"Dandy Jim" Early War Confederate

This bust is from The Regimental S-4. It's 1/9 (200mm) scale and was sculpted by Anders Heintz.

Alot of conversion work went into this piece. The collector wanted the bust wearing a shirt that is featured in Time-Life's "Echoes of Glory-Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy" (pg.155) as well as the hat (pg.167). I was also asked to have him holding a Bowie knife rather than a saber.

I started on the hat brim. This was probably the easiest part of the conversion. I cut off the entire brim and replaced with one made of rolled out putty. The reason I did this was to replicate the original which was more "curled" than the kit version. I then added the star and buttons.

The shirt front, placket and collar was next. I filled in much of the creases and folds to give a flatter painting surface.

The hair was the most labor intensive part. I felt the hair was too thin for the subject. I looked at examples in Baroque sculpture to give me ideas and inspiration but of which left me with "how the heck did they do that?!" I know I wanted more fullness and curl, something that reflects his attire...A Dandy!... Needless to say alot of putty went into this part. Knowing that I had little time before the putty starts to cure I decided to sculpt this in two sections. After much manipulation I ended up with something I was satisfied with. How those Masters sculpted/chisled elegant flowing hair is still a mystery to me.

There is some touch-ups to be done and I'm waiting on the base. Sorry for the poor pics I used the OTT-Lite's to help with photographing.