Little Carpet Wars

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Making Paper Soldiers without being an Artist

Among the thousands of projects running through my head, I thought of turning historical reenactors into paper soldiers.

The opportunity presented itself at the re-enactment of the Battle of Staffarda in the Piedmont region.

All the reenactors I met were very kind and lent themselves to the photo session.

At the moment I have managed to make paper soldiers of these different regiments all belonging to the same line or brigade if you like.

Piedmontese Dragoons

Micheletti of Catalonia

Piedmontese Marines

Piedmont Regiment

While for the opposing line I am working on the Red Dragoons.

What did I learn from this experiment?

1 Make sure that all reenactors are posed at the same distance from the lens.

2 One line must pose facing left while the other line must pose facing right.

3 A backdrop that is as neutral as possible helps enormously in the graphic editing work

I have made every effort to give them all the same size so that once cut there are no obvious different sizes

The print format is A4, I recommend sticking the soldiers on a black cardboard not too thick.

The scale is slightly larger than 1:24

Here you can find the regiments

Monday, August 7, 2023

Back to test miniature cannons

Here are the weekend's tests.

I made a cannon with polymer clay, the core of the cannon is composed of cast iron plumbing pipe that I covered with clay and then fired in the kiln.

I used wire to attach the cannon trunnions, which are also covered with polymer clay.

I made the ignition hole at the back where it is most convenient to light the firecracker.

However, I also have some ideas on how to make an alternative that equally allows for convenient loading and firing by unscrewing the cast iron tube cap.

Coming soon...

In addition to the polymer clay cannon I also modified yet another desk cannon from my rambling desk cannon collection.

In this case it is two models, the cannon of one model and the carriage of another that turn out to be compatible!!!

I am also practicing woodworking to make a wagon up to the standard of being called a "miniature reproduction"

I recommend you try it too but make sure you have the proper protections.

In the heat of boring the cannon the drill got stuck and the whole work table flew at me. Fortunately I came out unharmed except for my little finger, which was slightly broken.