 

[grumpa]

Great work so far Graham

 

[Fenlander]

Graham,

The change of pose for the horse has worked out well and the painful attachement of the rider too.

Cheers,
Richard

Hi Graham
All the hard, patient, skilled modifications have worked a treat. Your pose is better than the box art. Shame about the poor fit - just more work. Glad it wasn't binned.
Jim

Thanks guys, yes I am glad I stuck with it but I still have to paint it lol.

 

[Fenlander]

Great work so far Graham

Thanks Jim

 

[Jay-BFG]

I had all sorts of problems when I did their Lancer on horseback, the front legs, in my opinion, were the wrong way around so I altered them.
The head was missing a great big wedge (miscast) but they were very good and sent me a new head (or I could have fixed it myself and they would have refunded me some money)
I didn't like the way the girth strap and saddle was moulded, so redid those as well.
The rider was looking down rather than ahead, so I changed the pose and the head and resculpted the hat.
The rifle was awful so bought a Reedees replacement and redid the holster thingy
Makes we wonder why I bought the thing
But it turned out well I think.

 

[Fenlander]

I had all sorts of problems when I did their Lancer on horseback, the front legs, in my opinion, were the wrong way around so I altered them.
The head was missing a great big wedge (miscast) but they were very good and sent me a new head (or I could have fixed it myself and they would have refunded me some money)
I didn't like the way the girth strap and saddle was moulded, so redid those as well.
The rider was looking down rather than ahead, so I changed the pose and the head and resculpted the hat.
The rifle was awful so bought a Reedees replacement and redid the holster thingy
Makes we wonder why I bought the thing
But it turned out well I think.

It is modelling after all Sometimes, only sometimes, it is the journey that makes the destination more rewarding. Shouldn’t be in this day and age but it is all about developing skills.

 

[Steve Jones]

Graham
Wonderful work! I will tag along if I may and watch you work your magic
Steve

 

[Jay-BFG]

It is modelling after all Sometimes, only sometimes, it is the journey that makes the destination more rewarding. Shouldn’t be in this day and age but it is all about developing skills.

I must admit, I enjoy the alterations as much if not more than the painting.

 

[Hera]

Graham
I think you have made a nice job of the conversion/rectfication/corrections, all of which should never be needed. I like Jay and yourself I have fell foul of this company, in my case 3 times, in each case I said can't be as bad as the last one. I was wrong.
You're right the sense of achievement is sometimes greater if you had to put your own abilities into a project.
Looking forward to your progress.

David

 

[Jim F]

Hi Graham,
Your diligence has certainly improved the horse and I have no doubt that you will do the same with the rider, looking forward to your next update.
regards Jim

 

[Fenlander]

Graham
I think you have made a nice job of the conversion/rectfication/corrections, all of which should never be needed. I like Jay and yourself I have fell foul of this company, in my case 3 times, in each case I said can't be as bad as the last one. I was wrong.
You're right the sense of achievement is sometimes greater if you had to put your own abilities into a project.
Looking forward to your progress.

David

Hi Graham,
Your diligence has certainly improved the horse and I have no doubt that you will do the same with the rider, looking forward to your next update.
regards Jim

Many thanks guys. As I will be away from the end of this week for a few days, I have put this to one side to give me time to finish off some in progress painting. I will be back to it in a couple of weeks.

Thanks all for the supportive comments, it does help

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

Hi Graham.
You've done great things with this and I think it'll end up a belter.I can't help loving Victory Mins for their devotion to their subjects.The earlier quarter-deck figures were inspired but a bit let down with the casting.I had a few of the 12-pounder gun crew but the cannon itself was a bit misaligned in the horizontal which wasn't easy to fix.Gentle nudge to Victory to get it a little better because you could be very very good.
Jon.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Such a shame about the fit issues Graham, but it looks like you're more than a match for them.

 

[Fenlander]

Hi Graham.
You've done great things with this and I think it'll end up a belter.I can't help loving Victory Mins for their devotion to their subjects.The earlier quarter-deck figures were inspired but a bit let down with the casting.I had a few of the 12-pounder gun crew but the cannon itself was a bit misaligned in the horizontal which wasn't easy to fix.Gentle nudge to Victory to get it a little better because you could be very very good.
Jon.

Totally agree Jon, the sculpting detail is superb, just the casting quality that is an issue.

 

[Fenlander]

Such a shame about the fit issues Graham, but it looks like you're more than a match for them.

It is a shame Peter as it is a good figure/horse combination. I will certainly try my best to do something decent with it as it will look quite striking in the cabinet.

 

[papa 695]

Outstanding work on fixing the fit issues on the old hos Graham, and the new stance. and if it's anything like the figures I've just seen by you. I doubt you'll have any problems painting it. Looking forward to the next updates.