Valley Forge Militia - Winter 1777-78 (75mm)

[Blind Pew]

Absolutely superb. I only wish I'd done - a top job all round

 

[bucsfan21]

Zeno, Nicely done. You really pulled off the cold and frozen feel! Like the groundwork, back drop as well. All in all, I would say a very convincing and nicely painted 3 figure vignette. Thanks for sharing!

Terry Martin-Member of the Atlanta Miniature Figure Society

 

[chippy]

OK I'm find this fascinating as I am colour blind (not black and white colour blind but I see colours differently the one reason I don't paint much anymore ) but if this a Black and white work I'm seeing quite a few muted colours in this piece . The figure holding the halberd seems to have a dark claret coat and light buff gaiters , the figure with the rifle seems to have a pale green coat a and buff waistcoat and gaiters, while the drummer boy has an obvious red scarf he seems to be wearing a pale blue coat . And all belts seem to be light buff .
So if you painted this in tones of grey did you add any off these colours into the mix ?
chippy

 

[Borek]

Fabulous work indeed. The color idea is amazing, and it is really great painted. It's hard to paint monochrome, and this is just amazing. And highlighting of the child tambor using light colored tones is just amazing. A gorgeous one, masterpiece, I think.

Cheers Borewk

 

[V.Martin]

Very, very cool job!

 

[tiberius57]

@Ken, Blind Pew, Terry and V. Martin
Thank you very much for your feedback! It's very much appreciated!

@Borewk
I'm glad that you liked the idea presented in this vignette. It was designed to create a certain mood and has a symbolist content too.
Thanks a lot for your feedback!

@chippy
I'm glad that it grabbed your attention. First I would like to say that this is not a pure black and white work. It's painted in a grey scale involving other colours as well, as you noticed very accurately. The intend was to stay as much as possible in the grey spectrum to convey a certain mood. I'm talking about the 2 behind the drummer boy. The NCO (with the spear) coat base colour is Black Grey from Vallejo. Shadows with black and highs with Natural Grey + Sky Grey from Vallejo. The musket guy coat base colour is Green Grey, shadows with Black Grey and for the highs I added Sky Grey to the mix. The base colours are different but the shading and highlights are the same colours. In a certain way, this brings everything together even that the NCO coat has a grey - dark bluish tint and the other one has a grey - greenish tint.
For the rest I did a trick to help myself in the painting process. I prepared a palette having the base colour Natural Grey (Vallejo) + Thar Brown (Scale 75 - which is a light grey beige) 50/50. Shadow - Black Grey (Vallejo) and highlights - Sky Grey (Vallejo). I prepared 2 intermediate mixes as well. Shadow + Base (50/50) and Base + Highs (50/50).
Shadow Shadow + Base Base Base + Highlight Highlight
Having this palette I started with the base colour in different points for different elements and different figures. For some details I added as deepest shadows black or for the highest highlight Off White. Another variation which helped me was the base colour mixture. For some elements I changed the 50/50 ration adding more Thar Brown or more Natural Grey. I tried to make my life easier as possible.
The drummer boy is another story. It's the focal point and represents the hope and future so, I wanted to ad more colour. Prussian Blue was added to Natural grey for the coat as basic colour. The rest of the palette is the same. The lower part of the figure is more grey and was painted with the same palette as the other 2 figures. The red scarf.... is painted red... obvious isn't it?
Was a long story but I hope it helps you.
Cheers,
Zeno

 

[anstontyke]

great explanation of your colour pallete Zeno.

tony

 

[tiberius57]

Thanks Tony! Much appreciated!
Cheers,
Zeno

 

[arj]

Beautiful vignette.
Like Chippy, I also thought I was seeing some hints of colour (apart from the red).
Thank you for your explanation of how you achieved such an interesting effect.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[chippy]

Thank you Zeno for a very detailed explanation on how you mixed the colours for this outstanding diorama .
chippy

 

[Theodoros]

Marvelous approach ! I almost feel the cold air in my face ....

 

[tiberius57]

@chippy
You are welcome!

@Theodoros
Thanks a lot! I'm glad that you like it!

Cheers,
Zeno

 

[Babelfish]

Heads-up: This is an OLD THREAD resurrected!!!

Only just seen this believe it or not. Amazing work, and the grey-scale makes it very atmospheric.

The Muhlenberg hut section from Mr. Bayardi really sets it off perfectly, but for me its price tag of $75 (plus shipping, plus potentially VAT & "handling fees" at this end) kills the idea of doing something similar with this trio of figures.

Still lovely to see though. Inspiring stuff!

- Steve

 

[Nap]

Hi Guys

Like Steve only just seen this ...how on earth did Immiss itv!

Zeno .....Great painting gratpyscake with the flash of colour

Nice basework as well

Why not enter a piece into the class of your choice in our FOTM comp and also vote in previous months classes as well as voting in Vignette & Diorama comp #2 ...

....And enter in Vignettes & Diorama #3 which will be set up for 1/5/21 running till 31/01/22

Always good to see the artwork

Thanks for sharing

Look forward to the next

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Peter Day]

Amazing work. That's how to paint cold.

 

[Scott Sheltz]

Great looking vignette! Definitely get the feeling of being cold and miserable the way you have portrayed the figures.

 

[Edorta]

Excellent, great work. (But would prefer a muted color scheme more than the B/W)

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia

 

[Theodoros]

The red touch in a full grey-cold atmosphere is more than welcome !

 

[tiberius57]

Thank you very much for your feedback!

I'm glad that the 4 years old vignette got again some momentum and received such good comments from you!
That is great! Much appreciated. My message, sent through this vignette, was well received!

Cheers,
Zeno