When one looks at pictures and paintings of soldiers from the Great Italian Wars, lots of them, especially the Italians influenced by Venetian fashion, have ‘turbans’ wrapped around their helmets. How many Italians were influenced by Venetian fashion I do not know - but they do look the part. Very few such war game figures exist. I have found that ‘Italianising’ commercially available figures in this 'fashion' is quite easy.
The tools and materials required are: Modelling putty (Greenstuff or Miliput), a craft knife or scalpel (I prefer the latter), super glue and a piece of glass or a flat shiny tile. (All the figures converted were Front Rank Wars of the Roses figures).
STEP ONE: Roll out a thin length of putty (1.5mm ish). Fold it in half and twist.
STEP TWO: Wrap this around the figure’s helmet as many times as looks appropriate and cut off the excess. If you want a hanging ‘tail’, use the excess for it, flattening it out with the scalpel blade to look like ‘floppy’ cloth.
STEP THREE: If you want to go further. Roll a very small ball of putty. This is the brooch that holds the turban in place. Put it in the appropriate place and press it on with the flat of the scalpel blade.
STEP FOUR: Once cured, dribble a small amount of superglue into the ‘groove between helmet and turban to secure it all permanently. Once dry, you can paint as normal.
There are various types of turban, but this is the easiest to make.
The figure above was converted using a single piece of putty, rolled around the helmet once. The 'folds' were added with the back of a scalpel blade then 'rounded' by rolling a large pin into them to take off the edges. Although you can hold the pin between your fingers, fixing the pin into the handle of a craft knife first is easier to control.
1 comment:
Those are some pretty hefty turbans. But a neat idea. A very few of the WoR figures that the Perry Bros. did for the Foundry (dating back to the 1980's) had little twists of cloth like that around their helmets.
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