The Bishop

What a brilliant sculpture by Castle Miniatures. The piece really painted itself. Especially the face, what wonderful character! The toughest part was of course the mitre. I had to first carve, file and sand the original detail off. I then applied a coat of putty (carve, file and sand again) to give a smooth surface to paint on. Thankfully, I had some really good reference images to go by. The bust was a pleasure to paint and I hope I did it justice.

MFCA Show #4

There is some amazing talent on the fantasy side of the table and the number of pieces continues to grow with each show. At this particular show, two full tables (painters and open divisions) were devoted to this genre. Could be, within the next five or so years, fantasy will be the dominate subject.

MFCA Show #3

MFCA Show #2

The musketeer was a collaboration project with Dave Maddox. The picture does NOT do justice to Dave's wonderful painting style. The Confederate cavalry relief was sculpted by my good friend Gary Dombrowski and painted by the brush talented Penny Meyer.

MFCA 2013 Part 1

MFCA notables. It never ceases to amaze me at the quality of work that is displayed at this show. This was my tenth MFCA show and it keeps getting better.

Trumpeter, Grenadier a Cheval Painted!

I painted this piece just in time for the MFCA Show. What a workout! I flung a lot of paint on this guy. I hope I did the figure justice. It is now proudly displayed in my cabinet.

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.