Here's the second figure I am doing for Brian, as alluded to in the YAF Pt 1 thread... an onion seller, complete with rickety old push-bike. The bike comes from a Pola bike shelter kit, the figure is sourced, as by now you will all be sick of hearing, from the now legendary Preiser track-gang set:



I felt that as an absolute minimum he had to be holding the handle bars with at least one hand. Fortunately, the Preiser bits box came up trumps:



Just trying the figure for size against the bike, it occurred to me that it might be possible to actually get the guy to 'ride' it - or at least have just one foot on the ground (as you do when stationary for example). So I set to cutting and reshaping the leg appropriately:



It was a bit tricky to arrange the 'pedal' leg appropriately, so that the centre of gravity was in balance, thus allowing the figure to stand freely. But once done, I was able to apply some Milliput to the rather unsightly open wounds:



I then tried out the head and another arm for size (again using blu-tak for a temporary fixative), to see how the overall pose would look:



It wasn't long, though, before our messing about attracted the unwelcome attention of the local 'leeu':



The intention was to allow for the option of having the two figures interact, or be standing separately. I think these two will look quite good together. Quite what the offence is that our Johnny is being written-up for, I know not!

Obviously still a lot of work to do on the onion seller though - Per Brian's request, he'll need a beer gut, a beret, a bottle of wine, a stripey shirt, a cravat, a cigarette... oh, and possibly several strings of onions! Although I shall continue this figure as a separate thread, it is possible that there will be further 'guest appearances' 'twixt threads...

A bientot!

Obviously you are a stickler for detail but I am wondering how even you will do the wheelspokes. (Hides behind sofa)

I guess some details are best left to the imagination... for that reason the onions (when I get around to doing 'em) will be devoid of roots!

I think the onion seller is being cautioned for being drunk in charge of a bicycle with no spokes whilst selling onions which don't meet the EU directive (i.e. no roots )

Chuckle; chuckle !

Brian

Just a suggestion but what about turning the bycicle into a 'velo solex'.

solex

Now that would be really typically French.

Clive I don't want to pile more onto your wonderful creative efforts but I quite like the idea of the Solex. I guess you'd need to remove the crossbar and fit a dummy engine in front of the front forks.

I'm quite into two wheeled French transport - this is a Mobylette "sans moteur" that I rescued from the local decheterie. And yes that is our garlic crop drying above!

Cheers Brian

ten out of ten for observation Brian

There isn't a crossbar !!!

I'll see what I can do... The bike has not been 'glued' yet anyway, so as long as I can get away with keeping the pedal positions the same, the body of the bike can be whatever we want it to be... I shall try and turn it into a representation of one of these 'Solex' jobs


Thank you Carl....

S-o-r-r-r-y.....

or. Je suis désolé...vraiment.

That's a Mobylette Brian....Not the same as a Solex (but just as French).

Here's a Solex for sale.

http://thouars.olx.fr/a-vendre-solex-en-bon-etat-annee-1962-iid-6589226

Most of this evening's effort has been spent on this fella - needed to lose the dungarees and at the same time gain a few pounds:



Also spent some time making up an impression of a 'Solex' motor for the bike - oh, and some G-scale onions! The copper noticed them scattered all over the table, and has come over to 'have a word'...

An interesting aside to this particular figure - in the course of my searching for suitable reference images, I found a couple of very informative web-sites:

This one is a 'History' page from the Onion Johnny Restaurant:
http://www.onionjohnny.com/history.cfm

Of particular note is the revelation that Brittany Ferries (which I have had occasion to use when I took a caravan to Brittany some years back) was started by a group of Breton onion farmers in the 1970's!

Some other interesting links:
http://www.documentography.com/issue/5/ph/magali_delporte/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny

Thanks Clive.
I shall use the first link about Onion Johnny for a lesson for students. Good stuff.

Progress continues:

Beret, cravat, and a bit of string for a belt!

C'm'ere, there's more.... Primer applied, dremeled and a fag applied - sorry Patrick!

Yes well as long he only smokes outside public places. Errr does that make sense. BTW that Solex motor makes such a difference to the appearance, but is it prototypical , would it pull 1 bike + 1 fat Breton (oops did I say that ?) + 150kgs of onions. That much weight on the front wheel would surely collapse the spokes, OH I see it has .