the birds!

[Marijn Van Gils]

Hello everybody!

OK, these are not exactly figures, but well...

On holliday in Turkey, I did some small in-between projects since my wife forgot to put the box with my figures into the luggage. So I had to do some sculpting there for which I didn't need stock heads or hands and I could find enough references on the internet: animals! I've always been very much interested in them, and I have found the work of Jean-Jacques Delorme to be very inspiring so I already had some ideas in the back of my head.

The first one is very simple and small: a red-billed oxpecker (small bird that eats insect of big mammals) on a square of rhino-skin (which only serves as a vertical groundwork). As the background is only 2 by 2 cm large, it is quite small and was a quick job. I will have more work painting the details on it though!
The eye of the rhino will also be looking back at the bird, and I want to call it "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!"

The second is a pelican, more or less 1/35th scale. I want to paint him as a victim of an oil-disaster, thus completely covered in oil, including all of the groundwork. This will be a real challenge! Any ideas?

So just some small in-between projects, but really fun to do!

All comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.

Best wishes!

Marijn

 

[Marijn Van Gils]

n°2:

 

[Marijn Van Gils]

n°3:

 

[Marijn Van Gils]

4°:

 

[megroot]

Marijn,

Awesome stuff. I really like that pelikan. One of your highstandard.

Marc

 

[Sambaman]

Marijn, fantastic work as usual!!! I would love to see the pelican when you get started with the painting. All that gooey glossy oil will be fantastic!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[bonehead]

Awesome Marijn, you rock man!

This not only gets into the area of Art (with a capital A), it also manages to get around the questionable merits of glorifying war. With the present state of affairs in our world, I am beginning to rethink my motivations for modeling.

Bravo to you Marijn, for showing us a better way. You never cease to amaze me with your creativity. Keep it up!!!! :lol:

Cheers!!

Mike

 

[KeithP]

Very cool. I enjoy this type of work. Pls show more as you can.

Keith

 

[slaj]

Marijn, whatever comes out of your hand is just great. Awesome stuff man.

Stephen Mallia

 

[romain]

very good job ... the texture of the skin is very well done .....

Concerning the pellican and the oil ; maybe you can create the effect with this sort of method : first you mix critstal resin ( the same that you use for wather effect ) with a lot of black ink and black paint . after you apply this "mix " with a brush ... Maybe tamiya smoke could be usefull .....

 

[madeg]

Marijn ,

The medium used ; is it magic sculpt ? Or is it a mix ?

 

[Stephan]

Thats really a big project. Never seen it before.
I like the small bird.

 

[Dan Morton]

Marijn - Both of these are terrific, but the pelican is simply marvelous! Wow!

All the best,
Dan

 

[Johan]

.... some great sculpting work there, and so absolutely lifelike ... WOW !

I love birds too, and have tried sculpting them in milliput in 1/15 scale to go with 120mm figures; But milliput doesn't seem the ideal medium to do this.

So, some questions here if you allow me :

1) What kind of putty do you use ? That's not milliput is it ?
2) Do you work on an armature of wire here ? I guess you got to have some solid sort of "skeleton" to work on here ...
2) What is your method of creating the wing feathers on the Pelican (creating wing and tail feathers is my greatest problem)?

Great , great work anyway, really superb, and if you seriously want to continue sculpting this kind of stuff, you should think about investing in a good illustrated field guide to birds, depending on the geographic area your model bird is from ...
-For Europe, the Collins' (illustrated by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom) is really the best you can get, and the only one you need : very clear and lifelike illustrations.
-For America, it's worth buying the David Sibley guide (excellent for grasping the "impression" , a good "mental picture" of the bird), and certainly both the eastern and western Peterson guides too (Peterson's illustrations have that "special" unique quality about them).

Good luck Marijn, this is great stuff, and a great inspiration !

 

[MikkoH]

Marijn what can I say. You are Ace! Fantastic work as usual!

Cheers Mikko

 

[Chevalier de Malte]

Marijn ... men you are a zoologist!

First with your dios, then with your figures, know your animals ... you should start to cast them and creat a line of your own !

Great sculpting ... never tried to do oil slick but I bet oil paint mixed with some gloss medium or migs acrylic resin will do the job ... as this material is very messy! I lived near a busy harbour so I have a little experience of how oil polution can look like in the sea .... great idea for a Gulf War 1 vignette!

Keep them coming and Marijn consider my idea of starting a line with the little gems, I surely be one of your customers !

Ivan

 

[Joe Hudson]

I agree, these are Fantastic!! You really should cast them up. I always enjoy seeing what you will do next.


Joe

 

[eissteban]

for my first intervention in this forum i would like to say that you are a veritable magician !
These releases prove it.
Please continue to share with us your fantastic work.

And happy new year to all of them.

 

[43rdMichael]

Marijn,

I have been wondering when you would pop up with a new, highly original, and beautifully executed model. ...and here you are - with two !!!

Love the work (and found the story about the missed luggage to be pretty amusing - and very easy to relate to !!). Will be very interesting to see the finished pieces.

Best regards,
michael

 

[Christos]

Just beautiful!
christos