Van Diemen's World Devils: Female Infantry

 Hi folks,

Way back in November I mentioned that I had purchased some Van Dieman's World Devils from Victoria Miniatures, as a present for my good mate Wade. The style of the Van Dieman's World Devils is based on the iconic appearance of the Australian soldier, in particular the slouch hats and fatigues.

Some ANZACS

The aim is to get them painted for a special ANZAC day memorial game at the end of April, so I have dropped (almost...) everything to prepare them. Out of the twenty figures he has, ten need to be converted with female heads from a different set. This involves cutting the heads out of the male slouch hats, removing the Cadian style helmets from the female troops and bringing the two pieces together in a way that is in no way suggestive of "space mumps".

That's "Space Mumps" on the left and "Smeg Head" on the right.

Here are some pictures of the process for those who are interested in the modelling side of things:

The sprues are washed in a soapy solution to remove any chemical residue form the manufacturing process that may affect glue and paint adhesion.

I grip the male heads above the ears with some wire cutters and slowly squeeze. The higher up the better.

This is what I am left with. Most of this resin must be removed to fit the female head in.

About 1 mm of cutting to go. When the resin is flush with the brim of the hat it is ready for the head.

Far more feminine features. The hair and head needs to be trimmed down to just above the eye-line.

Nearly there. After a bit of cleaning up around the edges I used this one to see how it would look. For the rest of them I will probably file back the head even a fraction more.

A quick comparison to make sure I am on the right track. The only sign of a join between the two head pieces is a break in the hair-line close to the hat. I put a minute ball of greenstuff in there and sculpted some hair with my hobby knife blade.

A quick dry fit followed by some cleaning of flash around the legs and feet.

The lasgun required some heating and bending to straighten the barrel.

Ready for priming; nine to go...

Considering this is the "first pancake" I am fairly happy with the outcome. For the next couple I will lower the hat a fraction and file more resin off the back of the head, to expose the face a little bit by changing the angle of the hat. Hopefully when these guys (and girls!) are finished, we can set up a painting session and production-line them in time for the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

P.S. A completely relevant beer commercial from my childhood: