My initial impression of the Bulldogs is that they were oddly proportioned... but on closer inspection it appeared mostly to be because of the shoulder pads. The legs, chest and beret head pieces are pretty good generic military SF stuff. And there's no need to go with redcoat colour scheme.
Soooo... I ordered a box to try them with other arms and guns. Here's the result using some from the Stargrave Trooper kit:
They seems very good for mixing/kitbashing, adding to them some ordnance or gear such as from Anvil Industry's or Pig Iron's surely would make great minis
I think the proportions are intentional. They're "bulldogs", so naturally they lean into the large head and shoulders typical of heroic scale models a bit more than others, to a degree that it becomes stylised, and they gain something of the physical aspect of a bulldog.
@Mark Dewis
Nice work.
They do look better with the arm swaps. Reduces the super hero kiddy toy proportions of them.
When the weapon is held in front of the torso, or where you've bulked up the middle with hand grenades it helps to hide the wasp waist aspect as well.
@Mark Dewis they look like a nice generic kit for sci-fi. I like your basing, by the way 😁
@Stephen Sutton I'm pretty sure if you compare them to Caidian Guard, they're very much the same size. I have some spares of those, so I might do some comparison shots.
I should also mention I don't much like the weapon designs in the stock Bulldogs either. But if there's anything I have excess spares of it is gun arm pairs...
Might also try tests with historical guns.
@Vitor Soares Thanks. The next phase (which I've done for these) is to fill with Crayola air-dry clay. Then whatever texture plan is going to be used (default is PVA then dipped in coarse builder's sand).
If you rock up to a bulk builder supply place (i.e. where they sell sand by the excavator scoop) with a bucket asking to buy some, they may just give it to you ;)
This is the air dry clay I use. The bucket seals VERY well, so you don't need to worry about it drying out.
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/crayola-air-dry-clay-white/p/109656
@JTam They aren't wasp waisted at all. It's ALL in the shoulder pads.
(Edit: Maybe a *little* in the jacket skirt.)
@Mark Dewis those do look better. I have said a couple times thst I am not a scifi player a lot... but I did not really like the bulldogs. But... I do like their basic guns. But these look pretty good.
@Mark Dewis
OK.... Narrow hipped if you prefer..
@Mark Dewis I use a similar method. I don't use air dry clay, I think you call what I use spackle. Then I use the construction sand, they give it away for free here.
@Vitor Soares Yeah. I used to use Spackle, and it's good. I find it a little more fiddly to apply, but it probably dries better, and doesn't shrink. My one complaint with the air dry clay is that it does shrink slightly as it dries, and can crack a little (not an issue for basing when it's all getting covered in PVA anyway).
My original bucket of texture was sand that had been used to underly some brick wall work in our garden. It had a really good mix of tiny to small grains, but that got used up years ago.
@Mark DewisDewis I live in a volcanic island, so even the construction sand is a nice mix of several sizes, with colors from deep black to light grey. It makes basing a lot easier, let me tell you.
@JTam Going to be honest the cartoonish thing is one of the issues I have with "Heroic" proportions in general.
@Mark Dewis Nah you where right the first time, it is the shoulder pads. Proportionaly Death Fields gun arms actually seem to work great on most of Warlords Boltaction minis, but shoulder armor tends to look a little off without an armor vest:
I find that good backpacks tend to hide that fault somewhat:
Possibly worth noting that the non-shoulderpad Cannon Fodder arms are very nicely proportioned. Aside from the guns, they're not really "heroic" scale at all, which helps with making them such good conversion fodder.
Ironically, I'm looking at using my now spare Bulldog arms with Stargrave Trooper bodies to give them a more armoured up look (THAT is an otherwise excellent kit that could have benefitted from add-on pads. Though I guess it's a pretty easy sculpt).
(Most likely I'll swap out the weapons, but that's personal choice.)
On my Stargrave troopers normally I add shoulder pads made from GS, they give them a more "hard sci-fi" look
Comparison shot of a Caidian and a Bulldog without arms:
It's probably fair to say the Bulldog *has* a waist. But if that bothers you, a touch of putty will fix it. (Examples tacked together with PVA.)
Added a sniper and replaced the leader's Bulldog arms with something more sensible (Pistol from Stargrave, left arm from Cannon Fodder)
The left arm was a bit skinny, so I bulked it out a bit and added an elbow pad to match the other arms:
So... I think I've identified the real issue with the Bulldog shoulder pads.
They aren't on the shoulder.
They sit too far down the arm - and because of the webbing straps over tunic on the torso they just don't look right. GW Caidian arms have a similar idea, but they match up with a chest carapace and look like they're attached to that.
@Mark Dewis can't see your pictures in the last 3 posts 😊
@Mark Dewis
Same as Vitor above... 😁
Hmmm... I'm not sure what's causing this.
@Mark Dewis Sorry Mark me to I`m afraid. Love the top shots, god I never brought the "Bulldogs" I`d so looked forward to them, untill that "Heroic scale". Your conversions make them worthy of buying they look dam good. You`ve turned so/so to wow.
@Geoff Maybury I always thought they had potential from the sprue images. it's 90% the strange shoulder pads on the arms, although pith helmets ALWAYS make heads look strangely proportioned and that doesn't help. And for some reason the red jacket with white webbing exaggerates the effect as well. Those Bulldogs on the website painted up in khaki look far better in that regard.
I swapped out the arms on the leader:
The Cannon Fodder left arm I used was a little skinny, so I beefed it up and added an elbow pad with putty.
They've moved into painting now. I'll try to post some progress shots; going for urban camo with some kind of splinter pattern. Unsure about webbing colour at this point.
@Mark Dewis Good work, as I said in another post Stargrave's arms are very good for conversions, pity that they don't make a separate weapons' sprue.
P.s. for webbing I normally use Vallejio's MC Russian Uniform, when shaded & highlighted it's very similar to modern webbing colour.
@Alessio De Carolis thanks for the kind words.
Modern webbbing comes in a lot of shades, including camo in some cases. In this case it's science fiction, so I have a bit of latitude. Might end up with black, or a dark grey, as the camo is going to use a light grey/mid grey/black splinter pattern.
