Sunday, March 13, 2016

'Risk Taker' from LeeH - 'Rommel'


Given that I am collecting figures for WWII North Africa and the Second Punic War my submission for the Gambler/Risk Taker bonus round was only ever going to be one of two characters; Rommel or Hannibal. Way back in 2009 I painted the Hannibal miniature that was given out at Salute that year but I have never yet painted Rommel, and it just so happened that I had a figure sitting neglected in my lead mountain. Actually the model I have used isn't lead at all, its a plastic 1/48th scale figure from the Tamiya WWII Famous Generals set.




As the title suggest I'll be sending this figure all the way to the cold wastes of Canada as my 'Curtgeld'. I just hope the plastic figure makes it there in one piece. I sense a bit of custom made packaging in my near future. I bought this set of models while on Holiday last year. It was an impulse purchase while we wandered through the high street of a random Devon village and having chanced upon the only model shop for 50 miles (or so it felt) I simply had to buy something. Actually I think the shop owner was a bit startled by this wild eyed city wargamer wandering into his rural shop but I was still happy to push a little money his way in return for a kit that includes figures of Montgomery and Patton as well as Eisenhower and Rommel.



I have to admit that I struggled to paint this figure. its been a long time since I have painted a figure this size (1/48th comes out at about 31mm foot to eye and 36mm overall) having long ago abandoned it for 15mm and 6mm. It seems I have unlearned a lot of the skill and technique required for this scale. I'm not as happy with how this model turned out as I am with my 6mm submissions to the challenge but in the end I just had to draw a line under it and says "its done, walk away"!. Fortunately the Tamiya set I got this figure from contains two of each General so I have another Rommel to work on at another time. Maybe when I have less time pressure to work on this I can produce a better result second time around.

15 comments:

  1. nicely done, must have been a challenge to change scales, Curt will be pleased with that!

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  2. Fine work Lee - and it is always reassuring to see others dealing with "impulse buys"...I'm sure he will make it safely to Canada.

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  3. Well done Lee, you made the transition back to the big scales just fine. I do know folks who game WW2 and Cold War era actions with this scale...

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  4. Nice work Lee :)

    Switching to a scale you're not used to can be difficult as you've lost the muscle memory for the various stages you need to use. It took me a little while to get back into the swing of painting 6mm after several months off! :)

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  5. Does he know who's in the previous post, I wonder?

    "I read your book, you magnificent bastard!"
    ; )

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  6. Wow, this is lovely stuff Lee, thanks so much. Rommel is one of my favourite historical generals. I also know he will be great for our Pulp games as you always need larger than life villains! Thank you again.

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  7. Nice work on him, Lee! That black trench coat came out really well! ;)

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