Elephant Battery (1 Viewer)

[aujj65]

So, here we are again! Ready for a 'How to Paint' (and as I said before, how I paint!) thread that will hopefully show a heap of white metal castings through to the end result of a traditional gloss finished set of toy soldiers.

In this case the castings represent an Indian Elephant Battery (of the British Army around the 1880’s) consisting of elephant pulling a heavy limber with a 40Pdr gun. Again (as per the RHA) these are made by Fusilier Miniatures in 54mm scale. As I’ve said before I like these, as they are some of the better-finished castings around.

As the RHA set the castings are supplied as groups in separate plastic bags and there is even a choice of trunks for the elephant!

Below are all the little bags as supplied.

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

You may have noticed that the photos are much, much better than the ones I started off with on the RHA set, since then I have replaced my crap camera with a decent one! And won’t have the problem of having to borrow from a friend.

Here we have all the bits laid out ready for cleaning up and assembly. As you see the elephant is a white metal casting (some elephant models are resin like those from Tradition) and comes in two halves, even though it is hollow it’s still quite heavy! A nice touch is the inclusion of a choice of trunks.

Jeff

 

[kilted vampire]

Jeff, you have your work cut out for you. Watching the progress has been fun. This should be too! What kind of camera did you get?

 

[aujj65]

Seperate photos of the Elephant, Mahout, Limber and Gun............there is very little flash to clean up and there is a nice amount of detail to paint.

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

Jeff, you have your work cut out for you. Watching the progress has been fun. This should be too! What kind of camera did you get?

Hi KV,

Fun, that's what this hobby is all about Camera is a Sony Cyber-shot 7.2 mega pixels. Plus I've learnt alot from others on the forum regarding using natural light as opposed to relying on the flash and this has a macro setting, much better results I think.

Jeff

 

[Wraith]

Looking forward to another step by step. Glad the castings have landed with you. I'll get cracking on mine shortly, works just been a bit of a pain at the moment, but got a break this weekend so I'll start painting and posting.

Simon

 

[aujj65]

I have spent a couple of hours today cleaning up and assembling the castings. I use gel type super glue for assembling metal to metal; this fills in some of the joints that aren't a perfect fit and also doesn't run everywhere.

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

This shows the clever method of hollow castings, which reduces the weight by a hell of a lot (and of course the price). Looking into the elephants neck kind of reminds me of an Easter egg

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

Here we have the Elephant, Mahout, Limber and the 40-pdr gun in various degrees of assembly.

As you can see the Elephant will require a wipe of filler in the joints but nothing major.

I’ve opted for the long dangly trunk As opposed to the curled version – don’t ask

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

Here we have the individual items assembled; the ‘Pin’ locates the eyeholes in the gun and limber when in the travelling position.

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

Completed assembly but without the harness chains which will be added after the painting is completed.

Next phase is filling any joints ready for undercoating.

Jeff

 

[Wraith]

I’ve opted for the long dangly trunk As opposed to the curled version – don’t ask

mmmmmppphhhhh.....trying to resist the temptation.......must keep mouth closed.......mmmmmpppphhhh

Looks a very nice and clean casting Jeff.

BTW, How do you know if an elephant has been in your fridge......? (I've got thousands of these....could become a veeery long thread )

Looking forward to more pics, far more than you'll look forward to more elephant jokes.

Cheers
Simon

 

[thebritfarmer]

Very nice Jeff looking forward to seeing it painted.



Simon - there are footprints in the butter.

 

[aujj65]

mmmmmppphhhhh.....trying to resist the temptation.......must keep mouth closed.......mmmmmpppphhhh

Looks a very nice and clean casting Jeff.

BTW, How do you know if an elephant has been in your fridge......? (I've got thousands of these....could become a veeery long thread )

Looking forward to more pics, far more than you'll look forward to more elephant jokes.

Cheers
Simon

I've asked for this haven't I?

With regards to the castings, I am well impressed with the level of finish on these, makes the painting easier.

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

Very nice Jeff looking forward to seeing it painted.



Simon - there are footprints in the butter.

Scott,

Thanks, this should be a lot easier and quicker to paint than the Royal Horse Artillery gun team.

BTW, don't encourage him

Jeff

 

[aujj65]

The joints have been filled with filler and smoothed clean, I used a 5 minute Polyfiller straight from the tube and when dry the castings were undercoated with a couple of light coats of grey primer.

Give it a few days for the undercoat to thoroughly dry and then the painting will commence.

Jeff

 

[wadepat]

Hi Jeff,

What an excellent and exciting job you are doing. I can hardly wait for the paint to begin to bring the figures to life! I look forward to watching your step-by-step progress!

Thanks for allowing us to follow your work as it progresses!

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

 

[aujj65]

Hi Jeff,

What an excellent and exciting job you are doing. I can hardly wait for the paint to begin to bring the figures to life! I look forward to watching your step-by-step progress!

Thanks for allowing us to follow your work as it progresses!

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

Hi Pat,

How's things?

This should (hopefully) be far easier to paint than the RHA and I will apply the first colour on Monday.

Thanks for your interest as usual

Have a nice weekend.

Regards

Jeff

 

[jazzeum]

Jeff,

This looks super fantastic and will be much easier to paint.

 

[aujj65]

Jeff,

This looks super fantastic and will be much easier to paint.

Brad,

Only 'super fantastic'

LOL, hopefully yes!

Jeff