28mm National Guard of Milan 1848 - Piedmont Army

These are the first of two Chocolate Box Wars units I'll be making of the National Guard of Milan. When I saw this uniform in the Osprey book with it's fantastically ridiculous hat, I knew I had to have them as part of my Piedmont Chocolate Box Wars army. Unfortunately for me, because they saw little action until their incorporation into the Central Italian League, nobody makes a figure for this unit. Time went by and I mostly had given up. Then I decided to learn more about AI 3D model generation. After playing around with some online 2D to 3D AI tools I got some nearly usable figures. Good enough to encourage me to learn the requisite tools to complete the project. Those tools being the 3D modeling software Blender, Meshmixer and Windows 3D Builder, as well as some Autodesk Fusion 360 until I got more comfortable with Blender.  

Investing over 100 hours in learning these tools, I'm finally competent enough to make my own 3D models and this unit is the first one I've completed using my own 3D model STL files from my own models. To say I'm quite excited about learning this new skill is an understatement. Now there are no longer ANY units or uniforms that are out of reach. I learned a lot doing this unit. Primarily something that looks 'correct' close up, isn't what you want on a figure. Our figures have over-exaggerated details like belts, ammo pouches and the like. Getting a feel for how oversized is still part of the learning curve for sure. 

Something as simple as a musket, the length, width and breath of which is well known and easy to scale properly, looks TERRIBLE when scaled to the proper scale. They need to be shortened and fattened in thickness while not in height from trigger to hammer. Building a library of these 'scaled for miniatures' features is definitely needed, just the same as traditional sculptors use existing features on their 3-up 'greenies'.  All said, these are more than passable and I'm quite happy to have them and the skills I've learned in making them.

 

Below, a sneak peek at the complete ten figures I made in total. The next two-stand unit will feature all of the new standing and firing poses I've created, four more in total, plus the two firing poses from above. After that, some other small 3D modeling projects that have come too fast for me to document here, but will be as I catch up.  

 When the STL files for these eventually become available for sale, they'll be listed on my store at Wargaming3D - https://www.wargaming3d.com/brands/ajswargaming