von Alan Ball
Die Arbeitsschritte sind generell fast immer die selben, die ich für jede Figur anwende. Die Idee zu dieser Vorlage bekam ich von Marion. Sie verbrachte einige freie Stunden während einer Figurenausstellung in Philadelphia, wo sie ein Norman Rockwell Museum entdeckte. Dabei verliebte sie sich in diese Szene und fragte mich, ob ich das in eine Figuren Vignette umsetzen könnte....
von Marion Ball
Da ich einen Tag früher in Philadelphia war, machte ich natürlich ein bisschen Sightseeing, wie jeder normale Tourist.:) Als ich bereits auf dem Rückweg zum Hotel war, kam ich an einem kleinen unscheinbaren Museum vorbei, an dem ich zuerst vorbei ging, dann aber dachte, was soll es, ich hab ja noch etwas übrige Zeit und sowieso nichts Besseres zu tun. Also ging ich rein und schaute mich, obwohl ich schon ziemlich müde war vom harten Touristen stress, ein bisschen um. Dann aber sah ich etwas, was meine Lebensgeister sofort zurückrief, da waren hunderte von Bildern mit lustigen Alltagszenen aus den 30igern und 40igern.
by Marion Ball
As you can see the idea is based on a painting from N. C. Wyeth. It is a very romantic piece and the historical accuracy is, of course, secondary. In the first picture you can see the base I got from Alan and the first thing I did was give it a wash with sepia oil colour. I left the whole thing to dry for a couple of days. After that was set I took some acrylic paints like stone grey and beige and also some white and drybrushed the whole thing very carefully. The next step was to give it a whole wash with glazing colours. That was also a point I was very worried about it because I never did such a big thing before and to get it right was a real challenge.
by Marion Ball
That’s why I had to paint the Indians face and chest first before Alan could finally finish the figures. Here on these pictures you can see that there are three different steps in painting. The arm is undercoated with the base colour then the face got all the highlights followed by the chest which is already finished with the shadows.For the base colour I took Andrea 40 Earth +Vallejo 818 Red Leather. When I started to paint the first highlight I took a bit V860 Medium Flesh and added it to the base colour.
by Alan Ball
He sent very detailed drawings of the figure he wanted, and supplied close up photographs of the Maximilian style armor, as well as many illustrations of both the man himself and armor in General. In fact all that you could ask for in the way of reference, hardly surprising, as Rüdiger works as a conservator of Medieval pictures and artifacts, as well as being involved in re-enacting the period.
The first time I saw his illustrations of Max it was a little daunting, but I thought that by breaking it down to manageable steps I could eventually give him the figure he wanted.
by Alan Ball
...but it simplifies things and makes more sense (as I can keep track of where I am up to) if I describe each part of the project as a separate process, which is why this section is purely covering Max himself. In essence, I had to have the saddle finished as a bare minimum before I could get too far on with Max himself (for obvious reasons as he was to be mounted) and only got as far as doing the face, roughing out the helmet and upper body….the whole thing would have fallen down if I couldn’t get something of a likeness of Max, and it wouldn’t have been worth continuing.
von Marion Ball
Und da wir immer schon in Woodland Indianer interessiert waren, und die Bilder von Robert Griffing bewunderten, war dass natürlich eine tolle Gelegenheit, endlich etwas in diese Richtung zu machen. Glücklicherweise war die amerikanische Firma "Michael Roberts“ auch daran interessiert und wollte die Indianer produzieren. Daher geschah es, dass Alan Ball, mein Ehemann übrigens die Indianer nochmals modellierte für die Firma und nun jedermann Gelegenheit bekommt, der ein Fan von Woodland Indianer ist, sie selbst zu bemalen. In diesem Artikel versuche ich, hoffentlich einigermaßen gut erklären zu können, wie ich das Ganze bemalte...
by Alan Ball
...became chairman of the committee of safety of Tryon County, and in 1776 was made a brigadier-general in the New York militia.
He was one of the most prominent and widely respected of the German citizens of the province and had become schooled in the methods of Indian fighting in the French& Indian wars (Herkimer had been a lieutenant of militia at the age of thirty, in command at “Fort Herkimer” when the French and Indians attacked German Flats in 1758.).
He reads as a man of energetic character very interesting and fiery, which his, at times, still pretty unsettled acquaintance with the English language cannot hide, as exemplified by the following curious order:
by Alan Ball
This article is based on my part of the seminar Marion and I did on Sunday morning at Chicago in 2004, since doing the seminar, we have had people asking for the pictures and something that they can read. The pictures are available on the Chicago website, but there is no explanation to go with them, so hopefully this will go some way to rectifying that.
People seem to be always telling me that they are happy to convert figures, or even scratch build them, but are never happy doing faces. Now, like everything else, there are different ways of approaching the making of a face, and none of them are better than any other. It’s the result that matters…does it look like a face!
von Marion Ball
Sie hatte sich entschieden, dass das Ihr Geburtstagsgeschenk werden könnte, sofern Alan damit einverstanden war, ihn zu modellieren. Es war wriklich eine grosse Herausforderung für ihn, eine Portätfigur zu machen und dann noch den Henry. Wie man ja nun sehen kann, hat er die Figur modelliert und es blieb nicht bei einem Einzelstück. Nachdem Anenette meinte, es wäre schade den Henry anderen vorzuenthalten, gab Sie uns das Einverständnis, ihn als Kit anzufertigen. Alan hat dann nebenbei ein zweites Mastermodell vom Original angefertigt, für den Fall das sich kein Hersteller gefunden hätte, um hery zu produzieren. Auf dies Weise bekam ich ein zweites Master zum beamlen. Annette hat sich übrigens schon Ihr Weihnacdhtsgeschenk ausgesucht, Elisabeth I. Lassen wir und überrraschen, was da rauskommt...
von Marion Ball
Anhand von verschiedenen Beispielen möchte ich Euch zeigen, wie ich das mache und möchte versuchen mit verständlichen Worten Euch das darzustellen. Mittlerweile gibt es ja eine Menge Literatur auf diesem Sektor und jede preist ihre Technik an. Nun, ich bin der Meinung, wenn man mal die Grundprinzipien kennt, und weiss damit umzugehen, sollte man sich lösen von den vorgeschriebenen Anleitungen, und sich einen eigenen Weg und Stil suchen.
Natürlich nicht gerade nach der Ersten Figur, es braucht schon ein wenig Zeit und Übung, bis man soweit ist und seinen eigenen Weg gehen kann. Wir haben das schreiben und lesen ja auch nicht beim ersten Mal gekonnt. Geduld heisst das magische Wort und richtiges Malzeug, sonst nützt auch die ausdauerndste Geduld nichts mehr. Da sind wir also bereits beim ersten Punkt angelangt.
von Marion Ball
Ich benutze schon seit Jahren die Rote Serie von der Firma Andrea, Windsor und Newton Serie 7. Meine bevorzugten Grössen sind No.0, No.1 & No.2, damit kann ich problemlos Figuren von 54mm bis 120mm malen, kleinere Nummern verwende ich nur sehr selten, da die Pinsel mit der Zeit sowieso ihre Haare verlieren und so automatisch dünner werden.
Zu den Pinseln gehören natürlich auch die entsprechenden Farben, wobei es auch hier wieder kleine Unterschiede gibt. Ich persönlich verwende Andrea, Vallejo und Maimeri Polycolor Farben, wobei ich hier sagen muss dass die Andrea und Maimeri Farben wirklich absolut matt werden. Was manchmal nicht so geeignet ist, wenn man zum Beispiel Hautpartien malen muss.
von Marion Ball
Red I Basis: Red A12+Black A26+Hull red(Dunkelbraun) V985
Highlight: Basis+ V 948Golden Yellow+V910Orange red +V947Red
Shadow: Basis+V859 Black Red+ V960Violet
Red II Basis: V947 Red+V859Black Red+ V910 Orange+V851Bright Orange
Highlight: Basis +V 955Flat Flesh
Shadow: V859+V960 violet
Red III Basis: Red A12+Orange A32+ Flesh A9 +Black A26 (less)
Highlight: Basis+ A9
Shadow:Basis+A12+A26
by Alan Ball
Looking at the copy of the painting he sent, I liked the relaxed yet self-assured pose and decided that I would like to do it.
I don’t know much about the picture but decided that the figure was a pretty good representation of the romantic style of eastern warrior and decided that I would go with that (I don’t see anything wrong in having a little fun now and again -anyway, I don’t see much that is totally outrageous in the picture).
I decided to do the piece in 75mm this is one of my favorite sizes for figures, you can get the detail you want and it doesn’t take up much more space than a 54mm.
by Alan Ball
Two wars fought by the British and the Boers for the mastery of S Africa. The British had made several attempts to re-incorporate the Boers, who had left the Cape Colony in the Great Trek, within a South African confederation. The first Boer War (1880-1) ended with the defeat of the British at Majuba Hill, and the signing of the Pretoria and London Conventions of 1881 and 1884. In 1896 the Jameson Raid was a clumsy private effort to achieve the same objective.
The second Boer War (1899-1902) can be divided into three phases: (1) (Oct 1899-Jan 1900) a series of Boer successes, including the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking, as well as victories at Stormberg, Modder River, Magersfontein, Colenso, and Moderspruit; (2) (Feb-Aug 1900) counter-offensives by Lord Roberts, including the raising of the sieges, the victory at Paardeberg, and the capture of Pretoria; (3) (Sep 1900-May 1902) a period of guerrilla warfare when Kitchener attempted to prevent Boer commandos raiding isolated British units and lines of communication.
by Alan Ball
I'm not sure which bits are who's now, but the whole thing is from a discussion that was on www.timelinesforum.com and I have included some of the input from the discussion that followed as they added greatly to the value of the original thoughts.
I'm sure that it's interesting to those who either think about starting their own company or sculpting for production, so I hope those that I have quoted will forgive me. Okay, since I have recently been getting a few e-mails asking about commercial sculpting and how to go about it, I thought that I would jot down a few of my thoughts on the matter and this is purely my viewpoint, others will have other thoughts on the matter. Manufacturers will certainly have horror stories to tell about sculptors that they have worked with...
by Alan Ball
Of course, this is only a personal viewpoint, and in some cases you have to use precise measurements (equipment, weapons, etc.), but speaking in general terms, I am actually personally not much in favour of using dividers to check the dimensions of a figure. They can give a false idea of how a finished figure should, or will look, unless you know exactly where and at which points to measure from and to. They may be okay for scaling a mannequin, but once you get to figure, wearing clothes, it can get tricky. Where exactly is the point of the shoulder, the point where the leg joins the pelvis, what sort of clothing is the figure wearing, how does it drape, fold, and what effect is that having on disguising the important points etc, etc ... Besides, as said before, who in real life measures up to the anatomical ideal?