Skull Clan – To Catch a Thief

Really tricky build but finally starting to take shape.
Many fragile parts and lots of flash made for quite a few breakages but should just about get away with repairs. I found it easiest to assemble and then give a coat of primer to the main sections.

The wheels were particularly tricky as I think I put them in the wrong way around to begin with.

I have now also noticed that the build shown on the box illustration doesn’t use the sidecar but a ‘chariot’ frame. These are separate components on the same sprue as the figures.

Might have to go with the sidecar as is, now I have glued everything 🙁

Next start to assemble the figures…

Figures built and primed except for heads and a couple of arms which I will leave on sprue to paint

Pressed some air dry clay into the bottom of a margarine tub – this will become the base for the diorama…

Testing out the positioning of the figures on the diorama base…

The base gets a coating of PVA glue and some fine modelling sand is applied…

A Coat of Black Primer is applied…..

Worked some colour into the base – burnt umber base coat, wet brush snakebite leather, dry brush snakebite leather and white…

Some more painting and trying out figures on the desert diorama base

some messing about with camera settings – added some more paint to the figures and placed in the commando car diorama

 

   

For this diorama I purchased a resin figure .. my first go at doing one of these.

The figure is stuck together using superglue and the mould lines and flash are removed with an Xacto blade.  I plugged the gaps in the arms using green stuff putty.

Once prepared I gave the figure a coat of Vallejo black primer..

 

I then hand painted the figure using Citadel Acrylics, layering and blending with progressive lighter shades.  I gave the figure some ink washes and then a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish.

I worked on the layering a bit more to try and bring out the folds in the garments.

The Gun and the Gas mask parts are very fragile and I managed to break both whilst painting the figure.  They will need to be trimmed of excess glue and re-stuck nearer completion.

On the hunt for some features to add to a Post Apocalyptic Dio whilst out for a walk with the dog. Came across this pipe outlet, thought it would be cool to try and reproduce in 1:35 scale..

Press a golf ball size piece of Das air dry clay into a plastic pot lid. I used the lid from some Q Tips..

cut a straw and shove it into a bit of styrofoam shaped roughly with an xacto and stick down onto the base with white glue. Next step filler and some rubble…

rocks and rubble added…

Once dry everything gets a coating of diluted white glue and then when that’s dry a coat of Vallejo black primer…

Some more paint and a bit of a dry brush..

Some flock and the figure is glued into position..

 

  Added a few props and a bit of pigment .. just about finished.

Saw this resin figure and couldn’t resist adding it into the diorama..

So as usual next stage will be to remove flash, assemble and prime ready for painting

All primed and ready to paint…

Position in Diorama to see how it looks

Add some flesh tones

Add some base colour to hat, jeans and shirt

Drybrush some shading to jeans and t-shirt by mixing some white with the base colour and paint belt and accessories. Just about finished..

 

Had these boxed up in storage for about 40 years so decided it was time to see if I could give them a new paint job

I no longer had the original instruction sheets so was pleased to see that there were plenty of examples of finished models to use as a guide on the internet.  Here are a few images that I took for reference purposes.

The first stage was to strip back and remove any loose paint , parts etc.

I then gave everything a coat of black primer.

I then painted the horses using citadel acrylics and sanded and dry brushed the bases.

Next I started to work on George Washington and the Polish Lancer

Rather than break into my Tamiya Sandbags (retentive) I thought I would have a go at making some of my own from scratch using Das air drying clay.

Here is my first attempt, a bit too large , have turned out more like sacks of flour!

The German is Tamiya 1/35 scale the 8th Army is Airfix 1/32 Scale

and with Britains 54mm,  Airfix 1/32 and Timpo 54mm

Not necessarily a failure but not desired result.. I will try again making them a bit smaller

In the meantime gave the sacks a few coats of paint and found a figure that I’m certain is 1:24 scale, this seems just about right…

I’m thinking this would make the beginnings of a good farmyard diorama but it is a bigger scale than Britains I have some 1:24 scale stuff that would work well with this though.