My first 54mm in a while. I forgot how freakin' small these little buggers are. Good painting practice though. I have always liked this MM figure.....not as pudgy as some of them.

Still blending the face and need to match the eyes better.

Colin

This looks like a great start Colin,I have to agree with your point about pudgy though,I think Bruno Leibovitz is a fantastic sculptor but he does make some of his masterpieces a little on the fat side,great start anyway mate,will follow with interest

Eyes look good to me Colin, maybe I'm not seeing what you see

Thanks gents. This is a fun figure. I have already stripped my first effort above and am starting again as I buggered up his eyes. Lessons learned. Lesson one - settle the eyes BEFORE painting the rest of the face. Lesson two....start dark and work towards light rather than starting mid tone as I do with busts.

I will post the next one too. Anyone want to start a pool on how many times I have go at this?

Colin

Here is my 2nd attempt. A bit better. still more tightening up to do. Hope I don't screw it up

Colin

A bit of work on his bear skin. Fur undercoated dark flesh and then washed with multiple coats of black paint mixed with sepia ink, diluted so as to leave the fur texture exposed. Texture still to be highlighted with lighter paint.

Here is an original document signed by Dorsenne while he was commanding the Army of the North in Spain. Its a leave approval for an officer of the Guard wishing to return to France to deal with family affairs. Dorsenne returned to France himself after this to undergo a trepanning operation (drilling a hole in the skull to expose the brain) to treat the head wound he suffered at Essling in 1809. Brave man in the age before anesthesia. He did not survive the operation.

Cords and raquettes painted and inked.

Very nice start Colin. I still see signature CRF in your fleshtones even at this scale. The bearskin turned out well.

Speaking of scale... compared with your scratch built busts, this must feel like you're painting on the head of a pin!

Following along closely

The Other Colin

Bearskin isn't fully done yet but thx.

Yep I wanted to see if my 57 year old eyes could still see a 54 well enough to not make a hash of it. Touch and go a few times but I think I am still OK for a while yet But you are right, painting small scale stuff is very different than the larger cousins. Not much quicker though. Its good to revisit old ground sometimes.

Colin

I too have been doing this for the last few figures I've done. I think it gets the most crucial bit out of the way first. After all, the face is the focal part of 99% of figures, and within that you have to get the eyes right. Hence, if you've not done anything else any mistakes are far easier to correct.
Before today I've done faces that I've been really happy with - then cocked the eyes up. Annoying at best...

good luck mate, I can see you're enjoying this one

Looking good at this point. Maybe darken the upper eyelid a bit more in the corner of the nose. That will look the eyes not so popedup
Marc

Very beautiful! Bravo!

Andrea

Some are a bit podgy I agree - but makes me feel better about my belly!!

I like the start to the figure - looks great. Thanks too for some reference material about Dorsenne. Interestingly there is evidence that the same treatment was used in Neolithic times! As a man who's twice fractured his skull it must have been agonising as you say.

Nice work Colin.

I never stop being amazed at what you achieve on your models and this fella being much smaller is no different. Also thanks for the info on the man as usual. Great stuff mate.

very nice start

Still working the face but also progressing southwards.

Very good start!
Please elaborate how you did the cords, raquettes, etc.
Will follow very closely!
Cheers,
Zeno