Wlas
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2004
- Messages
- 393
I'm very opinionated about this bust by La Meridiana. I've been quite pleased by this company's previous work on Native Americans. The sculpting of Vaquero was excellent ( in particular the Sioux ) but I find the new sculptor a bit 'wanting'. First the good things about this bust. The casting was crisp with very little clean up and the few seam lines did not interfere with detail . That's about it for the 'good'. The painting of the box art by the master Cartacci is what sells this bust BUT it is not exactly what you're going to find once you look at it. For example there is no raised detail on the 'peace medals'...they are simply flat discs. The pattern on the dagger belt was simply painted on by Cartacci but the belt shows narrow vertical lines across it. The earrings are unacceptable....they are shaped as arrow heads ( could find no reference for such jewelry and the same goes for the choker ). Because the unusually large ears are pressed flat against the skull making earrings that sit properly was impossible. The large feather has been cast too wide ( could not find a bird to use it so I dumped it, replacing it with a feather from the spare parts box along with the other 2 ornaments on the tricorn. So many questions. What Indian tribe used a cockade? Let alone what warrior would wear a tricorn and jacket in a war that involved members of about a dozen different tribes ( not one tribe was fully involved in the Pontiac War but allowed any number of warriors to join?! An Ojibwa wearing a tricorn and jacket in the brush or woods would look like another target to a group of Miamis or Wyandotes. With all this the eyes are set too far back and from the side his chest slopes outward to a sumo wrestler's bulge. And let's not get into the 'twist' in the dagger belt that should be flat!
But once started it had to be finished. Ahhh. If I only had Cartacci's brush skills.....
But once started it had to be finished. Ahhh. If I only had Cartacci's brush skills.....
