1:35 'Guitarist' (1 fig.)

A guitarist as a figure for a 1:35 scene

A figure with a guitar from an author's line of small figures. A musician is among the rewarding subjects for a diorama: it gives the scene calm, suggests a break and draws the eye to the place where the figure sits or stands. The name gives one figure in 1:35 scale. The items of this line are sold singly, so you put the scene together exactly to your own plan.

The instrument is the main detail

It is the guitar that decides whether the figure will look convincing. It pays to set the wood of the soundboard apart from the darker fingerboard, to suggest the strings with a thin line and to let a soft sheen fall on the body of the instrument. The fingers of the right hand belong on the body of the instrument, not off it, otherwise the whole impression collapses. The guitar also has a practical advantage: it can be painted separately and attached at the end.

A procedure that has proved itself

• Paint the instrument first and the hands around it only afterward.
• Build the wood up from several glazes, not from a single opaque coat.
• Suggest the strings with a light line drawn in one stroke.
• Set the strap apart from the clothing by color, not only by the degree of sheen.
• Leave the sheen of the instrument and flatten the rest of the figure.

Suitable for

Modelers who build camp and rear-area scenes, and collectors of figures with a civilian subject. The finished figure can be sat on a crate, a step or a fender. The material, the height and the number of parts do not follow from the name and are not added here. With further musicians of the same line a small group arises that will bring an otherwise static diorama to life.