Sculpt & Cast - First Metal from new moulds....

 First metal, castings from a first run of my new moulds.

pleased with the results - especially the drummer. 

I also tried out the Prince August cannon and limber moulds I purchased. I can get the cannon barrels to cast nicely - need to perhaps add a few extra air vents and warm the moulds up a bit - then I may get the wheels to come out.

Mould making started...

The latest set of the moulds for the 18C foot figures progressing well. 

The most laborious part bedding the masters in plasticene is done..

I'm using part of the game table for mould making, the first half of two of the moulds has been poured..

Hopefully I'll be finished all four by Saturday, then I can get some trial castings done.

Going mouldy.....

The finished generic 40mm SYW sculpts of various figures, finished off in June, have been allocated to moulds.   There artillery crew, infantry command, march attack infantry, a jager and hussar in kolpack.

Currently working through doing final checks on the masters, before they are bedded in with plasticene prior to mixing the mould compound.

Some more 40mm Masters - artillery crew...

Just for the sake of completion, I've made up some masters for artillery crew

The rest of the figures waiting to go into a mould ... 

Moulds have been made already for the cavalry - uhlan, hussar, kurassier and dragoon.

So what army project to do in 40mm that I need to make moulds up for all the foot figures ?  hmm something to think about....

28mm SYW Sculpt & Cast (MK2) - first metal

 The MK2 moulds have been made and I got the chance to do a first casting session yesterday.  I made the moulds carefully to avoid any 'bubble' problems and added plenty of air vents. I was pleased with the result of the first off castings  - nice cleanly cast figures without much prep work needed.

The cannon in the picture are from AW iminatures, now could I make a mould for a cannon ? (plus a limber as well) - something to think on 

The four new moulds will be used to cast figures for 

• building up the Saxe-Jarlsberg army (based on Brunswick)
• replacing old gun crews for Wittenberg & Monrovian artillery.
• updating part of the Wittenberg army - replacing some of the older units.

28mm SYW Sculpt & Cast (MK2)

With a couple of army build projects in 28mm coming up, I thought I would update my 28mm SYW master figures (fix casting & details issues along with adding some new things). The MK2 set will focus on foot figures - the cavalry figure moulds are OK and work well enough.

I've made up a gun crew, modified from the march attack musketeer figure...

All the amended and new figures have been completed and attached to metal pouring reservoirs ready for making four moulds.  Mould 1- 2 fusiliers (new) & 2 grenadiers; Mould 2 - artillery crew (new)

 Mould 3 - infantry command & hussar with busby (new); Mould 4 - march attack musketeers (4 off)

If I have enough mould compound left then I'll make a fifth mould containing 2 Austrian style grenadiers and 2 generic jagers.

Kapikulu - Elite Begovian Cavalry

Finished a unit of my new Kapikulu castings for the  Begovian army; hopefully all the Wittenberg troops will see will be the rear view ...

From the front ...

Formed up with their heavily armoured chums .. 

New Begovian figures - first metal ...

First lot of figures from the new moulds for the Begovians have been cast and I have made up the command figures for the Janissaries...

and a unit of cavalry ...

New Janissary and Kapikalu sculpts ....

Finished the sculpts for the new look Begovian (Ottoman) Janissary infantry in long coat and the Kapikalu cavalry

A comparison between the new chaps and the old 'generation 1' version (one of my first sculpts 6 years ago);  definitely an improvement ...

The cavalry figure, new rider fitted temporarily with lance...

as usual the photos show the imperfections up, a few tweaks to do before the mould making commences.

Extending my 28mm Home-Cast range of figures ....

 Something I've been working on for the couple of weeks are some extra masters to extend my home-cast range of 28mm figures.

The initial set comprised a marching musketeer, marching Prussian style grenadier , dragoon and heavy cavalry horse...

These were used to make figures for my Monrovian army refurbishment and to provide some extra units for my Duchy of Fenwick army.

The initial sets provided some basic figures that can be used as starting points to make new ones.  I eventually chose to go with some more generic style figures that I could think of using in the coming year. 

The new figure masters.... 

1) kurassier, draught horse,  mounted officer

2) officer, drummer, standard bearer, Austrian style grenadier

3) hussar and suitable horse variant, plus an advancing jager

I've just started working on making the moulds. Perhaps first trial castings in a few days times.

I plan to use the new figures to raise some Freikorps additions to my 28mm armies.

Zinzendorf - Uhlans (40mm)

Von Tiddenheim and Count Boritzy  review the re-equipped Uhlan regiment - they have been provided with new uniforms and brought back up to full strength after the rigours of the last Begovian campaign.

Zinzendorf - Kurassiers (40mm)

Graf Von Tiddenheim has travelled to the Zinzendorf province on a fact finding mission for the King, to review the state of defences of the towns and cities; then review the army and its readiness for future campaigns.

While at Pulverstadt, Von Tiddenheim and Von Hazant review the newly formed Kurassiers...

Wittenberg 40m Cavalry - castings prepped...

 All the 40mm cavalry castings prepped and ready for painting .. replacement Uhlans and Dragoons, plus new Hussar regiment.

Begovian Infantry...

 Have completed the last 3 units of my new look home-cast Begovian infantry. All four of the 'janissaries in field dress' shown together ...

thats the main core of the Begovian army refurbished ready for the next campaign. Have some work to do on the Wittenberg cavalry before the campaign can get started.

Begovian Cavalry and work in progress on the Wittenberg General Staff

Last week I finished reworking some units of my Begovian (Ottoman) cavalry. I cast some extra figures and equipped them with lance and mixed them with my existing ones with sword and bow. The aim was to have a more animated look.

Also in progress using some of my new 18C cavalry castings is an uplift for my 40mm Wittenberg Staff,  some have new heads either from Front Rank or Sash & Saber with some green stuff work.

40mm 18C Cavalry - first metal ....

I made the new moulds for my 40mm 18C cavalry over the last few days and did some trial casting today, first metal ...

a few extra air vents had to be added to the moulds to improve flow and casting quality. Most figures have come out reasonably well, I'm especially pleased with the hussar.

Now I'm planning which cavalry unit to do first and any additional accessories that needed to be ordered (probably some sabres and swords from Front Rank). Initially I am going to refurb my mounted and dismounted staff.

Work in progress on 40mm armies.....

Getting my 18C cavalry masters ready to go into moulds, a few last correction needed ...

will be casting replacements for my existing 40mm Wittenberg army. 

Work on an uplift of the Begovian army is getting near the end, two more infantry units to complete and some extras for the cavalry to make 3 existing units into 4 units with a mix of sword/lance/bow.

Begovian infantry - work in progress....

Have started re-organising my 40mm Begovian army infantry, today I have been sorting out figures for command stands

 and allocating figures to bases

another 48 of the new infantry figures to cast  then onto painting, basing ....

New Ottoman style infantry masters...

As I'm going to making a mould for a 40mm tatar as part of my 17C project, I would have some spare mould making stuff left over. I decided to rework my 40mm ottoman style infantry masters, adding three new poses and with smaller bases to save on metal

• A new pose with the musket held more vertically
• Original advancing figure gets a new head and musket
• Another advancing pose with musket held across chest
• Firing pose.

these should give me enough variety with a few conversions to rework the Begovian army infantry

The mould kits arrived today, masters will be double checked for snags before making the moulds.

40mm Sculpt & Cast - sorting out and finishing off..

 After finishing the hussar I've been working on my 40mm sculpts. I revisited the mounted figures - Dragoon, Kuirassier and generic mounted Officer. A couple of fixes needed.

the Uhlan's coat and face has been reworked

Musketeer Variant, Musketeer Original,  New Fusilier and New Grenadier (easier to cast as figures - had problems with separate heads)

4 new sculpts replace ones I wasn't satisfied with 

-  Officer, drummer, standard bearer, NCO (pole arm to be added)

At sometime all of these will go into moulds (better finish other projects first :) )