Helen of Troy
28mm White Metal figure from the Infinity Corvus Belli range
Painted in 2023
I think this might be the third figure of this range that I’ve painted, although the collection is ever growing and I don’t really want to think how many there are in the grey army, if I’m being honest.
The problem of course is how very good the figures are.
Well, it’s not just that either, the box art examples and in this case, the model being a Special edition, the box art is even more impressive.
Photos #1 and #2 show the box art front and back pictures with an artists impression of the character and a 3D render of the actual figure itself.
Stunning is the word that comes to mind, although some people might say that at £20 plus postage, it’s a bit expensive for a 28mm figure, the box art is impressive, but the sculpture and casting more than back the manufacturers “boast” in pictorial form when you get the components out of the box.
Proof – well just look at the painted picture up top. How big is it on your screen, well it’s 28mm tall in real life, the quality albeit masked by my daubing of colour, is self-evident.
Casting and fit of parts is very good, it’s just a case of figuring out which parts you want to glue together before beginning painting.
Photo #3 shows me starting the process. I’ve left the right leg off, the left arm and the decorative fan from her back also stayed separate whilst I painted the face and right arm.
Photo #4 and with actual focus on the model now, the eyes are done and I’ve used acrylics to paint the skirt with a very pale blue, highlighting to a pure white.
The scale-like bodice was next to receive attention – photo #5, painting the area with a metallic silver and then using Prussian Blue Oils to add shadows and shape to the area.
I’ve also undercoated the sash with an orange acrylic in preparation for adding oil colours.
Photo #6 shows the back of the figure and having painted the inner section of the fan, I’ve glued it into place and painted it with the same oil colours as the bodice, but using Titanium White to bring out a ribbed highlight on the tips of each “feather” ?
Photo #7 and the part forming the trailing sash has been added, the joint at the shoulder concealed with a very minimal amount of epoxy putty, and then orange acrylic added prior to oil paints for final coloration.
Photo #8 shows the front of the model with the sash in place and undercoated at this stage.
Photo #9 returns to the back of the figure and although the oil paints are still wet and shiny in this shot, I’ve begun the process of adding shadows and highlights ( Chrome Yellow and Carmine respectively ) to the Cadmium Orange that is the mid-tone.
Photo #10 and the oils have dried down to a nice matt finish – a good matt acrylic undercoat along with a heated box for the figure to dry in helps a lot with getting the oils to dry matt.
Small details like the shoes, hair, jewellery etc were added with applicable paint, and with the figure complete and drying it was time to think about a suitable setting for the figure.
A base
I thought that a larger setting would look good for this figure, and as the character is a futuristic version of one named in the Iliad and it’s focus on the Trojan War, then maybe something in an ancient Greek style might work.
Using the Greek Courtyard base set from Bash Models, which consists of a resin base with flagstones and steps and a separate fluted column cast in plaster – shown in photo #11, was an easy fix.
The column is cast in dental plaster, which is tougher than normal Plaster of Paris, but can be broken if needed, or carved / chipped if it’s simply a case of adding damage.
Having sealed the column with a couple of coats of a thin mix of PVS glue and water, and allowed the plaster to dry fully.
Photo #12 - I drilled two holed through the resin base from the underside and into the column and then fastened the column to the base with superglue, adding a couple of brass pins into the holes to strengthen the joint.
Photos #13, #14 and #15. I undercoated both the column and the resin base with a few coats of a very pale grey acrylic, then painted on Raw Umber oils, making sure that the paint got into all the recesses of detail. Using o soft cloth – an old T Shirt is ideal – I then wiped and dabbed at the oil paint to remove the most of it from the surface of the base and column.
I allowed the oils to dry a little – for an hour or two, then added some Buff Titanium and then some Titanium White to the raise detail using a large brush and a mixture of drybrushing and gentle stippling to bring out the texture of the different stone elements.
In this shot I’m testing out the positioning for the painted figure, having drilled a small hole in between two of the flags to accept the wire pin that had been fastened into her foot.
In photo #16 I’ve added some brown scouring pad, torn up and trimmed to make “bushy” shapes and added dried herb leaved to form dead shrubs that have rooted and grown up in the cracks between the flags.
The finished shots show close-ups of the figure on the base, although I did eventually shift her positioning from waling past the column to be walking away from it.
This changed the perspective from the steps being at the front of the scene to them being on the left as you look at the model, and the positioning of the elements seemed to work better.
Final thoughts
This is a superb figure, one I’d love to see in a much larger scale, but as it is it’ll do nicely.
The animation and haughty look are so well done, it’s impossible not to feel that she’s on a mission somewhere, and someone’s likely to regret her arrival.
I would be tempted to paint another one of these, if I could get one for a reasonable price, but the ones I’ve seen for sale recently have been commanding upwards of £30 plus postage, so maybe I should dig through the grey army and paint a different infinity figure.
As it is, I can recommend this range of small-scale figures, although I was told that later releases have nicer or better detailed faces.
From the small legion of models that I’ve amassed, there’s nothing I could see to complain about, and there are a few companies offering replacement heads in this scale, although more aimed at the GW range of 28mm figures.
All in all, this is a really great figure and I’m glad to have got some paint on it and put it in the display cabinet.
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