Pioneer, 77th Regt of Foot -Painting Part 3-

Here are a few more inprogress pictures. It's getting pretty close to being finished now. Details and final clean up left, as well as the ground work. Hope to finish it up tomorrow!
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Pioneer, 77th Regt. of Foot -Painting Part 2-

Some more progress on the Pioneer of the 77th regt. The bearskin is about done and the coat has been started. Didn't spend a whole lot of productive time at the bench today, had a grueling day at work! But at least got a little bit done. I've found that if you do a little each day, even if it's only a belt or something, before you know it the project will be done!
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Weeeee! I once was lost but now I'm found!

A super nice lady called us about 20 minutes ago having found our dogs. Thank God for good people! After over 9 hours of worrying we can now relax, and I can get back to the bench with a peaceful mind! The dogs are played out and very muddy, and shall receive a nice bath as a get a way reward.

Pheew, that was close! Thought they were gone for good.

Sad News: Dogs are missing!

The dogs got out today and have not returned. After spending a couple of hours looking for them still no joy. I hope they return shortly, or someone will call us and let us know they have them, they are like our kids. At least they are micro chipped and have tags on them with our information, lets just hope someone does the right thing. What a crappy day.

At least Rowan is smiling...or something..

And here Porter is being goofy....had to keep it even as to not be partial to one of the goof balls.

Horan Figure of the Week: Dizzy Dean

And it's Wednesday once more, and another Horan figure of the week installment! Thought I'd change it up a bit and do one of Bill's fantastic ball players. Here is Dizzy Dean, full of motion. This is probably one of the most articulated and successfully dynamic figures I have ever seen. From the gentle twist of the left foot to the perfect angle of the arms, it is such a strong and balanced pose that it is worth studying for a while.

This piece amongst others will be featured at this years MFCA show in the Bill Horan Retrospect display.
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Pioneer, 77th Regt of Foot 1758 - Painting the Face -

Here is the next project, and a painting one at that!  It is easier to get into the rythm of painting again after such a long hiatus if a few are painted one after another, so as a result I will be painting for the next couple of weeks or so.

First up is the Pioneer of the 77th Regt of Foot, 1758 that was posted earlier on the blog. So far only the face is somewhat completed, it's a great face from the Hornet 1/32nd scale range of heads. He looks kind of sad though, perhaps a long day at the office!

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Unite or Die -Better Pictures-

As promised, here are some more and better pictures of the finished piece.
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Unit or Die -Painting the Horse-

Here are some in progress pictures of the painting of the horse, which was done in oils. The horse was first base coated with acrylics in a rough manner. This was then painted over with a thin layer of oils which was highlighted and shaded by adding more oiils to the initial layer of paint.

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Unite or Die, 54mm Original - Finished -

Here is my latest finished piece. A 54mm Revolutionary War standard bearer, though I feel that term is a bit too defined for what this fella really is intended to portray, as he is not military per say.

Anyway, just a quick picture of the finished piece. Please excuse the poor quality, will post more and better pictures after the weekend.

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Show Crunch!!

The Atlanta show is less then 48 hours away now! Still have some things to get done for the show so I'm preparing for a long evening at the bench!

Playlist for tonight:

Flyboys - WWI aviation flick


The War That Made America Disc I - PBS production of the French and Indian War


Sharpe's Waterloo - Heard a lot about this series, yet have never seen an episode, should be interesting!

Looking forward to listen/semi watch these movies! Might be hard to top last nights viewing of the 2001 version of The Count of Montecristo though, an amazing and satisfying movie!

Horan Figure of the Week: General George Custer, 1865

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Dog Update

Yepp...still worthless!

Unite or Die, 54mm Revolutionary War

Here is the next project on the bench! I have been working on this for the past week or so. It features a Historex horse, which has been slightly altered for a better pose as well as widened just a tad. Not many inprogress pictures of this piece as I'm doing it for the Atlanta show next weekend. The figure represents a farmer or other civilian in 1775 carrying the banner "Unite or Die", which was based on Benjamin Franklins "Join, or Die" political catroon which was published in 1756. The Unite or Die flag was 'adopted' in 1765.

The figure was sculpted with a mix of ProCreate (pC) and Magic Sculpt (MS) . It is a real pleasure to work when soft, it has a bit more body to it then just straight MS. It is also quite good to carve, a lot 'waxier' then when using MS by it self, which is more like a hard soap stone when carving. I prefer this mixture to that of Duro and MS, the color is better and is a bit easier to work and carve once finished. The only issue I have with pC is that it has tendencies to bubble up when speed cured, much more so then other putties. I've also heard this from companies who use vulcanizing rubber molds for metal spin casting, they have had some problems pressing the masters and getting bulges and bubbles when put through the heat of mold making. Luckily this is not a concern I had with this piece, and as long as care is taken when 'spreading out' the initial layer of putty on the figure it is a joy to work with. I would best describe it as very similar to Duro, just a little harder when cured and different color. I will use this mix again, but the next sculpt will be pure MS to see if it's really worth the trouble of mixing two putties together.

Anyway...enough rambling! Here are some pictures of the figure!
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Here is how the left leg was done, the process was repeated on the right leg

And the painting has begun! I feel very rusty as I have not touched a paint brush since last November or so.

Drummer, 7th Fusiliers, 1781 -Completed Sculpt-

And finally! Here are some pictures of the finished sculpt. Might need to tweak a thing here or there as it seems like a piece is never really finished. It was a pretty fun sculpt to do, and one of the more dynamic figures I've ever done. I'd like to continue to explore these sorts of figures as it's a fun change up from static figures, which are still my favorites. Dynamic figures offers many challenges which are very different from what I'm used to, and I'm looking forward to learning more about them. I think this will be about as far as I will get with this figure for a while as I have other projects that need to take priority. Until then, here is the finished piece!

Just some thoughts about the materials used for this sculpt. Like stated before, my relationship with Duro has been a rocky one to say the least! Never really liked the stuff, but mainly due to the properties when cured. It is very nice to work with when soft, and takes folds and detail real well. Mixing Duro with Magic Sculpt helped a lot as far as cured putty properties, and found out it takes a lot more MS then it does Duro to make a decent mix. A guestimate of the mix I used was something like 30% Duro of the size of MS mixed, very little Duro goes a long way! At the end of the day, was it worth the trouble mixing both putties? I guess it was, I really need to sculpt a figure out of pure Magic Sculpt again to really be able to decide. The next figure will be another experiment...this time with ProCreate and Magic Sculpt! The problem I've had with ProCreate is that it likes to bubble up a lot when being speed cured, mainly from air trapped under the putty, but for some reason it has tendencies to really bubble up easily where other putties won't. I'll write more on the topic in the coming days, but for now...enough rambling! Here are the pictures of the finished sculpt of the Drummer of the 7th Regt of Foot from the battle of Cowpens, 1781.

Next up is a 54mm mounted Revolutionary War figure carrying the "Unite, or Die" flag, which was the 1765 version of Benjamin Franklin's "Join, or Die" political cartoon that he published in 1756.
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Horan Figure of the Week: 24th Regiment of Foot, 1879 Rorke's Drift

And we are back to the Horan figure of the week! There will be a few updates here in fairly rapid progression as I've got a lot of new stuff to post. In the mean time, enjoy the pictures!
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Rainy Day - Lazy dogs!

Here is a shot of our dogs passed out on their couch. It's funny, they are like an old married couple. The smaller one, Rowan, on the right in the picture, is total boss over her 'brother'. Porter (left) lets her push him around up to a certain point, after which he puts her back in her place. I have yet to figure out whether he is too smart, too dumb, or just too laid back when he let her push him around. It's a pretty funny dynamic to watch. Anyhow, just a rainy day random note.