Pegaso Models Review - Francois L΄ Olonnais - 75mm

[Kisifer]

Introduction

I believe that everyone got impressed as soon as they saw this figure floating around. Yes, once again Pegaso Models shakes the waters in the figure modeling scene. At an attractive scale,75mm, a master sculptor and painter and of course the top company, this masterpiece will be reviewed here...firstly the....


Historical Notes

François NAU nicknamed l'Olonnais. “Nau” is his family name, and “Francis” is the English form of the French first name “François”. L'Ollonais lived in the seventeenth century and was (probably) born in France around 1635.He was reputed to have been one of the most ruthless and barbaric pirates to have ever sailedunder the black flag.
He was first employed as a regular mariner, but after some time he began attacking Spanish vessels in the Caribbean. His base of operations was the Isle of Tortuga (Isle to the North of Hispaniola).
L'Ollonais captured several Spanish vessels. With a fleet fitted out and manned at Tortuga he was also able to capture and plunder the cities of Maracaibo and Gibraltar in 1666. In May 1667 he left the Isle of Tortuga on board his vessel Saint-Jean, a ship that he ahd taken at Maracaibo. He plundered the harbour city Puerto de Cavallo and the town of San Pedro.
After having captured a Spanish ship in the neighbourhood of the coast of Yucatan his fleet split up. L'Ollonais left with his ship, but at the Isles De las Pertas his ship ran aground. After several futile attempts to get it afloat again they made a long-boat and part of the crew left with L'Ollonais. He reached the river of Nicaragua where he and some of his crew were captured by Indians and killed.


The kit

Article 75-040

Sculptor: Maurizio Bruno
Painter: Danilo Cartacci

Material: white metal
Pieces: 16
Weight: 350 gr.
Size: 75 mm.

The usual dark blue hard carton box of Pegaso for figures of this size contains the usual 2 dark grey foams that hold all 16 pieces. Also in the box the buyer can find 2 leaflets with historical notes from Marcello Grimaldi in 4 different languages, along with painting guide.

Below you can see all the pieces and admire the quality of them.

For more pictures of the finished bust please visit Pegasos website:
http://www.pegasomodels.com/details_en.asp?code=75-040#

Quality and Detail

For once again as soon as you open a Pegaso's box you can't get disappointed with the quality and detail of the piece...and this once is not an exception at all. The Master sculptor Maurizio Bruno really sculpted a masterpiece. Normal seam lines are present that can easily be cleaned. Lots of detail on this pirate figure, will challenge the modellers and tackle his skills.The picture can prove that for sure.

Painting

The painting of the boxart it's really a dream, made from the Master Danilo Cartacci. What an amazing work on the drapery and selection of pattern. Surely a difficult piece that needs a lot of skill and patience to finish this piece. I don't know,but I believe that this piece is calling you to take your brushes out and start the paintwork. Get your hands on it...and see it for yourself.


Conclusion

In conclusion I have to say that Francois L΄ Olonnais figure from Pegaso models, will be in many table shows and that we will see lots of different versions of it. Hopefully also mine soon .


Finally I would like to Thank again Pegaso Models, Luca Marchetti and Pietro Balloni for providing this kit.


Xenofon

 

[Kisifer]

...more photos

 

[megroot]

Xenofon,
thanks, i was thinking about doing a revieuw of this figure but you defeat me on this.
Yes, it is some awesome figure.

Marc

 

[vergilius]

I've it, so what can I say more besides thanks for the review

 

[Graywolf]

Excellent review on an excellent sculpted figure.Thanks my friend

 

[Guy]

Good review Xenofon. I have ordered mine but has not arrived yet. After seeing your review I especially look forward to its arrival.

 

[Christos]

Thanks for sharing Xenofon!
Christos

 

[je_touche]

Costume

Thanks for the review.

If L'Ollonais was born in 1635, and the figure depicts a man at age, say, 25-30, this would be around 1660-1665. For that date, he is wearing a pretty old-fashioned costume. I would date his attire rather in the 1640s.

This is one thing rarely paid attention to, especially when dealing with figurines representing 16th or 17th century costume. Fashion back then changed more slowly, sure, but it did change over the time. As a pirate, L'Ollonais would probably be clad according to the latest fashion (having got his clothes from his booty or whereever). Around 1660, he would rather wear a longer juste-au-corps instead of a short doublet, other details would have changed as well, esp. the form and size of his hat (cf., e.g., Anders Heintz's Oxford Blues figurine in the Helo Figures announcement). As modellers and figurine collectors we should be much more critical towards historical details such as these.

Nitpicking aside, this is still one of the most remarkable figurines I got to see in the last time. But I would not date it in the 1660s. So I would be very much interested in pictorial evidence for L'Ollonais that might have served as a source base for this figurine.

 

[Figure Mad]

Hi je_touche

I have looking at this guy for a couple of days, in reasearch for painting him, Now to say this guy realy existed would be correct, but he not only existed he had a reputation - all be it not so clever, you could say he was the original Jack Sparrow. He couldn’t navigate to save his life, he got mutinied upon by his crew, lost his ship, Acquired another ship, and lost that one, spent a while living on Isla Tortuga. After befriending the the French Governor of the island, he was given 8 ships by him to carry on his plundering, as a result he attempted to conquer the city of guatemala, he was left by his accompanying crews and ships to fend for himself with only a few men and 1 ship, which ran aground on a remote island where he was captured along with the few men he had left, by a tribe of cannibles, obviously never to be seen again........

So realy the clothing of the period may have been the least of his worries considering he wasn’t a very good pirate, but most pirates originated from the mid 17th century anyway. But saying that the figure has been made more of a generalisation so as to cover a few more years within this period.

Anyway I have come across a wealth of information on the web so here are a couple of wesites to have a look at..........

DaveM

http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/
http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/lolonnais_francois.htm
http://www.franceforfreebooters.com/about/pirate.htm

 

[Guy]

Thanks for the links Dave. I have saved them for future reference.

 

[je_touche]

Biography, History, and Costume Style

Dave,

I am not saying this is a bad figure - quite on the contrary. This is to make myself clear, sorry if anything should not have been put in the correct words or may sound too harsh since English is not my first language.

I did not know anything about Francois L'Ollonais, so what I said had to rely on the historical information given in the first posting. Clothes might not have been his first concern but that does not contradict what I have been saying about costume style in the 17th century. Because what we get is still a figure in a very elegant French costume worn by a nobleman, or at least a wealthy gentleman, in the 1640s. Such clothing would be old-fashioned in the 1660s, to say the least, it would be second hand and rather worn.

Yes indeed, the best-known pirates lived or were born in the 17th century, but again, as long as we pretend to do 'historical' figurines IMO we should pay attention to the costume style typical of a given period, in this particular case a period during the adult age of the historical Olonnais. What is more, there is NO generic type of 17th century costume, it is just a cliché that everyone in that century were wearing the same style of clothing over the entire period.

We would be able to tell the difference between a man's suit of today and worn, say, back in the 1970s. From 300-400 years distance those differences might look subtle but they are still there. In my eyes, what makes the success of a given figurine is, anatomy, pose, AND attention to historical accuracy and style. Obviously, there is no authentic portrait of L'Olonnais, the one shown on the sites is rather dubious, it might just have been made up by the artist as was common practice. Indeed, this engraving shows a man in a short doublet, such as still worn at the very beginning of the restoration period, but it is of a very different style than that worn by the figurine. The style of the doublet in the portrait is called 'à la rheingraf', which came into being in the 1650s.

So what the figurine represents is a dashing, arrogant, flamboyant gentleman, probably French, around 1645. This is very much the romanticised pictorial cliché handed down to us by Alexandre Dumas père and his musketeers. But we should not mingle this with a much later period.

So, if I collected and painted 75-mm-figurines (which I do not) I would still buy and paint this one with utter pleasure. But I would not write 'L'Olonnais' on the nameplate.