Hello everybody...

I hope everybody had a good holiday, New Years and so on

My first project for 2017 is this wonderful 200mm bust from YS Masterpieces. First off, this thing is huge - it's basically the entire top half of a 200mm figure.

Here he is unboxed and unassembled after each piece has been prepped:





Here he is all primed up and ready to go. (Everything except the right arm has been blu-tacked in place; once primed I removed the pieces for painting.) I think this photo also shows just how amazing this sculpt really is. It's incredible.




As with all my figures, I always start with the face, and my approach is always to just base coat the face in a very quick and dirty way, and then start the real work with the eyes. Here are the finished eyes:




A couple of observations on the eyes:

• One very common rule of thumb we all learn when painting eyes is to always paint them looking into the direction that the head/face is turned to. This usually helps the face look more natural, and avoids the cross-eyed or surprised look that faces have when eyes are usually painted dead ahead. Unfortunately, with this particular bust, he is looking dead ahead getting ready to shoot a firearm. By virtue of the sculpt you're forced to paint the eyes looking straight ahead or else it would just look weird. Getting the sizes and alignments right between both eyeballs took a little longer than usual. (The fact that the right eye socket is a little smaller than the left due to a slight squint didn't help either)
• If you are going to paint this bust for yourself, pinning and gluing the right arm in place before painting the face was a very bad idea on my part. Save yourself the hassle and put the arm in place after painting the face. It constantly got in the way when I was trying to paint his right eye.
• While there is the chance that this could be wildly inaccurate from a historical perspective, I went with a pale blue-ish color for the iris. The eye sockets are so deep set and craggy, I thought this color would be much easier to see and would make the entire eye detail easier to pick out.

When I originally received this model, I was so impressed with the quality of the sculpt and casting, and I went ahead and ordered a few more from this series:



Hopefully I'll be able to paint them all by the end of the year!

Regards,
Phil

Great choice of subject, or should I say subjects!

Looking forward to following and seeing it come to life.

Nice work Phil
These castings from Y'S Masterpieces are superb. I am waiting for the Lord Byron to be released. Been waiting years for someone to sculpt him.
Good luck with your year end target, There are some tricky lace works to deal with but I am sure you will meet it.
All the best,

Keith

Hi Phil....thank you for the information on your next project. It looks like a great casting.
Look forward to following your progress....John.

Hi Phil,
Nice start on this one and look forward to more updates.

Hi Phil, great choice of busts!
I'll be following your progress on Papaflessas.

First I've seen of this one; will be following with great interest. Thanks for the heads-up regarding the right arm; I can see how the arm will get in the way when painting the face.

Great start, will watch for updates.

Chris

Looks great. I see you are missing these two in your collection.


Marc

As Marc pointed out, there are 2 others in the series. I have painted both, and they are wonderful! Will follow this thread as I intend [eventually!] to do the whole set! Thanks for the pointer on the right arm!
Ian

Have seen all these lined up ( boxed, unbuilt ) at Red Lancers.
They are gorgeous and they are tempting.
Knowing myself as I do...if I bought one, I would buy all.

Watching this thread with high interest.
Great start. Eyes look good.

Great insight on these busts. Like others above I keep thinking about getting them.
Look forward to see how you get on.
Barrie (Newbee).

Thanks Roger! Actually it's some of your posts that have gotten me interested in this period and subjects I plan on spending some more time exploring and learning about it.

Regards,
Phil

Thanks for the encouraging words Keith. And yes, that Lord Byron piece is amazing. I may just have to pick one up for myself

Regards,
Phil

Thanks John. It is a great casting - very high quality. I hope I can do it justice!
Regards,
Phil

Thanks Bob - much appreciated

Regards,
Phil

Thanks Trex, I'll be posting some more progress in a moment

Regards,
Phil

Thank you sir! After getting the face done, I can say without a doubt, I made my life 1000 times harder with damn arm in place...

Regards,
Phil

Thanks Chris, will be have an update soon!

Regards,
Phil

Haha - apparently so! I'll have to see what I can do about that! Thanks

Regards,
Phil