Finally finished

I'm happy to have this one behind me. I painted all the flesh areas this weekend. I can now move on to some other projects. I'm going to avoid vignettes and dioramas for a while. I'm a little disappointed in the composition on this one. I added a third figure because I thought it would help the scene, but what happened is the interaction between the kneeling and seated figure got lost, and I elected to change the pose that suggested interaction. I took a few shortcuts on these guys I won't try again. Sometimes, the long way is best.

Next up; I have a figure posed up that will hopefully turn into an attacking Eastern Woodland Indian.

Paintin' the Camo

Getting through this project is testing my patience. Here are the painted uniforms. I still have all the flesh areas to paint. I'm trying to decide whether or not to use my new method of face painting, or my old comfortable method. I've been trying to learn the method laid out in Cartacci's book. I like the results I'm getting, but I have to take a step-by-step approach with the book nearby. My old method was adequate, but I could mix up a fleshtone palette and finish a face pretty quickly. I'm leaning toward the new way. I think the best way to learn is through repetition. Since I want to use this method in the future, I'll probably stick with it for this project too.

Pushing through to the finish line

Still struggling through the diorama/vignette pictured below. I took a few shortcuts during the sculpting phase and that is telling on me. Definitely learned a lesson there. The goal however was to take a different approach to drapery and wrinkles. That part was successful. I really want to get this thing finished so I can move on. It amazes me sometimes how a difficult project can be such a motivation sucker. As of last night all that remains is to paint the flesh areas and do a little outlining on the web gear. Then I can place the figures in situ and get on with some other projects. I may have done my last three plus project for a while. Painting the same uniform three times has turned out to be a little too monotonous. I should have this finished in time for the Tulsa show in June.

Next up on the painting bench is Elite's Capt. Souter. I'm looking forward to that one. Those fur coats are fun to paint. The flag around Souter's waist should prove challenging as well. I bought some neat and interesting bases at MFCA and I think I'll pick from one of them. After that, I plan to pick from the archives for a Chicago project. Some ideas in the pipeline; F&I vignette, mounted ECW Roundhead.

I think I'm rounding a corner with regard to my feelings about this hobby. Recently, I've been concentrating on triathlon training and those thoughts are what have occupied my idle mind. Now I find that since returning from MFCA, I'm somewhat back to normal and my idle thoughts return to this hobby. Maybe the Tulsa show will kick in some additional inspiration.

MFCA Post Mortem

I attended my first MFCA show in Valley Forge last weekend. I've heard a lot about this show over the years and I think that it vies with the MMSI show for "The US Show" to visit. The vendor's area is huge and well stocked. Many of the vendors are toy soldier dealers, but many were book, tool and figure kit dealers. I did find it a bit ironic that at a show focused on the figure painter, there wasn't one vendor that was selling paint in any appreciable quantity. Most of the shows I've attended have had at least one vendor with a rack of Vallejo paints. The awards ceremony was a little bit of a bugaboo. It started about 45 minutes late for one. They were ambitious about getting photos of the Gold medal winners, and it caused a little confusion. I was pleased to see so many Europeans in attendance. I haven't seen so many since Expo in Boston in 2005. BOS was a beautiful mounted knight by Phillipe Gengembre. I was pleased to see Jason Whitman share the MFCA Grand Master award with Jean Pierre Duthielle. One last word on the most imaginative piece at the show; Marijn Van Gils had a mini- shadow box in progress that was absolute genius. It was as if the viewer was looking from a closet into the face of a woman's paramour as her husband is bursting into the room on his surprised wife. The paramour is hold a finger to his mouth in a "ssshhh" gesture. Not many folks could carry out such an ambitious idea so successfully. All in all a great show. I may have visit this one again.