Sidd painted!

Here's "Sidd" painted (acrylics). Sorry for the long delay. This was a real treat to sculpt and paint, not only to sculpt a "baseball" figure, but to do a figure that has a connection with our hobby. It was also awesome to actually talk to the person behind "Sidd", long-time MMSI member and MFCA Grandmaster, Joe Berton. He even gave me an autographed baseball card of him!

In the photo below (L-R) is collector, Dutch Allen, Joe "Sidd" Berton and myself.

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

I've always wanted to model a baseball player. When I was offered this commission, I jumped on it. The subject's story is very unusual in that his existence and feats was all a hoax. The coolest thing about this story is his connection with our hobby.

For a few of those MMSI ole timers, you may recognize this guy and his story.

Here's more on Sidd. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidd_Finch

The figure is 54mm. Sculpted with Aves. Head from Hornet.

Drummer, 59th Regiment of Foot,1775 54mm Original

Here's another I finished before MFCA.

Head is from Historex.
Drum scratch built. (Will do an SBS sometime later this year.)
Body scultped with Aves, with some Kneadatite here and there.
Painted with acrylics.

Thanks for looking.

R.I.P James Arness (May 26, 1923- June 3, 2011)

A big part of my childhood was war movies and westerns. The long running TV show 'Gunsmoke' (1955-75) attracted my attention like no other TV program as a young kid(with the exception of cartoons like Johnny Quest and Johnny Bench's Baseball Bunch). I can still hear the 'Gunsmoke' theme blaring out of my Grandparents home which was next door. Practically every afternoon, during the summer would find me in front of the TV for an episode...And if the plot didn't grab me (how many do to a kid under ten or eleven?), I went back outside to play. It was all good, anything to fuel the imagination. To this day, I'll hunt for the show on TV Land.

French Cavalry Officer, Thirty-Years War

This was a second attempt in painting a dapple grey in oils. The last was in the late 90's! The figure and equipment are painted with acrylics.

The horse is from Historex and the figure is original. The head of the figure is from Historex with moustache and goatee added. The saddle is scratch as well as the officers sword. There some conversion work on the lobster/Ironside helmet. It's the same one I used in the ECW project I just finished. Going by the reference I had, the dome is fluted with nose guard through visor and feathers added to the top.

Thanks for looking.

French Grenadier, Soissonois Regiment, 1781

Another winter project. I must have used every shade, from cold to warm, off white color Vallejo has to offer with alot of mixing between them. I really liked how this one turned out, I just wish I would have wrote down the mixes I used for the white uniform.

The only point in posting a couple in-progress pictures is to simply show how I posed the armature and material used in creating the sculpture. If someone takes something from them, all the better.

Thanks for looking.

Hessian Drummer, 1777

Over the next week or so I'll be posting the work I had for my MFCA display. For those not familiar with my work, all my original pieces are 54mm.

The figure here is a Hessian drummer during the American Revolution. I believe this is the third Hessian I've painted with ticking/striped overalls. The putty I use is Aves and Kneadatite. The head is a commercial piece and the torso are castings that a buddy gave me.

The drum is scratch-built. The past few drums I have built have been scratch and are getting a bit easier everytime. In the future, I'll do an SBS on how I model a drum.

Thanks for looking.

English Civil War Vignette-Painted

Here's the vignette painted. Most was painted with acrylics with oils here and there. The grass is unravelled jute twine painted in various colors.

The helmet shell casting on the "Ironside" was sculpted or modeled by either John Long or Anders Heintz. Sorry guys. The sword is scratch-built and was copied from a few examples.

Thanks for looking.

English Civil War Vignette

Here's one of several projects I had going over the winter. Sorry for not posting in "real" time, I've just been plain lazy.

The scene is taken from an illustration I saw in a book on the history of cavalry. It depicts a Parliamentarian "Ironside" riding down on two Royalist officers. As you can see, there's some artistic license in the composition.

This project, I will have to say, was the toughest to compose of any project of mine to date (yes, even the Guilford project). To get the pieces to gell together took many hours of manipulating and much observation.

I'll post the painted version in the next day or so.

More "True Grit" pics.

Here's more pics of Rooster. Attaching the reins to his mouth was much easier than planned. I replaced the thick ones supplied with strips cut from sheet tin.

It's funny how whenever I was working on this, that movie was being shown on TV. AMC played this movie a lot during the theatre release of Jeff Bridges' version... Of which, I havn't seen yet.

"Fill your hands you S.O.B.!"

Here's one of several projects finished over the winter. It's Andrea's take of John Wayne's classic film 'True Grit'.

The horse was painted in oils and the figure and gear acrylics.

Not the most enjoyable stock kit I've ever worked on. While the casting of the pieces were very nice and clean, the engineering was not very helpful when painting, particularly for the horse. The metal pins casted into the front two legs is a great idea but they leave only 1/4" from the bottom of the hoof to play with! Good luck trying to paint something that heavy and have it clamped into your vise. The remedy I had was to epoxy a length of brass rod to the pins and blue tack to the vice.

I don't model many mounted metal kits but this is something I will consider in the future.

Armatures for new vignette...

Here's armatures for a vignette I'm working on. The scene takes place during the English Civil War.

Makin' feathers

My current project requires some feathers. I'm using a marble to help with the form. I coat the marble thinly with Vaseline then attach a blob of Kneadatite. The edges of the "blob" are smoothed out and the sculpting begins. I start with typical feather shapes using the toothpick and finally refining with an X-Acto knife.