Recently completed figures.

[gentleman in khaki]

Hi everybody, I am in the middle of painting my 200mm scale Praetorian and he is in the WIP section. I have not been able to get a lot of bench time recently as I am constructing a major greenhouse base and must use the time (minutes) when its not raining to dig trenches for the foundations. Note to self: you are 66 not 24 ...pace yourself!

Anyway until I can get back to the Roman here is some of my completed work done within the past year, roughly when I started to paint again after at least a ten year gap.

Any comments are welcome.

The first figure is the massive Guard Chasseur a Cheval by Le Cimier figures. The figure is painted with oils for the horse and acrylics for the rider. The horse colours are copied from a real horse which belongs to a local friend who does dressage events and jumping. She let me photograph "Jessica".

The second figure is an officer from the Royal Fusiliers, 200mm scale from Mitches models. He is mainly painted in oils.

The third is a small dicast metal bust of General Suvarov. When he arrived he was painted in VERY shiny bronze paint that had to be stripped. There was no makers details supplied with the figure. I am pleased with the result as he was the first figure I painted after my extended break.

The final one is a bit of fun. Professor McGonicall from the Harry Potter movies. Painted in acrylics and printers ink for the necklace. I replaced the bulky feather as supplied with some real feathers from the local fishing shop. They are supposed to be used to make fishing lures!

Thank you for looking.

Cheers, Paul

 

[MoboSchreuder]

Very nice work

Mobo

 

[gentleman in khaki]

Thank you Mobo!

 

[Briggsy]

Some lovely work there Paul, love the horse 'Jessica' very striking animal. I like the Maggie Smith bust looks like fun to paint, oh and go steady with the digging, don't want to do yourself a mischief!

Cheers Simon

 

[gentleman in khaki]

Dear Simon, thank you for the very kind comments. Yes the Maggie Smith one was a lot of fun to paint. I have the Alan Rickman one of Prof. Severus Snape as well. I have started this a few times but need to improve my facial painting techniques. All the photo's I have of him in this role shows him with a very washed out pale complexion which I am finding hard to do on a figure of a bloke! My first effort had him so pale he looked like a Geisha and the second attempt had him looking as if he had seen a ghost! The figure has now been pushed down the "to do" list till I improve. Cheers, Paul

 

[Briggsy]

Dear Simon, thank you for the very kind comments. Yes the Maggie Smith one was a lot of fun to paint. I have the Alan Rickman one of Prof. Severus Snape as well. I have started this a few times but need to improve my facial painting techniques. All the photo's I have of him in this role shows him with a very washed out pale complexion which I am finding hard to do on a figure of a bloke! My first effort had him so pale he looked like a Geisha and the second attempt had him looking as if he had seen a ghost! The figure has now been pushed down the "to do" list till I improve. Cheers, Paul

I often find putting it aside and mulling over the problem subconsciously for a while pays dividends, not entirely sure how it works so don't want to analyse it and break the process! I will look forward to seeing him in the future.

Cheers Simon

 

[MCPWilk]

I also like larger figures for the extra detail, but the shading has to be much more subtle. All nicely done. Your Maggie Smith does look a bit more of a witch than in the films though!

Mike

 

[Redcap]

A very nice figures collection and thank you for sharing your pictures Paul. The Le Cimier piece as a figure is (IMHO) one of the finest cavalry pieces available in any scale. It has a wonderful grace and elegance about it - love it!

Gary

 

[Blind Pew]

Well done, Paul. Your patience and attention and crisp, skilful painting on the big Chasseur in particular has repaid you. Good stuff.

 

[gentleman in khaki]

Dear Gary, Mike and Blind Pew, thank you for your kind words.
Gary, I agree with you over the Chasseur figure. I've never seen anything to touch it possibly excepting the (equally massive) Col. Burthe French 4th. Hussars figure from a few years ago.
Blind Pew, the Chasseur figure took ages to do. The dappling on the horse was particularly trying. My first attempts made it look like Dobbin the rocking horse! The polka dot hussars etc.... I ended up practising on white card not wishing to strip the horse a second time.
Cheers,
Paul

 

[Nap]

Hi Paul

My apologies missed this , your certainly varied in the scales , all look good as a display , the Le Cimier piece in particular looks well detailed in the painting ,like the horse and the sabretache work
Thanks for sharing

Do support the competitions see link below ( There’s Diorama, a D Day80 and the normal class entries )

Look forward to seeing more

Have fun @ the bench

Nap

 

[gentleman in khaki]

Dear Nap,

thank you for the comments over the recent work. The Le Cimier horse took forever to paint. One of the main difficulties was the size of it. Tilting the model to paint the horses belly had me very fretful of the legs snapping. I used a lot of Liquin to help speed up the oil paint drying times. Even so it took over three months work.

As for the varied scales, I am lucky in that I have large cabinets where I am able to display figures of a similar size together so it does not look weird with say a 75mm figure next to one of the 200mm figures. The only scale I am now unable to do is 28mm as my eyes will no longer let me, even with a magnifier headband!!

At present the 200mm Praetorian is coming along and I will post some more pictures when the skin is all done. I have tried the AK wax based metallics for the armour and am pleased with the results. They blend very well and stay where they are put, unlike inks. They are also more subtle, finally, a little goes a very long way so the costing is good!

Cheers,
Paul