Sheena
Pegaso 80mm White Metal kit
Painted in 2007
There’s quite a long list of good things about Pegaso Model’s kits, which is why I have so many in my grey army.
Sculpting, mould making and casting is usually very good, it’s very, very rare to have any parts missing or badly formed, and the fit of those parts needs little or no adjustment. Not only that, the kits are designed in such a way that the breaks between the components are at strategic points that tend to hide any possible gaps, so the necessity for filler is minimised.
All clever stuff and using the knowledge built up from producing metal kits ( and now ones cast in resin ) for the last 35 years or so.
Pegaso began as a producer of military and historical kits, but moved on to producing fantasy pieces early this millennium.
They caught on to the idea that a female figure is not just a bloke with bumps on his chest, and actually took the time to have pieces sculpted with softer features and the different body shape that a woman has in comparison to a man.
Granted, scantily clad barbarians, demons and angels featured heavily in the line-up, but there is a definite grasp of realistic form in their kits, rather than the pneumatic chests etc seen in offerings from other companies.
Although a lot of the range are lacking in clothing, the figures are just topless, rather than comparative pieces from Phoenix Models and Mascot Miniatures, and the box art for this figure is shown in photo #1
Photo #2 shows a rather overexposed ( sorry, couldn’t resist that one ) picture of the separate parts. As mentioned, this is a White Metal kit, produced long before Pegaso considered using resin.
As I like to take models to display or enter in competitions at shows, I’m always aware that topless or nude figures can cause offence, so I decided to add some clothing to cover the breasts, and in photo #3 I’ve used a small amount of putty to cover them and make a loose fitting top.
Also in this shot I’ve removed the spear staff from the right hand and drilled through the fist so that a wooden BBQ skewer can be added rather than using the metal casting.
I’ve primed the model and painted on a couple of layers of GW Pale Flesh coloured acrylics in readiness for the oil colours that will follow.
Photo #4 and quite a leap forward here. The flesh colour oil mix used as a base was Mars Brown, Titanium White and a very small amount of Alizarin Crimson.
The addition of the Titanium White was minimal, as I wanted to establish the shadow areas first and then blend in more of the white to build up mid-tones and highlights from there.
There is a difference between painting the flesh colours on a woman to that of painting them on a man, the transitions need to be smoother and a lot more gradual, especially on the larger sections like the thighs, harsh changes in colour just won’t look right. So it’s a little more time consuming to get those smooth effects, and a soft brush used to gently stipple the different colours so that they mix on the figure is about the best method if using oils.
Photo #5. I’ve mentioned the painting in photo #4, but prior to that I’ve added some putty to make the tails of the loincloth on t he front and back.
Whilst the pieces supplied in the kit are ok, I wanted to alter the form of them, and it’s much simpler to roll out some putty using French Chalk to stop it sticking to anything whilst flattening it out, wet the putty to remove the chalk and then place it on the model and push it into shape trimming it where necessary.
If the putty is thin enough, then tears and holes can be gently formed in it to make it look ragged and worn.
Whilst I was having lots of fun doing this, what I notice now is that the hair is not mirroring the movement of the putty….. Ooops. Didn’t notice that all those many years ago !
And another thing I didn’t do was take a proper amount of “in process” shots.
So now we leap on to the finished model.
I painted the clothing – what little there is of it – a pale pink, the metal areas are a mix of silver for the minimal armour plates and gold for the more decorative sections.
The spear staff is a BBQ skewer that has been sanded to thin it down so that it could be slid through the right hand, and once it could do that, it was removed and stained with Burnt Umber oils, the excess paint wiped off and leaving the remains to pick out the grain detail.
Whilst a small section of white metal is supplied with the model, I wanted something a lot larger to set the model on. I chose a large lump of coal, because it has a lot of detail and looks craggy, painted with some acrylic sand colour and then treated with Burnt Umber oils, wiping away the excess oil and then adding Yellow Ochre and finally some White to enhance the details.
Once that was done some Milliput was added to the top of the coal and textured with an old toothbrush, and once the putty had cured some Static Grass was fastened in place with some Matt Acrylic Medium. I also added some small tufts of moss around the grassed area to give a little difference in the foliage height.
Final thoughts.
Unfortunately this range of fantasy women seems to have been discontinued by Pegaso Models, I know at the time of writing ( early 2025 ) that they have been concentrating on producing models in Resin, rather than White Metal, and having spoken to Pietro Balloni in 2022 about the move to the lighter material, he said it was also more cost effective, although less popular ranges might not get transferred into moulds capable of casting resin.
In light of that, I take it that the range of twenty or so fantasy female subjects is one that has been withdrawn, although some second hand ones are available on eBay, and there might be one or two kits stil available from the likes of Historex Agents if they still retain old stock.
Pegaso Models production in resin is just as good, if not even better than the older casting in metal, and with new models being added to the Pegaso range, along with a lot within the Kimera range that focuses on fantasy pieces, there’s a lot of choice to be had.
As for this particular kit, it’s one of my favourites still, the simple stance and smooth lines along with the small additions I’ve made make it personal to me, but also one that was enjoyable to work on.
Highly recommended.
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