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Diary X: April 2018 v. Peter

Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 05:20

This one was supposed to be in May, but my original April opponent had some work issues and a damaged figure, so poor Peter was asked to rush his May entry and do it in April instead.

I had been wanting to duel using some newly released figures, but I got very few takers. So I was thrilled when my mystery opponent agreed to duel with the British Infantry officer from Strelets 2017 release.

There were dozens of uniform choices available, but I liked the look of the First Foot. It was cool to check out some of the top 56mm and 1/6 scale examples.

Oh, and be sure to check out the duel that is currently running:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=23826
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 06:47

Here is the link to my duel against Peter back in April of 2018:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=21608
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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23 Dec 2010, 07:57

Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 06:53

Here is a closer up, non Photo-bucketed version of the front of my figure.

Image
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 07:00

These are some of the images I looked at, and the final version I was trying to achieve:

Image

Image
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 07:15

This was a very cool figure to paint. He has a lot of elaborate cuff-work and his jacket collar has a lot of complicated pieces to add interest. I also really enjoyed contrasting the brighter red of the coat with the darker, more brownish red of the sash.

I tried to give him the leather cuffs on the bottom of the trousers as pictured. I figured this guy had to slog through a lot of mud and tough terrain so he had better have some reinforcement or the bottoms of his pant legs would soon be in tatters.

For the face, I tried to use the technique of Roland Kupski, with a base of light flesh tones then going over that with very thinned down slightly greenish paint for the five o'clock shadow areas, very thinned down brownish red for the cheeks, and very thinned down English Uniform plus some brown for the shadowing on the forehead and underneath the eyebrows.

I have to be honest, I was not very happy with the final product. The figure was okay, but I found it very difficult to get a good picture of him. The detail looked better from pretty far away, and it gets a bit too muddled as you get a closer and closer look.

Then the voting took place, and it was my most lopsided win as Mr. X in two years. It just goes to show, you lose some of the duels with your very best work, and you can win some even when the figure did not turn out to be a favorite.
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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Posted by sberry on 05 Aug 2020, 08:11

I think you did a very nice job on this figure, especially on those fine details of the uniform that are always a real challenge,
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sberry  Germany
 
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 05 Aug 2020, 15:39

sberry wrote:I think you did a very nice job on this figure, especially on those fine details of the uniform that are always a real challenge,


Thanks very much sberry. When a compliment arrives from a master such as yourself, it means even more.

Sometimes when I paint a figure, the colors end up being just as intended, the detail work goes well, the face takes the paint in the planned stages, but I just do not care for the way it looks. And with the time pressure of a duel, there is no way to start over from the beginning!
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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