Fubar,s new french grenadiers (2 Viewers)

[fishead19690]

I got my package in from fubar yesterday and started to assemble and convert some of his new casting.

I,m very happy with them. The casting are very clean and are very easy to put together with almost no flash at all on any of the figures other then very minor filing needed on a couple of figures. The parts fit together very well and I didn,t need to do any tweeking. These are some NICE casting and the figures are sculpted very well.

The figures are a little bit smaller then his russians figures which seemed chunkier then these french also but the bases are a bit smaller which is one of the only things I didn,t like about these new figures.
I don,t think he was to crazy about the bases himself because he told me he glued them to a metal base and flogged it with woodland senics and I think I will do the same to mine also.

Looks like Fubar hits another home run, he gets my two thumbs up on these!

I took some pictures of the casting assembled and of the conversions that I was able to come up with.
Some of the conversions were very simple to the poiny where anyone could do them as they were just switching the arms from different sets around. They fit in with just some minor tweeking.

Of the 8 stock poses he had made, I came up with around 16-18? conversions.

Here are some pictures! First the 8 poses as they come without any conversions and then i,ll post the stock pose along side the conversions.

 

[fishead19690]

Here is the first of the conversion pictures.
First we,ll start with the kneeling firing pose. I got two conversions out of this pose. The stock figure is on the left and the other two are conversions. the kneeling to repel figure was a very easy pose to make by simply taking the arms from the other kit and just switching them around.

 

[fishead19690]

Next the other kneeling pose. The stock figure is on the left again and the other 4 are conversions. You can get a bunch of various kneeling to repel poses out of the stock figure I only have 4 because I ran out of figures to convert. You can glue in the head any way you like so just by repostioning the head you can change the look of any of these guys.

 

[fishead19690]

I didn,t do to much with the loading figure but i,m sure I could have come up with a few more conversions for this one given more time.
I had an idea of making him a wounded figure with his arm in a 2-part putty sling? Maybe with my next batch of castings I order???

This one has a new 2-part putty hand. I was having a hard time with the 2-part putty because I had dried supper glue on my finger tips and the putty kept sticking to my fingers so it didn,t come out to good and thats way I chickened out of doing the sling on the guys arm also.

The conversion is on the left, the other figure is the stock pose.

 

[fishead19690]

The marching pose is one I want to get a bunch more of. These will look nice all bunched up in columns or lines and you can glue the heads and arms in different positions to get different looking figures.
Maybe Harold will come out with some bear heads and fatigue hats and some bandaged heads and we,ll be able to make them look even more varied.

I switched a couple of arms around on two of these. One of the arms was holding a musket that I cut off and glued on for a little bit of a different look. I should have also glued some of the heads looking right and left but I plan on buying more and I.ll do that on the next batch.

 

[fishead19690]

Next the firing pose. I only did a couple for this pose because I only ordered 5 and didn,t want to use all my firing poses up. The firing pose is the stock figure and the other 2 were converted from this pose.

 

[fishead19690]

The 3 figures in the center are the stock poses and the figures on the left and right ends are conversions of the center poses. I made the heads on the 3 center figures looking in different directions for a bit of varity.
The marching pose was made with an extra musket that fubar threw in my order and I just made him a 2-part putty hand.

 

[fishead19690]

The figure on the left is the stock pose and the others are conversions made from that figure.

 

[fishead19690]

The 3 figures in the center are the stock figures with different head postions and the figures on the left and right are conversions made from the center poses.
Again a 2-part putty hand on the marching pose.

 

[fishead19690]

Now to get all these guys painted up for a diorama.
I hate painting!!!

I made the hay stack and I also tried to add some leaves to my trees. The tree behind my haystack is my first attempt at addind leaves my bare trees. Do they look better with or without the leaves??? I,ll have to take a ride back to that tree and cut of some more branches now that its fall and all the leaves are falling off again. There are not that many trees out there that have branches that look this good for mini trees. I got lucky finding this tree. I think its branches make some pretty good miniature trees.

 

[fishead19690]

Heres a look at fubars new figures along side some other figures from frontline, britains, conte and K&C for a size comparison.

 

[Wraith]

Tim,
You may hate painting them, but I really enjoy seeing the results.
Very impressed with what you've come up with in terms of the conversions and the quality of castings looks very good.

I appreciate you not only posting the photos, but also showing the before and after shots and giving a detailed breakdown of what you've done.

Re the trees: better with the leaves IMO. And you're right, whatever tree you've found looks very good in miniature. I only realise this after spending ages searching round woods trying to find suitable branches / twigs etc.

Cheers
Simon

 

[Fubar]

Wow Tim , You've been busy! I like them too! I havent tried any conversions yet but thanks for the ideas. Yes, They are somewhay slimmer. I don't mind, French were always under fed and Russians were often short and stocky.

These were the parts figures. Later I will do some conversions, and mold more PARTS onto the figures{ lessparts to assemble for massed assembling and Painting} as well as add the textured bases like the Russians.
These bases are like WARGAME figure bases without any textured detail.That adds a bit to the overall hieght of the figures too.

I tend to glue 2-4 painted figure with static grassed bases to sheet metal I cut in identical dimensions with a shear at the metal shop. When thats dry, I flock the entire base and shhot with sealer. Makes moving lots of troops much faster . Thats another reasons these figures bases are Plain.

Yup, Lots more to do with them whenever I get the time.
Thanks for posting the pix Tim. Can't wait to see what you do with painting them.

Gotta run. Harold
FUB

 

[fishead19690]

Harold I love the figures, lots of possiblities with these guys! Now we need some wounded guys. I thought of doing a drummer and flag bearer but that will have to wait till I get another batch now.

Any chance on you doing some add on heads like maybe some bandaged heads or just plain heads without shakos? These could be used for any figures not just french and napoleonics but anything.

Could you try and bend some figures into new poses while they are still hot out of the mold into new postions? If you could bend some over and back into wounded postions and some new arm and leg postions that would be cool. Then you could make molds of the new figures after they cool off.
Have you ever givin this a try and if so how are the results?

 

[The Lt.]

Nicely done by both, the casting look very neat and well done along with the conversions. Ah if only the Zulus came into play what fun it would be to join in. Great job Harold and Tim looking forward to more. Tim you may want to consider hiring a staff of painters and get Mike to go in with you at the rate you two are converting figures you sure could use the help.....The Lt.

 

[kilted vampire]

Tim,

You are an ambitious man! Nice work on the conversions. I bought some of Fubars figures at the Chicago show. I look forward to painting them!

 

[fishead19690]

I started to paint my french grenadiers but I wasn,t to happy with the smaller bases on the figures not being able to stand to good on uneven surfaces. You need a good flat surface for some of these figures to stand or they,ll topple over on you. Some of my conversions didn,t stand to well on the origanal bases so I bought some fender washers for $0.07 cents each and used some zap a gap glue and glued them to the washers and then built up the base with some milput 2 part putty and used a very small wire brush to add some texture to the bases and help them blend into the the origanal bases.
I plan to flock them after they are painted but they would look good unflocked also and this is a good sulution to figures that just don,t want to stand up! I,m sure this would work great on plastic figures also and would add a bit of wieght to the base also and they would stand up on just about any surface.
Here are a couple of pictures of the figures before and after. I,ll post more pictures when I finnaly get some paint on these guys.

 

[The Lt.]

Nicely done Captain Fishead you've come up with another very helful hint. The look good tTim and looking forward to seeing them again when you've got them painted...... The Lt.

 

[Fubar]

Tim, Great job, I'm envoius! I still havent touched any more figures. The fender washer is the way to go. I have glued many a wargame figure to some smaller sizes.Those look great terrained the way you did.

The bigger heftey bases are a molding problem for me. I have to make the molds double thick just for the bases, which is more expensive and doubles your chance of the 2 halves sticking after the mold is Vulcanized. Thats at least what I have found in my own experiance.Thats why I just went with the Wargamers style bases for now.
I had the idea of sculpting bases for these figures so you could glue the fig onto a terrained casting.Just havent been TOYING around at my little foundry for a while.

They look great Tim, Cant wait to see what you do with a paintbrush.
You HAVE GOT to get out here this Spring.Collection room will be done. Save your nickles and dimes for airfare. I'll feed and water ya.

Fubar

 

[modwalls]

Those french grenadiers look first rate Fub. Leave it to Fish, to come up with an excellent base for them. I can't wait to see the colors either, I don't know what they look like, but I know they will look right after the Fishman is done. Mike