Well heres the figure conversions bit! Firstly the unadulterated figure!
Cut the bicorn off from the top of the head as cleanly as possible
I don't quite know why I did it in this order but I did! Next step was to roll some milliput/green stuff up and let it go hard. Then cut a slice off about 1mm thick, for the canteen. On some I also cut bits from an old paintbrush as a waterbottle too. But basically as long as its about 1.5mm round and paintable and you can cut a thin slice of it; it will do.
Glue it on
This is the point where I decided to reattach the bicorn (who knows why?) I first got some old pins and heated them using pliers over a lighter until glowing red.
I then pushed this down into the top of his head whilst hot. It burns its way in very quickly and because it melts the plastic, when it cools in a few seconds, it re-glues the pin in there as the plastic hardens around it. No waiting for glue to dry, or drilling or anything. Very easy.
I then trim the pin to a sensible length, when in the figure. This is better than cutting before as it doesn't matter if you accidentally push it in too far and you are not trying to hold a very small bit of wire. I did consider painting them at this stage then fastening the hats and painting those on later, but didn't in the end. (sorry some of these pics are very bad.)
Then do the same for the hat, after holding it over the head and approximating where it needs to fit. (I stuck the bicorn into some plasticine/blu-tac whilst I inserted the pin- save burnt and stabbed fingers.)
Next I dry fitted the bicorn- many fitted so well and tightly there was no need for glue, one or two did need glue though.
the snug fitiing bicorn, fore and aft
Next I rolled some greenstuff/milliput out into a thin point/roll and applied one end to the shoulder whilst holding the other.
I then laid this over the shoulder to the back and trimmed it off.
On the officers musicians with scales I used a scalpel to sculpt some texture to help when highlighting with paint.
The finished result!
Right- Need to take some pictures of the finished article now. I took some which looked terrible, but uploaded them anyway onto another yahoogroup, but now can't find them on my PC so may have deleted them!
The musician in this set is one of two figure that didn't need the bicorn moving. The problem with them was that the british wore their bicorns ear to ear with the cockade/plume on the left. however when they went into battle they tuned their hats fore and aft to prevent them blowing off so easily on horseback, but they turned them so the cockade/plume was at the front on the right of their head. You will notice most the figures in the italeri set have the bicorn wore at a quarter angle with the plume to the rear right, contrary to the british manner.
You might also notice I trimmed the plumes back a little with a scalpel and removed the pattern from the high slung sabretache, which I then painted as the cream coloured bread/fodder bag carried by british troops.
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