smudger1960
PlanetFigure Supporter
I've just about finally managed to complete this latest project of mine, this is the new Flintlock Miniatures Bust titled 'The World In Their Hands', its based on a Spanish seaman / solider at the time of the Armada, the bust is beautifully cast with lovely attention to detail and goes together really well, however I had to leave the left arm off and paint it separately as I would be impossible to paint if all assembled, this didn't prove too difficult, once I had painted the arm i assembled it to the main body, there was just a slight gap which I filled and then painted with the appropriate colours required.I have no knowledge at all of the Elizabethan era and no books as a reference, so I used the web to get some ideas for the painting stage.
The box art portrays the bust with a white shirt, which to me just looked boring, I found out that the Spanish navy had quite elaborate costumes and therefore I wanted something with more colour, I thought I would go with a traditional Spanish stripe effect which seemed to be very popular at the time, the colours I decided on were red / yellow, these being the 2x colours of the Spanish national flag, I painted it roughly on a piece of paper to start with and was quite pleased with the result, I'm even more happier now I went with this as just plain white didn't do anything for me at all.
The bust gives the effect of a man leaning forward, and as soon as I saw the bust when it was released I knew I wanted to add part of a ships railing with the bust leaning on it, I sketched it out and did a few dry runs and was happy with what I wanted to create,additionally I add part of a mast with some rope detail and added the ships planking to the front of the base, the piece has turned out better than I had expected and was worth the all the work put into it.
All painting was achieved using oils over acrylic undercoats, the helmet was mostly GW acrylic and oil washes finished with silver ink for the catch lights.
I hope my fellow miniaturists will enjoy the photos and all comments and criticism are welcome.
The angle base was provided by my good friend Ron Tamburrini, his full range can be found on his web site at www.simplesite.com/ron-tamburrini
I would highly recommend this bust to anyone interested in this period of history, it beautiful.
The bust is available in the UK from El Greco Miniatures / www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk
Happy Painting
will look closer tonight when home from work
