December Duel

[Michael Robert]

Dear forumers, dear voters, dear fellow tiny men collectors,

to make an end to this long wait - Mr X 2021, that was me.
The eternal looser

Now I have a lot of things to do:
First I want to congratulate Remco for his great win. Happy to have made him happy (but I lost !%!).
I also want to thank him for organizing the duels - continuous work with quite some responsability.
THANK YOU REMCO FOR MAKING ALL THIS POSSIBLE

Then I want to thank all voters who made the duels real, and my worthy and mostly victorious opponents.
Even with so many losses it's quite a show.

Well, so that's it for me. What can I say? Actually a lot since I had to remain silent for one year.
I took the opportunity to be Mr X because due to lock-down my professional activity was reduced. Usually, I would never have had the time. I paint hundreds if not thousands of figures but always "war-game style" - quite quickly and not anywhere near many of the high talent painters on the forum. I have my fun though - it is my anti-stress treatment - works quite well.
The other handicap I have is that I've never been a photographer. I found out to my pain that taking good pictures is about half the way to succeed in a duel. In the end I chucked away my old camera and took pictures only with an old smartphone - was better.
Now I have again a job which occupies me fully and painting in competitions will become harder. I'll try to stick at it because I find it fun - even if I usually loose.

What about the actual duels? The other big insight to me was that winning a duel is a lot linked to taste. It is like Miss Universe elections. You can always argue on objective criteria, in the end it is the voters preferences. It was quite interesting when people commented why they had cast their vote in a particular way. Rarely they coincided with mine. Several duels I lost and still I clearly preferred my own figure. There were exceptions to that. In some cases I lost my inspiration during the finish run and I delivered the pictures without personal conviction (happened with the Persian at the beginning and with the Napoleonic lancer in September).
The Persian - I love the figure and had proposed it myself. I wanted to make a flower coat but these turned out pretty messy because of the numerous pleats on the coat. So I decided to redo it just with shading, but didn't get that right and then ran out of time. Jan was my duel opponent and he succeeded the right thing : paint a flower coat but make the pleats come to life with a wonderful light contrat. Just amazing. All what I had dreamt of.
Other interestng topics are "painting of eyes", "get the right base and background", "get the right light conditions for a picture", "choice of colours".
If anybody has any questions - here I am.
I will certainly add some pictures of the entire Mötley Crew.

Cheers to Bennos Forum
Michael

[Peter]

Congrats Michael! You did a fantastic job!

And I hope we get another one next year! Come on guys, this is big fun, and it pulls you out your comfort zone!

[Bluefalchion]

Michael Robert! Mr. X 2021!!! I love it!!!!

My guess of Konrad was partially based on painting style, but also because of a friendly and patient nature and more time on his hands. And those qualities all apply equally to you as well. Thank you so much for your contributions this year.

You were a highly skilled and highly successful Mr. X, even though not all the duels went the way you expected. I completely agree with your perspective on what makes for a winning entry. It can be hard to predict sometimes, but often comes down to color preference and, most especially, quality of the photograph.

I am now going to review all 12 of your Mr. X duels again, with new delight now knowing that these are your works.

From an old Mr. X to the current one, I say "bravo." Now, who is up for 2022?

[Michael Robert]

Thank you Peter and Aron

I felt ver honored by being compared to Konrad. He ´s a legend. The more so since his participation on the forum has become a rarity. Hope he can still paint

Michael

[Rich W]

Congratulations Michael! I respect anyone taking part in these duels, especially someone willing to be Mr X!!! I voted for your entries several times and as I think I commented a couple of times, I was surprised by some of the results going against your ones.

I look forward to seeing a photo of all your entries together.

[MABO]

Bonjour Michael,

I have never thought, that you are Mr.X 21. As a Mr.X in another year long long ago,I know how much fun it is, but also that there might be a timeslot, that is not perfect or a figure with which you can't get in touch. I had no time in the end to finish the musketeer, our second duel.

It was a real challenge to paint the Persian warrior from Linear-a, because of the colourful cloth. But it was cool, that you made me do it. Another interesting thing Peter already mentioned here: You paint figures you did not think about without a duel.

So congratulations to the challenge accepted and to twelve cool figures from different periods and manufacturers.

[raph86]

Hello ,
Thank you for your dedication as Mr X , for my part, I could hardly be, as I'm at home one week a month or so and the rest of the time I'm away from the miniature stock .
I enjoyed both our duels, even the one in June where there was a confusion between myself and Ralph .
I must admit that I rarely voted for you but often because of the photo (I am also a bad photographer ) and sometimes because of the choice of colours.
All this is subjective and specific to each person, in any case congratulations for your brilliant participation in these duels and thank you all for your votes, comments or active participation in the duels .

Finally, a big thank you to Remco for organising these duels .

[Kekso]

Dear forumers, dear voters, dear fellow tiny men collectors,

to make an end to this long wait - Mr X 2021, that was me.
The eternal looser

I almost forgot that we had duel in Jaunary. It was very close and I won by 1 vote although your shield deserved victory. Now I have chance to thank you personally for dueling me in January 2021.
Best regards, stay safe!
D.