Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As my old Infinity thread has been forgotten for years and I'm branching out from just Haqqislam, I'm starting a new combined thread for all my Infinity endeavours.

You can eventually expect to see Haqq and Nomads in here, but what I bring you today is the start of an ode to the outgoing Fusiliers.

I'm probably on my own in this, but the three combi-rifle grunts from the original starter just appeal to me in a way that their Icestorm replacements don't.

I can't really say what it is about them, as I'm generally not a fan of the PanO range (in fact, as I recall, I once challenged someone to a duel for suggesting I was a PanO player) or many of the earlier sculpts in general, but there's enough charm there that when IJW had the old triple blister discounted at the Autumn Challenge I nonetheless took the chance to grab it.

They're going to be getting the typical Marco Skoll treatment - as a committed Inquisitor player, I've rather picked up that community's taboo for stock models, so everything I do these days gets converted until such a point as I feel it's uniquely mine. Basically expect lots of dissection and green stuff.

Anyway, the starting point, in case you've already forgotten what the old Fusiliers look like:


I've picked the girl to work on first, as she's my favourite and will also need the trickiest cuts to separate her combi rifle from her torso. Those cuts are largely done by this photo, although the clean up of the undercuts "missing" from the one piece casting is still waiting.



More cuts, some filing and a few pins later, we have the basis of a new posing:



... and with a possible position for the combi (itself partway through being restyled):



Plans from here are to fill in all the gaps I've left (obviously), address a few elements of the early style CB anatomy I'm not too fond of (the muscle contours in the legs, mostly) and probably tone down a few of the exaggerated details that came with the more "heroic" styling of the early days as well.

Basically, the hope is to preserve the charm of the original models while sprucing them up a bit.

Today I got around to some early stages of green stuff work. This is all still hardening as I type, so I may be taking the opportunity to make small tweaks before it's completely done.

Naturally, as the front of the torso was originally behind the combi rifle, much of it has had to be sculpted from scratch:



A couple of changes may need to be made, as I'm not completely happy with the pelvic area (for the simple reason I'm not convinced where her pelvis is actually supposed to be), but I can't do what I'd need to while the putty is still curing.

What you can see around the back, aside from rejoining the ponytail to the repositioned head, relates to what I mentioned in my first post about toning back some of the exaggerated details in the early styling. Things tend to become more subtly defined as sculptors and their miniature ranges develop and mature, which is part of what dates the earlier models.
In this case there were very significant crevices between the layers of the armour, which I've taken the opportunity to partially fill in:



My next jobs would seem to be to redetail the trousers and give her some new feet. More on that next time.

Although not at a great pace, work continues. As before, a lot of the greenstuff is still soft in these pictures, so adjustments may still be being made after I've posted this.

The combi rifle is mid-remodelling (I expect to be doing some work with a hobby knife to neaten up the GS after it's hardened, it's not a great putty for hard shapes like rifles). It's been cut down in size, and has been given a new straight magazine - I feel this retains the general aesthetic of the PanO combi rifle, but removes the slightly odd questions of exactly why you'd have a reverse curved magazine.

You can also see me rebuilding the ankle area after the reposing:





And there's also some sculpting on the trousers that's hidden behind the rifle in the first photo:

Great sculpting there!