"I JESU NAMN..." Lutzen 16 November 1632

Getting projects wrapped up for the MFCA/APG Show in a few weeks. Here's a piece inspired by a painting that I grabbed off the interenet. Unfortunately, I am unable to find the artist name or title of the work. The musketeer accessories are from "Glory" miniatures and the AIRFIX English Civil War plastic kits. The head is from Hornet. Painted in acrylics.

Officer, 17th Light Dragoons AWI

I'm really pleased at how the posture worked out on this particular figure. I'm no horseback rider, but he looks comfortable and natural for being in a mounted pose, not straight and stiff. As with all my mounted pieces, I completely modeled the entire horse before sculpting and posing the figure, this ensures a tight fit of man and horse.

Drummer, 15th Light Dragoons, 1760

This fella is based on a Pierre Turner illustration. I changed the pose a bit. Needless to say, painting the lace was tedious. The drum paint job alone was a figure worth of detail itself. Still, I had fun building and painting the piece. Now, back to the workbench.

Trumpeter, Brandenburg Court

One of my New Years resolutions, as always, is to be more active with my blog. With that said, here's another of my latest originals. I had to do a little research with this guy. The pose was inspired by a Meissonier study and the trumpet banner is one of the flags used by Brandenburg-Prussia in the early 1700's.

2nd Regiment of Chasseur a Cheval

I managed to finish one more project for the Chicago Show. This project is more or less a Historex conversion. The torso, head and hat, sword and sabretache are from Historex. The legs are as well, but they are from pieces designed for a soldier with leggings. I just added putty to the lower half to make into trousers. I changed the pose as well by spreading the legs and arching the upper torso to give a more animated casual pose.

Austrian Drummer-After Rocco

Here's another project I finished before the Chicago show. It's based on a study done by artist Keith Rocco. The neat thing is the figure was commissioned by a collector who owns the original painting.

Red Lancer Officer

Here's one of my latest pieces. Just in time for the Chicago Show next weekend. I have been using a lot of spare parts in my recent projects, mostly parts from Historex and Airfix. This fella has a Historex torso and cap. The head is from Airfix, namely the George Washington kit. It's strange that the heads in these Airfix kits are the best part of the model. The horses aren't bad either.

Frederic Remington's "The Cowboy" Painted!

I have to admit, this my most satisfying mounted piece to date. It was one of those rare pieces where every stage of the project was enjoyable to do, from sculpting, posing the armature and painting. I plan on another Remington inspired "Cowboy" shortly.

Frederic Remington's "The Cowboy" Part 4

Remington's "The Cowboy" Part 3

Playing with the armature to get the balance I want.

Remington's "The Cowboy" Part 2

The angle of the groundwork in relation to the pose was very important. My goal, like Remington's painting, is to give the viewer that "roller-coaster" feel in their gut when looking at it. Giving the horse a tilt is not for the faint of heart. Too little of a tilt will not show fast motion. Too much tilt will look like the horse and rider are going to crash. Needless to say there was a lot of playing with the horse to get that nice balance.

Remington's "The Cowboy" Part 1

Here's another ambitious mounted piece. This is based on a painting by Frederic Remington. The horse is from Airfix, the "2nd Dragoon 1815 (Scots Greys)" kit. I initially chose this horse because of the animation. But, I found the kit pose alone was not enough to reflect Remington's horse, so I had to do major reconstruction to the legs and neck. Yes, "Frankenhorse" is back.

2nd Continental Dragoon Painted!

Here's my version of a 2nd Continental dragoon from the AWI. The uniform is a cross between the McBarron and Troiani studies. The figure is painted with acrylics.