Pip's tambourine

I added another feature to the 'Moby Dick" scene. The illustration design came from a couple scrimshaw carvings I dug up on the net. Painting the thing was a bear as it's no bigger than my little finger nail!

I'm re-working chasseur's shoulder belt now and hope to have it posted before Chicago.

Thanks for checking in.

New digs

I'm just about ready to move back into my play room. This was my summer project. Over the past couple years I noticed some damp spots in the corners of the far two walls and the drywall was getting soft at the bottom. Fearing the worst and tired of procrastinating, I decided to gut the two walls. Sure enough the base boards were water logged and rotting. I've had some construction experience so I was not too unfamliar on what needed to be done. The walls were ripped down, insulation taken out and the base boards pried from the frame. I had to "sister" some of the boards because water damage was climbing it's way up some spots and these had to be cut off. Mold was our biggest fear so everything was washed down and left to dry. My next project was filling in any cracks with fast setting cement. I also calked the heck out of everything. A coat of masonary paint was applied over the walls... Two and three coats over the problem area's. I replaced the base boards with treated wood, replaced the insulation with basement quality stuff and went on to hang sheet rock. I've done some "mudding" in the past so that went pretty quick. I finished painting the walls with a color called "swan sea" which is really a cool shade of white. We went and bought some cheap vinyl flooring with a faux stone pattern thats pretty convincing from a short distance. I finished the wall trim today and will start moving in tonight.

Organized chaos...

Here's what my workbench typically looks like at the tail end of a project.

Painted Trooper...First Version

Here's the painted piece. He's not finished because I have it on pretty good authority that shoulder belt is not correct and should be the same color as the waist belt and void of lions head, chain and shield.

The wine glass was a bit tricky. What I did was take the butt end of a drill bit, visualized the depth I wanted the glass well to be and taped the end of the drill bit. I coated the end with Vaseline and mixed two batches of 3-Minute epoxy. One mix had a drop of acrylic paint (Vallejo Hull Red) the other plain. Naturally I didn't have alot of time to play. I coated the bit, first with the colored epoxy then the clear.
It took me six times to get an o.k. looking glass. The stem is thin wire and base clear plastic card. Both covered with epoxy. The red wine is not that bright in person. Same with the trooper's jacket, it's a much darker forest green.

Thanks for following and stay tuned.

Trooper, 5th Chasseurs a Cheval

Here's my latest. It's a tropper with the French 5th Chasseurs a' Cheval during the Napoleonic Wars. It's based on a study by Keith Rocco.
The table wedgie is made of plastic card.

Painted pics coming soon....

More Pros Painted Pics

Here's more pics of the "Pros from Dover". I should mention that Lauzun's uniform, if most havn't already guessed, is totally made up. There are several images, from different artist, depicting the Duc and none agree with each other. Some have him with a moustache and fur cap! As there is only one knowm image of the Lauzun, and it shows him neither a uniform or having a moustache. Therefore, I took a little from each artist rendition and made my own intrepretation of what he looked like at the siege of Yorktown! No doubt, this whole project was fun to create and probably one of the more satisifying large pieces I've done to date.

Up next is a piece inspired by Keith Rocco Napoleonic subject.

Thanks for following. Stay tuned.

The Pros...Painted

Here's the finished piece. What a work out! I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

The pics are as good as it gets for now. I hope you all like. I'll post more pics later.

Thanks for following.

The Pros from Dover-Part 5

Here's some closer pics of the trio, in particular LaFayette. I chose a head from Historex, one that had youthful features. I had to do alot of carving on this head because most of it with ears was covered with a bandana. I resculpted the forhead and added ears and hair.

I'm well into painting the horse and it's becoming a project tougher than planned. I have been going back and forth with the base so as to not get sloppy with the horse.

More later.

The Pros from Dover-Part 4

Here's some closer pics of Steuben and Rochambeau. I chose heads that I felt were close in resemblance to their character. For Steuben I picked a head from MIG that had mature features. And for Rochambeau, a piece from Historex, that had a austere, mature, and commanding look.

Painting for Steuben is finished, I just need to add the telescope to his hands and sculpt thumbs. Lauzun is alomost finished, I need to add his saber and saberattache. The horse is about 40% complete and the groundwork has its base coats.

Thanks for following.

The Pros from Dover-Part 3

From what I've read, there is only one known period image of the Duc de Lauzun, it's a profile engraving done sometime during his life. There are several artist interpretations of what he may have looked like during his time spent in America. Of the images I have seen of him, half depict him with a moustache. Why? I'm thinking this was the fashion for French cavalry units at the time and thus the artist depicts him in such manner. I've featured a couple artist renditions of the Duc. The one the collector really liked and myself, is Bill Horan's figure. My version will be slightly different.

As for the figure, I used the upper torso of a Historex hussar dolman piece. The Pelisse is also from Historex. I had to do a minor conversion with this piece as it did not lay like I wanted and was not very form fitting. I cut it in half to make it lay right, filled in the gaps w/ putty and added fur to the edge as the exisiting one was not very detailed. Even though I had to do a little cutting and carving, these two pieces saved me a lot of time.

More later. Thanks for following.

The Pros from Dover-Part 2

Here's the finished sculpt. I will post closer pics of each figure later.

As for the base, the amount of putty used to cover it was much smaller than I had planned. I applied the putty in sections, starting with the back, working my way to the sides, top and foreground, adding debris and texturing with a rough stone as I went.

The gabions are from Armand Bayardi. He makes really neat model accessories. Very detailed and are wonderful additions to a vigentte/dio.
I used three whole gabions and one half. I could have used four half's but using "whole" pieces adds a little more depth.

More later. Thanks for following.