Work in Progress

Musketeers WIP

Posted by steve_pickstock on 07 Feb 2021, 19:26

Nothing much from me today - just a few jobs done, not a lot to show, so I though I would post these older and not very good photos from the Ultima Ratio set - Queen Anne of Austria and Louis XIII - as portrayed by Geraldine Chaplin and Jean-Pierre Cassel in the 1974 film.

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I am quite happy with the clothing, but those faces definitely need more work.

As the blizards sweep across Europe, and the pandemic rages - stay safe and stay warm.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Kostis Ornerakis on 07 Feb 2021, 19:43

Beautiful work! :yeah: :-D
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Kostis Ornerakis  Greece

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Posted by Santi Pérez on 11 Feb 2021, 19:45

This royal couple will be a great adittion to your Musketeers collection, steve_pickstock. :thumbup:

Santi.
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Santi Pérez  Spain
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 26 Feb 2021, 13:25

Not much done this week - been working outside in the yard and few other things. So I've only done some small things - started on some Cardinal's Guard figures. I used some of the Ultima Ratio figures, as it means I don't have to carve the cross ornamentation off the Red Box figures. They are coming along.
Also working on the auberge model, trying to make windows using thread and ultra-violet cured resin as the glazing. I've also done some work on the church of St Martin.
One problem has been I have been waiting on the arrival of some styrodur that I ordered two weeks ago, that I just discovered hadn't actually been sent yet! :o

The other thing this week was that a friend was having a clear out of some books and this was on offer.
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Bit of a no brainer really, Dumas' original novel with a cover tieing it in to the 1974 film, with an introduction by Anthony Burgess who wrote A Clockwork Orange, had to be done!.
That has made me happy, and with the weather looking unsuitable this afternoon, I may have a read of that.

Some images that I have gathered curtesy of friends on Facebook, as reference for clothing colours.
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Note that the figure on the extreme left of the image in the red suit with the yellow hose (which signify certain "behaviours" among other things) is a woman. This may be an option for the female figure from Red Box in some way, though not a red suit as she wears a riding habite over her men's clothes.
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These are all contemporary images, and what stands out is the amount of colour in the images.
Black was considered to be a very expensive colour, as it was difficult to get a stable colour that didn't wash out to become something else.
Also note the amount of red that was worn, this might have just been the whim of the artists or it may actually have been something seen on the streets. The other thing to note is how bright a colour it was. This makes painting figures wearing red tabards - such as Cardinal's Guard figures - "interesting".
The interpretation of these soldiers is that they did not wear a uniform as such under their tabards being 'gentlemen' (the Musketeers were the same), they wore their own clothes. So I am trying reflect this in my figures and one of the challenges will be to get a figure in a red suit that doesn't match (or clash) with the red tabard. Pictures when they are ready.

Sorry about the lack of actual figures but I hope you find this useful in some way.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Michael Robert on 26 Feb 2021, 17:50

Hi Steve,
good collection of pictures. True - black was a difficult colour in the past. So for the rich.
In my opinion painters at the time did not so much create imaginative colours. They painted to reproduce the reality they saw. So the colours they show is what they saw. Maybe there is some space of interpretation in the intensities and hues. Also, bleaching and dirt is much more common than today. Colour intensity loss is important. The pigments used were mostly vegetable origin and not so sun-resistant. Clothes were worn a long time.
Interesting
Cheers
Michael
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Michael Robert  France

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Posted by steve_pickstock on 08 Mar 2021, 16:08

Hi all.
Got some time in the attic this week-end and spent some time on the church I have been working on.

There are several churches in the 1974 Musketeers films, but as I am looking at making 'flats' as backgrounds to the action in the streets, I don't want to build the whole thing. So i was looking for something that would do as a generic holy building.

A swift troll through Google brought up this image
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the Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo Apostoli, in Galatina in Southern Italy. It's nice, relatively simple, obviously ecclesiastic and this layout is quite common even in French churches.

My plan was to base my model church on this, not reproduce it exactly. Some of the decoration and ornamentation on the facade, I don't have the skills or the inclination to make, so I will go with something that looks appropriate, but suits my time and abilities.

So I started by copying the picture into Powerpoint and scaling it to a 24mm tall figure - which gave me dimensions for the doors, the windows, the false columns, and their relationship to each other.
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It worked out about 28cm wide by about 14cm tall. The width is good - it would make up one side of a playing space and was not so tall that it would impede the the players reaching over it to move figures.
For this reason i deliberately cut the building off at the top of the frieze.

After a few sessions I had this
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Hard cardboard, solid stuff, using bamboo skewers and coffee stirrers to make the mouldings. It's heavy and solid and to be honest it wasn't working for me.

I was waiting for some styrodur, and after some complaining, it arrived.
So this weekend I re-started the project cuttng two basic shapes, over laying them and then adding false columns, and the start of the frieze at the top.
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Today, after it had set overnight, I started inscribing the brickwork, and sanding the cut surfaces.
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I also noticed that I had cut the right hand door post of the central door too wide by three milimetres, that was trimmed down.
The progress was much quicker. The structure came together quite rapidly and I am much more satisfied with what I have done so far. It will be glued onto a backing piece to make it more durable.
I also really like working with styrodur, even if it is expensive for what it is, I will find a better source than the one I have used.

More on this when I have it, hope you found it useful.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by MABO on 08 Mar 2021, 18:47

I think it is really interesting to see your progress in this topic.
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Posted by Santi Pérez on 08 Mar 2021, 20:56

MABO wrote:I think it is really interesting to see your progress in this topic.

I was thinking the same looking at the so complete research provided and the spectacular advance of the project. Amazing progress, steve_pickstock. :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

Santi.
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Santi Pérez  Spain
 
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Posted by tullo on 08 Mar 2021, 21:39

:yeah: :yeah: :thumbup:
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 10 Mar 2021, 21:35

A quick update - I was complaining about the problems with obtaining styrodur in my last post.
The source I had was expensive for two large sheets 1mm & 3mm, 33cm x 60cm in size and more importantly I put the order in and heard nothing. Not unusual in these parlous times, but two weeks went by and still nothing. It took three days and a bit of prodding to get my order sent.

A bit more aware of what I was looking for I went online for an alternative
https://www.bakerross.co.uk/easy-print-polystyrene-sheets 25x A4 sheets (210mm x 297mm - so quite a lot more slightly less) and what was amazing I ordered these late on Monday night (I mean really, who sleeps these days?). They arrived Wednesday morning. Under 48 hours and that was the cheaper delivery option.

It's basically the same product, only white. Perhaps not as dense, but perfect for what I want.
I don't know how this supplier would work out for non-UK customers but I will be ordering from them again even when the price goes back to normal.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 11 Mar 2021, 11:40

Thanks for sharing Steve! :thumbup:

When you change the language on the right top of this website it goes authomaticly to a shop, in my case language Nederlands, in that country. Surch for foam (2mm). ;-)
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by Egbert on 11 Mar 2021, 14:09

Santi Pérez wrote:I was thinking the same looking at the so complete research provided and the spectacular advance of the project. Amazing progress, steve_pickstock. :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

Santi.

... I can only agree with the others…
and I'm already very happy about the further work steps.
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 11 Mar 2021, 19:38

Peter wrote:Thanks for sharing Steve! :thumbup:

When you change the language on the right top of this website it goes authomaticly to a shop, in my case language Nederlands, in that country. Surch for foam (2mm). ;-)


It looks like there are shops in Germany and other countries as well.

Also my I say thanks for the kind words guys? it is very much appreciated.

With the gales - and sleet and rain - sweeping the country, I spent some more time on the church this afternoon - actually about 1/3 of the time was looking for the tube of tacky glue that I put down and couldn't find again. Tacky glue works best with polystyrene like this as ordinary PVA doesn't 'grab' the same as the tacky stuff, and it tends to go off quicker, speeding up the process considerably. Photos to come tomorrow.
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Posted by Fire at Will on 11 Mar 2021, 21:17

actually about 1/3 of the time was looking for the tube of tacky glue that I put down and couldn't find again.


Sounds too familiar :yeah:
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 12 Mar 2021, 13:59

Good morning from the bright, if somewhat breezy shores of the Mighty Mersey river!

I managed another hour in the attic this morning, but did not take a camera up with me. :eh:

Anyway got a few things done - rounded up all the figures that are progressing - they go off for walks, i'm sure; made some stamps for brickwork and other details. More importantly I made some more progress on the church of St Martin.

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Thi shows some of the impressions I have made to simulate the brickwork which extends up the walls from the floor. I also made the inserts for upper windows with their grates.
These were made by layering plsterer's scrim tape so that the mesh is much finer, then dry brushing it with brass and a little gold. Eventually the window surrounds wi will be decorated to match the original church.
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I looked at the cap over the door on the original and decided 'I couldn't do that in a million years', so instead I opted for this, which I don't think looks too bad. I will do something similar over the other doorways, but slightly simpler.
Still to add around the doors are some more pedestals and pillars 1 each side of the small doorways and 2 each to either side of the main door way.

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This is a close up of the detail of the "decorative stonework" in the top frieze.

The round topped niche will get a statue, and because I can't find any of the California Mission monks in my stash, nor any of the Linear A Roman Senators (I know I have some, just can't lay my hand to them) I am going to use one of the Ultima Ratio Richelieus - the figure on the left.
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I figure it's the church of St Martin (the name of the college I went to in the 70's) and the architect was looking to get on the good side of the Cardinal, so he depicted the saint in martial dress appropriate to the 17thC and he made the statue look like the cardinal.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 12 Mar 2021, 22:53

Nice progress on the church Steve. Looking forward to your next steps as for the statue! :thumbup:
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by MABO on 13 Mar 2021, 06:17

Me too, of course. Nice work on the foam!
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Posted by M.P. on 13 Mar 2021, 16:31

This looks fantastic :).
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 15 Mar 2021, 13:59

There will be a slight delay in the preceedings.
On Friday the cartledges in my right knee failed, and due to the pain I spent yesterday in the local Minor Injuries unit. As a result I am on crutches and cocodomil. It's an old problem but it has never been anywhere this bad. It means I'm just hobbling round at the moment and can't get into the attic to do anywork. My plan is to bring down some tools and materials to finish the church on the dining room table but until then ...
Stay safe and well everyone.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by MABO on 15 Mar 2021, 17:08

Uuh, seems to be very bad. I hope you can recover quickly! All the best from me!
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