A close-up look at a resin bust of a Royal Marines Commando in 1944. It’s eye-catching yet looks like it could be a suitable choice for the figure-painting novice, but is it? Let’s see.
- Life Miniatures LM-B022
- 1/10th scale bust
- Sculpted and cast resin
- £49
Box
Life Miniatures does packaging well, with a snug foam lining, ziplock bags for small parts, and a sleeve to keep the box closed. Said sleeve has a four-view painting guide, which is more generous than most figure companies, but it’s printed on one side while the back is practically blank, so surely one or two photos could have been printed larger in that unused space.
Sculpt
- Lifelike, natural, evocative expression
- Detailed and realistic hair, ears, and eyes
- Very realistic netting over the helmet
- Seems accurate to the best of my knowledge
One point to note. Unit insignia are sculpted in relief, but the commando lettering is not. This small inconsistency is really disappointing because raised lettering is so much easier to paint; I can’t freehand lettering to an acceptable standard. I may try outlining it with a Micron marker.
This may be controversial, but I’d point to that as a strong argument for providing decals for lettering details. The gifted freehand painters can ignore them, while numpties like me can use a cheat code.
Casting
- Parts fit together well
- Practically flawless casting; just a few bubbles in the right sleeve
- Most casting tabs are easy enough to remove, apart from…
The casting tab on the beret needs some extra care because it covers a compound curve on the edge, so it can’t be removed in one cut.
The tab on the helmet is also awkwardly placed because it can’t be cleaned up without resulting in missing detail which is just visible from the right angle. This could have been avoided entirely just by placing the tab a little further round where it would be hidden behind the rucksack. I’ve opted to remove the mounting nub and adjust how the helmet is positioned to hide the flaw.
Conclusion
I really like this figure, over all. But I would have appreciated raised lettering and more considerate tab placement. Apart from those niggles, the simple parts breakdown, good fit, highly detailed sculpt, and lifelike features would make this my recommendation for a novice’s first large-scale bust. Painting the face, in particular, will be about as easy as faces can be.
As it is, I’d certainly recommend it without reservations to more experienced (or talented) figure painters, but only to rookies if they feel up to tackling the freehand lettering.
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