fogie
A Fixture
This one came my way recently..... It's Vladimir Danilov's
superb vignette of the French and Indian Wars - or more
accurately of Pontiac's War, as I intend it to represent an
action that occurred in the densely forested Alleghenies
near to a place called Bushy Run Station, after hostilities
with the French had ended. It's a thrilling piece and might
be interesting enough to feature here as this old duffer's
attempt to bring it to life......I've been told my approach is
a bit different.
The history which surrounds Pontiac's War reads like a
movie script - full of heroism, hideous savagery, typically
inept British arrogance, lots of shooting, even an attempt
at early biological warfare. I actually like research - for me
it's part of this whole figure painting thing - but we don't all
think the same, so rather than give chapter and verse in
one hit now, I'll add it in italics as we go along, so those
who find such guff boring can skip over it.
Tempting though it is to pick up the brushes straight away
and make a start on the painting, this one requires us to
begin on the ground floor, with the two individual bases
Vladimir supplies with his vignette. They have to be sorted
first because I'm using them rather than creating a base
of my own. I'm not being lazy here, let me add, it's simply
too easy to get carried away with simulated groundwork,
that unless we show restraint, an overworked base can
unintentionally alter the entire character of the figure(s), or
even, heaven forbid, wreck the sculptor's skilfully contrived
compostion. The aim instead is to indulge the individual
creativity Volodya's work always seems to inspire in us,
while at the same time keeping a sharp eye on his original
concept.
Another thing is, with it's strong narrative, this piece hardly
needs a busy landscape. Texture is required more than
distracting detail - after all, what we have here essentially is
a luckless Highland Officer with the fear of God in him as he
almost certainly draws his last breath on earth.....in the face
of that, superfluous scenery surely misses the point. So after
both bases were carefully drilled and firmly joined with metal
pins (three of them) and Milliput had dealt with the gaps, just
simple layers of simulated 'forest-floor', and 'tree-moss' were
considered enough.
The 'forest-floor' came from plywood....when you cut the
stuff, especially with a coarse-toothed rip saw (....don't
forget to count your fingers afterwards) there's always a
kind of fur of wood splinters on the underside of the cut.
Scrape 'em off and they're just about right for 1/30th scale
Allegheny Hemlock Tree debris - the moss is softwood
sawdust. The base was coated thinly with bog standard
PVA glue, and layered with the materials, and allowed to
dry. Then everything was misted over with a 5 to1 dilution
of H2O and PVA, in a cheap and cheerful atomiser, and
again left to dry thoroughly. Misting is essential in fixing and
sealing all the textures, so after a final coat of pre-painting
primer, everything looks as if it's integral with the original
casting and not a stuck-on afterthought.
A quick check on the relative positions of the two figures, to
make sure they still interact properly, and it's time to reach for
the brushes .....but more of that next time.
superb vignette of the French and Indian Wars - or more
accurately of Pontiac's War, as I intend it to represent an
action that occurred in the densely forested Alleghenies
near to a place called Bushy Run Station, after hostilities
with the French had ended. It's a thrilling piece and might
be interesting enough to feature here as this old duffer's
attempt to bring it to life......I've been told my approach is
a bit different.
The history which surrounds Pontiac's War reads like a
movie script - full of heroism, hideous savagery, typically
inept British arrogance, lots of shooting, even an attempt
at early biological warfare. I actually like research - for me
it's part of this whole figure painting thing - but we don't all
think the same, so rather than give chapter and verse in
one hit now, I'll add it in italics as we go along, so those
who find such guff boring can skip over it.
Tempting though it is to pick up the brushes straight away
and make a start on the painting, this one requires us to
begin on the ground floor, with the two individual bases
Vladimir supplies with his vignette. They have to be sorted
first because I'm using them rather than creating a base
of my own. I'm not being lazy here, let me add, it's simply
too easy to get carried away with simulated groundwork,
that unless we show restraint, an overworked base can
unintentionally alter the entire character of the figure(s), or
even, heaven forbid, wreck the sculptor's skilfully contrived
compostion. The aim instead is to indulge the individual
creativity Volodya's work always seems to inspire in us,
while at the same time keeping a sharp eye on his original
concept.
Another thing is, with it's strong narrative, this piece hardly
needs a busy landscape. Texture is required more than
distracting detail - after all, what we have here essentially is
a luckless Highland Officer with the fear of God in him as he
almost certainly draws his last breath on earth.....in the face
of that, superfluous scenery surely misses the point. So after
both bases were carefully drilled and firmly joined with metal
pins (three of them) and Milliput had dealt with the gaps, just
simple layers of simulated 'forest-floor', and 'tree-moss' were
considered enough.
The 'forest-floor' came from plywood....when you cut the
stuff, especially with a coarse-toothed rip saw (....don't
forget to count your fingers afterwards) there's always a
kind of fur of wood splinters on the underside of the cut.
Scrape 'em off and they're just about right for 1/30th scale
Allegheny Hemlock Tree debris - the moss is softwood
sawdust. The base was coated thinly with bog standard
PVA glue, and layered with the materials, and allowed to
dry. Then everything was misted over with a 5 to1 dilution
of H2O and PVA, in a cheap and cheerful atomiser, and
again left to dry thoroughly. Misting is essential in fixing and
sealing all the textures, so after a final coat of pre-painting
primer, everything looks as if it's integral with the original
casting and not a stuck-on afterthought.
A quick check on the relative positions of the two figures, to
make sure they still interact properly, and it's time to reach for
the brushes .....but more of that next time.
