tonydawe
A Fixture
G'day Phil and Franco,
Great that you two blokes should be on the planet together. I've been dying to tell you guys what a breakthrough I've made in my painting since switching from oils to acrylics, using a mix of oil washes and pastels.
For some time I felt I was putting too much paint on the surface of my figures and creating layers of paint, rather than a deeper wash of colour built up over multiple applications. It left lumps of paint on the surface that affected the blending and created raggedy edges when I wanted them straight.
Franco, you showed me how to do it, and for that I'll forever be grateful. That weekend workshop you ran last year was a revelation. I'd been slowly building up my collection of acrylics at the time and after your workshop I spent $50 on paint at Stanbridges and $100 on brushes at Jacksons. I also decided to buy a beautiful figure, one that looked "classic" so I chose the 90mm Andrea French Imperial Grenadier Guard.
Phil, me ol' cobber, you ignited my passion for figure modelling all those years ago in Melbourne when little Aubie was chewing the heads off your figures and Chris was a spotty little bruiser. I regret I didn't learn how to scuplt from you, but you were the first person to teach me how to paint, and I couldn't have had a better tutor. Now I find myself each month sitting around the tables at HFMS in Perth with both Franco and Chris, and I feel like I'm with good mates and really great figure modellers.
Phil, I'd love to show you some photos of the Grenadier I'm working on at the moment. It's a "classic" figure, so my first goal was just to get close to the example photo on the box art. Then I checked the photos on the Andrea website and downloaded a lot of reference material from various Napoloenic websites.
Franco tells me he spends up to 100 hours painting a 54mm figures, which I always thought was extremely slow. In the past I've knocked out a 35mm figure or a 120mm figure in less than 20 hours. My impatience to get on with the job of finishing the model, meant that I didn't take the extra time to feather light washes of colour onto the figure and allow the paint itself to build up in a natural way.
What I've found is that by keeping the paint thin, and not creating complex paint mixtures, within a simple colour palette (hence the choice of a grenadier guard white, red & blue!) allows me to slowly work the paint up to the edges a bit like the waves rising up the beach as the tide comes in.
By employing Franco's Five colour shades (deep shaow, light shadow, base coat, light highlight and highest highlight) and working very carefully with the Winsdor & Newton Series 7 000 brush, I'm starting to see the results I've always wanted to see.
I would say that each square millimetre of the surface of this figure will have had over 300 brush strokes over it by the time its finished. Last night I spent two hours just painting four little brass grenades on the flap of his ammunition pouch. I'm going mad, but in a good way. I can't wait to get home from work and hit the hobby room.
It's still a work in progress, but I'll take it to WASMEx this weekend and hopefully someone can take a couple of pics for you to see. I'm really excited by what I'm seeing happen at the end of my paint brush. It's like everything has just clicked into place for me; a new painting system.... THE WAY.
With a bit more practice, I'm confident of taking "the next step" and taking a few models on the road. First stop Model Expo in Melbourne for the Australian Open, then I'm hoping to take the family to the UK next year and if I can time it right there's Euro Militaire,....and then there's the World Expo in Spain....?? MMM. Now I'm day dreaming!!
Anyway guys, I just wanted to let you both know that you have inspired me to find new joy and satisfaction in something I've loved doing since 1975 and to thank you both for teaching me new ways to improve my enjoyment of our great hobby. Phil, you know that Chris has a brother here in Perth, he's always welcomed in my house. Hope to get my hands on another one of your Kokoda figures one day!!
Franco, I hope you manage to get away from work to see WASMEx. I've decided to enter Aragorn and the big Digger figures into the comp, and I'm dusting of a few old figures for the club display cabinet. I hope you can bring a few of your better pieces along.
Thanks guys, see you later.
Cheers Tony
Great that you two blokes should be on the planet together. I've been dying to tell you guys what a breakthrough I've made in my painting since switching from oils to acrylics, using a mix of oil washes and pastels.
For some time I felt I was putting too much paint on the surface of my figures and creating layers of paint, rather than a deeper wash of colour built up over multiple applications. It left lumps of paint on the surface that affected the blending and created raggedy edges when I wanted them straight.
Franco, you showed me how to do it, and for that I'll forever be grateful. That weekend workshop you ran last year was a revelation. I'd been slowly building up my collection of acrylics at the time and after your workshop I spent $50 on paint at Stanbridges and $100 on brushes at Jacksons. I also decided to buy a beautiful figure, one that looked "classic" so I chose the 90mm Andrea French Imperial Grenadier Guard.
Phil, me ol' cobber, you ignited my passion for figure modelling all those years ago in Melbourne when little Aubie was chewing the heads off your figures and Chris was a spotty little bruiser. I regret I didn't learn how to scuplt from you, but you were the first person to teach me how to paint, and I couldn't have had a better tutor. Now I find myself each month sitting around the tables at HFMS in Perth with both Franco and Chris, and I feel like I'm with good mates and really great figure modellers.
Phil, I'd love to show you some photos of the Grenadier I'm working on at the moment. It's a "classic" figure, so my first goal was just to get close to the example photo on the box art. Then I checked the photos on the Andrea website and downloaded a lot of reference material from various Napoloenic websites.
Franco tells me he spends up to 100 hours painting a 54mm figures, which I always thought was extremely slow. In the past I've knocked out a 35mm figure or a 120mm figure in less than 20 hours. My impatience to get on with the job of finishing the model, meant that I didn't take the extra time to feather light washes of colour onto the figure and allow the paint itself to build up in a natural way.
What I've found is that by keeping the paint thin, and not creating complex paint mixtures, within a simple colour palette (hence the choice of a grenadier guard white, red & blue!) allows me to slowly work the paint up to the edges a bit like the waves rising up the beach as the tide comes in.
By employing Franco's Five colour shades (deep shaow, light shadow, base coat, light highlight and highest highlight) and working very carefully with the Winsdor & Newton Series 7 000 brush, I'm starting to see the results I've always wanted to see.
I would say that each square millimetre of the surface of this figure will have had over 300 brush strokes over it by the time its finished. Last night I spent two hours just painting four little brass grenades on the flap of his ammunition pouch. I'm going mad, but in a good way. I can't wait to get home from work and hit the hobby room.
It's still a work in progress, but I'll take it to WASMEx this weekend and hopefully someone can take a couple of pics for you to see. I'm really excited by what I'm seeing happen at the end of my paint brush. It's like everything has just clicked into place for me; a new painting system.... THE WAY.
With a bit more practice, I'm confident of taking "the next step" and taking a few models on the road. First stop Model Expo in Melbourne for the Australian Open, then I'm hoping to take the family to the UK next year and if I can time it right there's Euro Militaire,....and then there's the World Expo in Spain....?? MMM. Now I'm day dreaming!!
Anyway guys, I just wanted to let you both know that you have inspired me to find new joy and satisfaction in something I've loved doing since 1975 and to thank you both for teaching me new ways to improve my enjoyment of our great hobby. Phil, you know that Chris has a brother here in Perth, he's always welcomed in my house. Hope to get my hands on another one of your Kokoda figures one day!!
Franco, I hope you manage to get away from work to see WASMEx. I've decided to enter Aragorn and the big Digger figures into the comp, and I'm dusting of a few old figures for the club display cabinet. I hope you can bring a few of your better pieces along.
Thanks guys, see you later.
Cheers Tony
guess I'm running out of time.
