Mitches Fury Trio

[Peter Day]

I'm not a fan of the movie, but I felt like a bit of a project, so I decided to get hold of this set of busts by Pavol Ovecka for Mitches Military Models representing three of the Fury crew; Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Don Collier (Brad Pitt) and Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal).

They are all one-piece mouldings:



Good likenesses and nicely sculpted, though the castings were a bit messy and needed a fair amount of careful cleaning up.

No promises, as my V-Bench projects have a habit of not working out, but I'll give them a go.

 

[MCPWilk]

Very nicely done. I always wonder about casting for many of these war films considering that the majority of frontline soldiers were in the 18-25 (30 at a push) age group. Harry Styles at 23 years old was the right age for 'Dunkirk'.

Mike

 

[Peter Day]

Hi Mike

Actually, one of my objections to 'Dunkirk' was that perhaps the British soldiers were too young, considering that the majority of the BEF were veteran professional soldiers - better depicted in the 1958 film. Some British soldiers in 1939:



I agree re Fury though - even Brad's hardened veteran could only have seen action for two years at the most, hardly enough time for his burns to heal, though I concede that what action he could have seen would have been enough.

 

[Nap]

Hi Peter

Glad I've seen this , desparate to get back to bench after recent incidents , so good to see a thread from you and a triple project as well

Very good sculpts but never really interested in the film itself despite having seen the "Fury" display at Bovington at a show ( happy memories ! )

Look forward to seeing this progress as always

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Richard Baxter]

My father-in-law was at Dunkirk and he was born in 1919, so was 21 in 1940. He'd been a Territorial before the war and so was listed for service overseas pretty soon after things started. He was a miltary policeman, attached to HQ 44th Division.

 

[Chris Oldfield]

My father-in-law was at Dunkirk and he was born in 1919, so was 21 in 1940. He'd been a Territorial before the war and so was listed for service overseas pretty soon after things started. He was a miltary policeman, attached to HQ 44th Division.

Richard - Exemplo Ducemus.
A lot of the pre-war CMP, both Regular & Territorial, were either ex-Guardsmen (for their height), ex-civilian policemen, or AA/RAC patrolmen. Also the Intelligence Corps, formed in 1940, was an offshoot of the Corps of Military Police - originally known as the Field Security Police.

 

[Peter Day]

Nap - Hope you're on the mend.

Richard and Chris - Thanks for the info.

I decided to start with Travis:



The face was an absolute pig. There were a lot of ragged lines around the eyes which I couldn't paint tidily, so I stripped it down and took a scalpel and sandpaper to it. Pretty risky, but it worked reasonably well and I've managed to get the eyes sorted. The face is not finished yet and the hair just has been given a base coat for now.

 

[Stephen Hutchinson]

Morning Peter

Looks like the face lift worked well and the result is recognisable as Travis.

I guess you will do one figure at a time, so it will be a khaki and olive day today.

Did they do the full crew or just the 3 busts.

The film did get very mixed reviews from critics and rivet counters.

At least we got to see the last working Tiger if nothing else.

Have a good day with the body and the drab paints

Regards

Steve H

 

[Peter Day]

Morning Steve

Yes, I think this one's safe. Still some work to do on the head, then on to the clothing. I'm not a rivet counter or purist, but the scenarios in the film were ridiculous and I find Brad's macho all-knowing act hard to take. That said, I seem to have painted him more than any other 'celebrity'. You of course have the Achilles bust, and you may remember the Life Miniatures War Daddy figure I did:

 

[Peter Day]

Here's Travis:

 

[misfit151]

Excellent character painting on this one Peter,. looking forward to more..... Mike

 

[Babelfish]

Great work on that first bust Peter. Mitches do some great subjects but often the casting quality leaves something to be desired, so kudos for performing some surgery rather than just binning the thing outright.

I quite enjoyed "Fury", and watched it again on Netflix recently. I do get why some people slate it, but to me it's an action-adventure film, not a documentary. And to my eye it does have a rather dark, gritty and realistic "look" about it, with some quite brutal & bloody action - which after all is what you'd expect war to look like. Besides which, the tanks and other equipment are the "real deal".

Brad Pitt was 49 when this film was shot in 2013 (released in 2014), but Hollywood has a very long history of actors playing characters a decade or two younger (or indeed older) than themselves, so that's nothing new and it's not something that bothers me with "Fury".

- Steve

 

[Steve Brodie]

very nice

 

[Peter Day]

Mike - Many thanks.

Steve - Glad you like him. Yes, Mitches do sometimes have a problem with casting quality and this trio is no exception. I did nearly bin them, but at £60 that would have been a bit of a waste. Funny thing is though that their having rough edges somehow makes me relax a bit - as sort of 'oh, well' attitude kicks in and then if a get a decent result it seems a bonus.

As for Fury, please take my opinion with a pinch of salt. I suppose I felt that if they went for the terrific look and atmosphere they achieved, they could have made the story a bit more believable. I agree though, that taken on an action and adventure basis it's terrific.

 

[Peter Day]

Thank you Mr B.

 

[Merryweather]

I don't know how you do it, again and again.
Top stuff Mr D!

 

[callmehobbes]

Pete - you are a machine! First time Ive seen this bust painted up. It looks really good.

 

[Marcin Morawski]

Great painting work so far, especially this green lookks superb. Flesh tones on face

 

[Airkid]

I approached the movie from a "rivet counter" angle, which was probably wrong. As Steve says, it was a gritty, all-action romp but technically and historically pretty crap. Coincidentally, a guy I know from re-enacting worked on the film as an advisor, basically showing extras how to wear their kit. His opinion of the main man is not printable.

Phil

 

[Airkid]

...oh, and nice work so far Peter