17th Light Dragoons AWI Vignette Painted!

17th Light Dragoon Vignette AWI

This vignette doesn't represent any particular incident, but does try to convey a somber side of war. This is one of my favorite vignettes to date, simply because the composition works well. The "stage" effect of the scene, a central focus and what feeling this piece gives, makes this an effective work. I'll post pics of the painted version soon.

Monmouth 28 June, 1778

"What a pity it is to throw away such men as these." Captain-Lieutenant John Peebles, Royal Highland Regiment

For more on the battle. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=37723

MMSI 2012 Auction Figure

The figure is a Hecker Goros 54mm Bavarian Officer, 1690's. Painted with acrylics. The Chicago Show is always a great time and I was more than happy to donate this piece to the club's show auction. I'm not sure what it sold for, but I hope somebody went home happy and the club made a dollar or two to help support this wonderful event.

APG 2012 Auction Piece Painted!

This was a fun project to do...Painting lace on the officer's jacket and kepi, not so much. I have to admit, Zouaves are a favorite subject of mine, but the drummer's uniform had me scratching my head. Photographic evidence suggest a different shade of cuff from that of enlisted men, so I had to assume they're red...What other color could it be that would compliment the uniform? I really don't like guessing a feature, on a subject I should be fairly familiar with. Just have to base it on conjecture. Other than that minute detail, I was honored to donate this piece to a great cause. A big thanks to Gary Dombrowski for his help with research.

APG 2012 Auction Piece

Here was my Artist Preservation Group 2012 auction piece. It started out as a single figure project, but with subject kneeling, I felt it needed something more. I came up with the idea of an officer comforting the drummer before going into battle. The figures are 54mm. The heads are from Hornet. The putty used is AVES and Kneadatite. I'm starting to mix the two as I've done in the past. It takes a little longer to mix but I like the way it manges while sculpting, and I can see detail much better with this color rather than the plain white of AVES.

War Photographer-Vietnam War, 1971

This bust is modeled after an image of famed Vietnam War photojournalist, Larry Burrows (1926-1971). Burrows captured many popular images of the war, from 1962 till his death. He and three fellow photographers were killed when their helicopter was shot down over Loas, covering Operation Lam Son 719 in February, 1971. The bust is a monster at 1/10 scale, and is offered through LIFE MINIATURES. I was commissioned to paint him black and white. It's painted with acrylics. I used pretty much the same palette that was used in my Airborne figure earlier this year. The construction of eyeglasses was a bit intimidating at first, but really wasn't as hard as one would think. It took a lot of "eye-balling" and checking of proportions, but a fairly quick project. I simply used clear plastic card and carefully carved out the lenses. Built up putty to make the frame and re-sculpted the hair around the ears. I hope I did this beautiful bust justice.

French Hussar 1790's Painted!

I really like how this one turned out overall. From pose to paint, this has to be one of my favorite projects. I used HISTORIE & COLLECTIONS book FRENCH HUSSARS 1. From the "Ancien Regime" to the Empire. Painted with acrylics. You'll notice the mane and tail are mad from frayed embroidery thread. A trick I got from Greg DiFranco. Time consuming, but impressive when finished. I'll do an SBS on a future project using this material/medium.

French Hussar 1790's- Part 6

Here's the finished sculpt. Note that I angled the base to help give that sense of movement to the charging horse. I also "dimpled" the bottom of the base with the end of a paint brush to make it a little more visually appealing. You'll see bits from Historex here and there. Searching my little drawers for odds and ends is one of the few pleasures I get when at the workbench.

Here's a better image of the rider showing the twist to the upper torso in relation to the head and lower torso.

French Hussar 1790's- Part 5

In my previous post showed the rider's armature set and ready for work. Well, after scultping the legs and postitioned on the horse, I felt the legs still didn't look right. While I wanted a rider with an action pose, the legs didn't "hug" the horse like it should. My intention was sound but not realistic. I've never ridden a horse at full gallop, so I can imagine a rider practically squeezing the flanks of the animal with his legs and trying to hang on for dear life! As you can see, a new armature was built and ready to go. This time the legs are closer to the horse body, knees bent a bit more on the rider and the upper torso crouched a tad lower. I'm trying the "elevated" base thing again. I kinda like this style for mounted subjects. I did this with my Thirty Years War French cavalier and was impressed. With the horse in action, the elevation should, atleast in my eyes, add a bit more sense of movement to the subject.

French Hussar 1790's- Part 4

The horse is starting to take shape. Keep an eye on the rider.

French Hussar 1790's- Part 3