Making Soldiers

Pegasus Hobbies at their website Panzer46.com have posed a large quantity of photos of their soon to be released French for both World War One and World War Two! They are doing two sets of French figures and they look great. They include officers, riflemen and heavy weapons.























These photos are pictures of the masters. Note the little number on the base. The set will be planned with the owner saying I want so many poses in certain positions with various weapons. They will be sketched out and then certain items like weapons and helmets will be sculpted. Once those items are perfect in size and accuracy they will be cast in resin to the same scale as the masters. Typically the master figure is much larger than the ultimate figure to be cast in plastic.























Once the accessories are done, the sculptor will make the master figures out of clay. He will use the accessories in resin so that he does not have to make the weapons over and over and they will be exactly the same from figure to figure. Typically at this point the set will be reviewed carefully for any errors in uniform and equipment. The sculptor is often a great artist, but seldom a great military historian. Every detail; buttons, collars, getting the right ammo pouches with the right weapons, grenades, all of it must be perfect. Often many changes have to be made to get them perfect.

Then they are reviewed to insure they will work in the mold. There are limitations to plastic figure making and not every pose can be realized in plastic. Flatter is better for the mold, three dimensional is better for the sculptor, so there is built in tension. Items like the sling on these figures mean they will probably have a separate arm with rifle and sling to glue on to the body. The figure would simply not come out of the mold if it were made this way as a one piece figure.

Once the figures are designed so that they can come out of the mold and the figures are perfect they have to determine how many figures of each pose will fit in the mold and where they will be placed. Usually about 48 1/72nd scale figures can fit in a mold, depending on the poses and accessories, sometimes a few more or a few less. This entire process takes at least three years and sometimes as many as six years from start to finish.

A good sculptor may be very slow; or he many not make figures that fit the mold limitations. He may not take direction well and make goofy poses, or he may not care about the tiny details, or simply may be uninterested in the subject matter. A good mold maker will insure figures are correct before the mold making process begins, but not all of them are good! Some will pantograph the figures improperly and the set will be far too large or way too small. They often don't understand that a difference between 1/72nd scale and 1/78th scale will matter to anyone. Making figures is complicated and difficult and expensive. Thanks to Larry at Pegasus for doing a great job!