Good afternoon all, I hope you are all well.
Busy week this week, so many things going on in 'real life' as they say in internet land. What that actually means is that I didn't get a lot of time in the attic over the last few days.
I have done work on Middle Earth stuff, but not enough to merit an update, (in fact the way that is going, I am considering reducing those updates to as-and-when). However I did get some more work done on civilians for the Musketeers project.
On top of that, I was given a box not unlike this one by a lady I know.
Her husband was given it with six bottles of wine in. Sadly he kept the wine, but his wife gave the box to me because she knows I "use stuff like this". (Which is true)
The moment I saw it, I thought 'Musketeers'! - as you do. Well, you may not but I do, so anyway. It's roughly a 30 by 30 by 30 cm cube, with space in the lid.
It really clicked into place. The little club I belong to meets in a local community centre. We do have some storage there, but because of the pestilence sweeping the land, we have not been able to access anything there for over a year. Anything I make, any armies, any terrain etc, has to be portable.
So the idea is to make this the carry case to transport the 1625 project. It will also mark the final part of this project and draw a line under it. Trays for storing the figures by faction, the wagons, ladders, civilians, perhaps even re-think the playing surface using the polytyrene sheets, so that I can put them in the case as well.
So, what have I done this week?
I ended up with two of the 'woman with pitcher'
I went back and re-shaped the tabs on the bodices, reducing them in depth and cleaning them up with an emery board. The serving girl, also had a 'stomacher' added to the front of her bodice.
A stomacher is like an armoured plate - or it seems to be from a bloke's point of view. Actually it's a stiffened piece of fabric that goes in the front of the bodice to shape and stylishly emphasise certain parts of the feminine physique and de-emphasise others - pushing the bosom up and confining the stomach.
Then I added a new left arm to replace the one which had held the basket, so that it holds a tray.
I added a mop of hair - she is not wearing a coif or any sort of hat which suggests that she is not that respectable, though her demur, head down posture suggests she is more towards the 'nice' end of the scale than the sort of girl that takes no lip from any of the customers.
After that I took the pitcher off the other girl and added that to the tray along with a couple of beakers.
Her friend obviously lost the jug or pitcher she was carrying and gained a sack and large bundle under her other arm.
The girl with the broom.
Initially I re-shaped the head of the broom, I also added some super glue to the left hand on the broom-stick, so that she is holding it over-hand rather than under-hand.
Then I added tabs to her bodice, and scribed the head of the broo before adding the woman's head.
I added another figure to the group by picking the lady with the child from the sprue and basing her up.
The problem with the original model is that the child is wearing trousers, that come down to his ankles. I could understand if the had given the infant knee breeches like all of the other males, but no, they gave it somthing else all together. But in actual fact under 7 years of age all wore dresses - boys and girls. At 7 the boys were 'breeched' and given their first pair of breeches, otherwise it was a long dress like garment.
In this picture you can see the hanging straps that parents used as reins to keep a grip of their kids.
I have a friend - no seriously, I do. Over the years he has used several
noms de guerre, one of which for reasons unknown to me, was Guido le Fromage. As soon as I started this project I knew that I would have to include a figure to represent M. le Fromage.
The figure I chose to base him on was this one.
I started by trimming off the musket, and the right arm for re-positioning. (the nice thing about these Imex figures in the brown plastic, is that they glue with superglue really well)
I added greenstuff to the breeches to make them more baggy as was the fashion at the time, and added an apron. I need to add some better shaped tabs to the back of the doublet, but I did add some 'wings' at the top of the sleeves. These were a common feature on men's and women's clothing up to the 1640s and some of the Imex figures do have them, though the detail isn't always clear.
I also extended the crown of the hat.
He is standing in front of his stall, which was made with some sheet styrene and a tissue soaked in matt medium. Cheeses will be added later, but I'm trying to find the right way to make them.
Next I finished shaping the crown of the felt hat, added a collar to his shirt, and re-did the tabs on the back of his doublet along with the tie for his apron.
Last of all for this week I started to add cheese to the scene.
Some small white cheeses.
And some larger wheels of cheese made from miliput, I'm waiting for these to set before I ull them apart and sand them. I also started making some loaves as well.
I had hoped to get this further along and start some painting but there's still too much work, hopefully they will have colour on them by next week.
Stay safe all.
Pickers
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