French Musketeers (WIP) v. Droste

[Guynemer]

Thank you all! My apologies for the late reply.

Mr Bock, lovely to hear from you. I agree! These days we see a lot of vignettes, busts or vitrine figures. It’s a pity as I find the regular rank and file military poses are where flats really shine, in the unparalleled dynamicism and realism they offer. There are plenty of excellent busts and large scale sculpts in the world of ‘round’ figures, but lifelike poses on a small scale? Not so much!

Thank you for taking over these moulds, it’s one of my favourite series. Excellent engraving by Mr Lepeltier indeed. I’ll have to order some of the ones I’m missing soon.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks but I’m pressing on with the janissaries.

[böckchen]

It's very nice to see that even normal military figures are being painted. After I took over the infantry from Fechner, the molds were thoroughly cleaned! Since the molds resembled pure coal pieces, long soot accumulated on the molds over the years. The figures were engraved by D. Lepeltier, with very strong sculpting as annotations.

[Hannibal]

Congratulatons Bani, I am impressed by the vivid colours used and which gives a excellent readability to each character, despite its small size.  I moved myself also from acrylic painting to oil painting with the same pleasure and passion.


W"lcome therefore here and I shall be pleased to watch your new comin paintings, and thank you to come and give fresh life to this site.  The summer vacation is ending now and we hope to see more people joining your initiative, hoping also that our Committee will launch some initiatives soon.


I shall post also more works , having been quiet lazy the past months for some good and bad excuses.


Yje flats from Droste are indeed beautiful !!!

[John Alberts]

Very nice paint work with impressive results.  Cannot wait to see the Janissaries

[Guynemer]

Hi all,

Well, it’s been a while since I last found time to paint some flats. I’m currently working on some janissaries which I hope to share with you soon, God willing.

These French musketeers, excellent engravings by Mr von Droste, I painted back in 2020 but did not share here. It’s frightening to think that these are the last flats I finished, and in taking these photos I noticed some small details which I have yet to do! The sad thing is, these were also the first figures I painted with oil paints (over an acrylic base coat), and I must say that while acrylics still have their place, oils are simply a joy to paint with in a way that building successive thin layers of acrylic tints can’t match.

Among life’s many distractions these past few years, I began sculpting my own ronde-bosse 30mm figures, writing three books, and practicing silver filigree art more intensely. I also made some flat sculptures… but for casting in silver. I certainly don’t stop buying flats though, and now I have hundreds waiting for paint… I’m sure it’s the same story for many of you.

Anyway, here we are. The figures are still on their temporary wooden bases, waiting to be finished and peeled off. Perhaps I will varnish them, I’m not sure.

I am a slow painter, but trying to move away from painting flats individually, and to batch paint large groups for the visual impact of complete units. I don’t want to skimp on detail, however. I painted each of these individually. The rest of the set is still waiting for paint. I bought them from Mr Fechner years ago, but they are now edited by Mr Bock. While the Bock catalogue doesn’t state it, Droste specified these as French musketeers, and while TYW era costume was not uniformed, the men of this set do have a lot of very French details.

Anyway, don’t let me ramble.

Bani

At the time of painting, I made a video to document painting one of these figures, which you can view here. I apologise for the poor quality, particularly of the audio: https://youtu.be/PNbJnmmSWRw?si=U2ecBnCnKO3EjYgq