"Airfix grognard" Topic

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This latest kit build is also my 400th post over at my blog. Hope you like it!? Please leave comments here and on my blog. All feedback greatly appreciated!

Looks fantastic!

Well done

Superb! Congratulations on the differing shades of white which are nicely done.

Very nice indeed!

Very nice. You could have opted for a Swiss grenadier of course, but I agree – nostalgia should take precedence.

Odd that Airfix don't re-release these. I reckon a few of us 60s kids would buy some out of fondness and memory

Very nice – totally agree great job on the shades of white

Thanks for positive feedback guys! It's a real morale booster :-)

And Marc the Plastics, if you have a read of my blog post you'll see I did consider doing him as a Dutch grenadier. But having just done the previous line Infantryman as a Swiss variant, and what with my dad's 1/12 version as a nostalgic precedent I wanted to remember and celebrate… I'll probably acquire the model again at some point and do a Dutchy, as they do look very cool!

I am sure I do not need to tell you a bit of work needed on the bearskin for Dutch Grenadiers.

and this chap is great. I really like the highlight on the buttons but, as Frederick said, nice different shades of off-white. Ivory?

Thanks DH, and yes, Ivory!

Gosh, that takes me back to the early 70s, and that fiddly bit of plastic card supplied with which I tried to make into cross-belts. Not very successfully!

Lol, yes the plastic was irritating. Yet Seb has made it work. Me, I think I would use foil, or paper, or even strips of milliput.

Of course, having done one, Seb now needs to do a unit…

Lead foil off the top of wine bottles works best.

Such fun collecting it too. you do have to chose your bottles carefully though. The quality of the foil varies

That plastic was awful, I ended up using strips of white paper to make an Italian guard velite .

The only way I've ever made the plastic strip work on those Airfix kits is to paint it into position with liquid glue once it is in place. This softens it enough to make it sag naturally, and when the glue cures it stays put. The risk is that if you overdo it even a bit, it sags into several pieces under its own weight, and you're back to square one. With things like reins it's not that hard to have another go at it. When it's little strips for water bottles and stuff, with the ends tucked under backpacks, it's a bloody nuisance, hence the wine bottle foil.

You can actually buy sheets of lead foil, to Deadhead's point about quality, but I prefer to use the stuff that comes for free with wine, and for once this isn't just me being a cheapskate. I just assume that the better the wine the better the foil. Or at least that's what I tell the wife.

For reigns, consider those kitchen scrubbers made of copper. Lots of flexibility.