WiP: Gladiator Bust

posted by Peter, Baphomet

Hey guys,

just wanted to show you my current project I´m working at. It´s the second head of the Gladiator Bust from Young Miniatures. The other head was already painted (together with the body part) by Roman and he gave it to me as a gift :) Thank you for this, my friend!

Since I started painting this (mini-)bust I was thinking about if I should use the visor of the helmet or not. On the one side the face is beautiful shaped and it´s pure fun to paint it. On the other side I wanted to use the visor, because in my opinion it belongs to a gladiator helmet, but if I would do this, I would lose the face.... so I was thinking about a solution for this problem.

Some days ago I remembered that I had used magnets (Neodym) for a Carnifex-model (GW) some years ago when I was still playing tabletop to have all weapon options available. After brooding about this idea for a time, I decided to try to apply the same solution here.

I found some old magnets deep down in my material boxes and used a calliper to make them a little smaller. At the same time Iwas looking for something which I could use for the counterpart. It had to be thin and metallic, but I had used my last metal sheet some time ago... so after grupping in all my boxes, drawers and everywhere else I found the cover of a can in my fridge... it was perfect for my plans ;)

I flectured a little part of the cover, cut it off and glued it at the inner side of the visor.

Now comes the crazy part... I took my dremel-tool and cut a small hole above the forehead of the (semi-painted) gladiator. It was quite tricky because it would have been easy to destroy the whole forehead... but after using this tool fore some years, it was not that big problem ;) after the hole was big enough I put a small part of the magnet into it and coverd everything with Vallejo Plastic Putty.

After polishing and covering the part with colour the work was done and I was pleased with the result. If you look at the area I have worked at, it´s quite hard to see anything, and even if you see anything, this area will be very dark, so nobody will really care ;)

So the last few hours I was able to continue with painting the bust by using oil-colours... it´s the hell of fun and it sooo damned easy and fast to get very good blendings. Big Kong really has to do the tutorial for you guys :)

There is still a lot to do, but I´m looking foreward for tomorrow, when I can continue painting ;) The last two pictures are not very good, because the oil-colour was still wet and I took them before putting the bust in the oven...

It´s not a big story or secret how to use magnets, but I hope, I could gave you some hints/ideas/help :)


Best wishes,
Peter