Weird West

Here are two figures from Ainsty Castings sculpted by Ian Mountain. They come from the Weird West range. When I say range they only do two packs at the moment (Heroes and Villains). Each pack has 3 figures, either good guys/girls or the baddies. Each pack retails for £7.50, but at Salute they did a deal of both packs for £10.00.  Here we have a werewolf from the Villains pack and a female Indian from the Heroes pack. Neither of these figures were why I bought the packs but I really do like them now. Both figures are single piece castings with no flash and only minor mould lines. Overall very nice castings and In my opinion well worth the money.

Ladies first, I have done a close up so you can see just how nicely sculpted the figures are. Other than the blue in the hair I have kept to very natural colours. If anyone asks I'll just say the blue came from an army uniform, so don't question it as I tried red first and it looked unbalanced on the figure. I have used red as an accent colour contrasting against the buff base colour on her wrists. I do not think her clothing is authentic and that really is my only criticism of the figure. As she's next to a werewolf I can suspend reality for a while and just enjoy her as a very nice figure sculpt. She carries a "Bowie Knife" very openly but no sheath for it and no other weapons. But the knife, expression and stance lead me to believe that she's all ready for action. You can probably tell that I have really enjoyed painting her.

The werewolf was a struggle for me. Again he is nicely sculpted and cast but I had to paint him twice as I was not happy the first time. I think I tried too hard the first attempt to make it look like a "Real" wolf. Once I accepted it as a fantasy figure and stopped looking at pictures of real wolves it pretty much painted itself. Other than the skin tones it is just a simple dry brush. I used 4 different greys and worked quickly so that they would all blend on the model. It's no where near perfect but as a fantasy figure I think it works well enough. I won't dwell on what I don't like or have done wrong as I am happy with it and would be prepared to paint another one. That's one of the tests for me, if I would be prepared to paint another. So no more whining about it and as you can see in the close up picture the skin tones and claws have come out well and I am very pleased with the orange eyes.

That's todays post. More again on Tuesday. Thanks for reading I hope it's warm and sunny where you are and that you have a great couple of days. All the best Clint