Defenders of Fort St Elmo - Malta 1565

[Chevalier de Malte]

Finally managed to finish my small vignette. A dear project to me and many Maltese for the galantry and braveness made by many Hospitaller knights, Maltese, merceneries and Tercio soldiers in defending the small fort of St Elmo on mount Scibberas [nowadays Valletta] and overlooking and defending the Grand Harbour. The Ottoman army invested both man and artillery on this small fort ... and took a great toll of their men, including the elite Jannisaries. Though brave as they were still the numbers took their tall and after a month the fort fell with almost all the remaining 60 souls.

I have been wondering to do this project for months, and wanted to have it done for Girona, alas time was aginst me because of family matters and a stupid neighbour drowning my studio : ( ... and with a little help from my friend Ray Farrugia, we collaborated in meeting my deadline. Thanks Ray for your wonderful faces, you'll be happy to see it combined finally as only pieces you've seen : )

Vigures heavily converted and painting oils, acrylics, airbrush for basework and MIG pigments and filters ... a true multimedia project!

Hope you like it ... sorry small bad images but time is aginst me will follow with bettershots hopefully soon!

Viva San Giovanni

Ivan Cocker

 

[Bad91Fellow]

Great work! I visted malta last autumn holidays and I was very impressed by the fortifications!

Lennart

 

[Major_Goose]

Ivan , this is a really well done work. The setup is tight and effective and the drama is high . Ilike the result a lot . Also the use of the base height is really clever and succesful

My congratulations


Costas

 

[Roc]

Good work Ivan, I like it.
Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Roc

 

[Sam]

Ghawn siehbi,

very nice vignette hope someday will try to help you when I am good enough as right now I am not up to your standards(the whole gang of figure painters in our club)

Will see it live wednesday I hope and hope you do well in Girona

Take Care siehbi,

Samwel Vella =]

 

[Guy]

Beautiful work Ivan.

 

[Mark S]

Great work, Ivan.
very nice composition on the whole piece.

 

[slaj]

Nice stuff mate. Very good composition. Will have to see it live after Girona cause I'm working tomorrow and won't make it to club.Good luck to all for WE

Stephen Mallia

 

[Chevalier de Malte]

Thank you guys for your positive comments ... really apprecaite it!

would try some better inprogress shots and images! To my Maltese brotherhood I think I will miss the renez vous before the trip, have to stay with family just before I leave as for the past month I have emigrated to the cave ... I could only see paint, stone, armour and dust ... but it was a fun stressful project!

Ivan

 

[Tommi]

The pictures may be small but it still looks stunning, would love to see some close ups at some point
Tommi

 

[dinovision79]

Ivan,

excellent work, I like every part of it!

Thanks
Denes

 

[theseeker]

Ivan,

An excellent scene and beautiful painting.

 

[Sambaman]

Nicely done. Costas said it perfectly, the tight composition, the added height, all add to nice drama in this piece. Fun stuff!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[eas6644]

What manufacturers are the figures? Great work!!!!!!!!

 

[captnenglish]

I too have agree with Costas, the base, the tightness of the composition, the groundwork all combine to make this a fantastic piece, good luck at WE

 

[Don]

Ivan
A wonderful piece of work! The whole piece with the figures so well painted ( hope you listened to Ray) and the groundwork looking great with a well chosen base makes the complete diorama superb. I think you have done the original defenders of St. Elmo proud.
Wonderful

Don

 

[Bruno]

Great!!!

Hello Ivan,

great worke with a lot of atmosphere! My big compliment!!!

Many greetings from Germany

Bruno

 

[Chevalier de Malte]

Many thanks guys again much appreciate, St Elmo is very dear to us, pity that this monument of galantry and braveness on both sides nowadays is in a very bad state, only the part taken care by the Police Academy and the WW2 Museum is the better parts ... hopefully in the near future our governments decide to spend some Euros in StElmo instead of the usual money spending in nonesense!

So not to bug you with more nonsense ... some questions the figures are heavily converted, starting from the rear, the pikeman is a Variatus fig. almost stock but repositioned and arms, hands and pike are scratch. The breast plate I decided to do it as a painted on with the Order colours, to weather it up I used the hairspary tech. in fashion with AFVs modellers chipping mania, the duo are completly converted, teh Maltese militia just has the head and legs from an EMI conquistadores [but updated] the rest was scratchbuilt with Magic Sculpt and duro. The padded garment is recorded to be in use with many Maltese fighters, the Morion [al anticha] I tried to acheive a rusty effect to show it an old item, pushed to war again. The officer the head came from the sparebox, the body, armour and morion again is MS. This was the trickest duo as the interlink and tightness was a big problem, sculpting and painting ... the final figure the Hospitaller comes from an EMI conquistadores, just the body given a sopravest over the breast plate, new arms in mail, a scartchbuilt bastardsword and a new head with scratchbuilt burgonet-morion [taken from a relic from the Siege displayed in the Armoury Valletta]. The barrels filled with stones, are improvised defensive line makeshifted to defend a breach. The enemy is represented by a Janissary headress ...

Had started a tread over ElPasso many moons ago regarding the first ideas
http://forums.delphiforums.com/eph2/messages/?start=Start+Reading+>>

So a brief history about the vignette ... and some added images : )

Ivan

 

[John Bowery]

Ivan,
Costas summed it up very well. Great job,
Cheers
John

 

[Baguette]

prosit u good luck