Step by step

Sculpting a soldier in 1:32 scale (54mm)

It's a British soldier from the 1812's War.

I've used to sculpt an Argentine epoxy putty (Suprabond Artesanos) similar to Milliput. As human proportion references I've used many scaled pictures:
There are a lot of web-sites with useful images as previous and photos of human figures nude and dressed.

I begin my work with castings parts in resin or epoxy putty and an iron-wire skeleton. I make a little hole (1mm diameter) to these parts (arms, legs, torax, hands, etc.) to insert the iron wire:

 

Then, I do the figure posture beginning with feet, legs and torax (previous picture isn't from this work, but I'm using as example).
As first pass I've sculpted the shoes, the gaiters and the pants:


Then I've sculpted the coat but carving the strips of the chest. The better way is to add little strips of putty and then sculpt and smooth.
For the buttons I've made a 0,5 mm hole in the exactly place, adding a bit of putty and modelling the final button with a needle:

 

In the next pass I've added the straps:

 

Then I've sculpted separated the right arm and a rude hat:

 

Previously we can see a little hole where I'll insert and glue an iron wire for left arm, which will charge the musket and will be joined to body.
Aside, I've casted and sculpted a range of accesories and the left arm skeleton:



This is the finished figure:

British Infantry 1812British Infantry 1812


I hope to be useful for you.

Leonardo Madeo

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