Hey Kids
Tonight I made some adjustments on the charging Cuirassier. While that dried, I set him aside and began piecing together the wounded horse. In this case the horse will have just fallen and the Cuirassier riding will have one leg trapped under the horse while an angry Russian will be poised to finish him. Something (but not exactly) like this:


The horse is a mash up of three different halves. I used one half whole and the front of on half mated to the rear of another. Then I hacked off one of the rear hooves and replaced it with another that wasn't a "standing" hoof... if that makes any sense at all . The closed mouth was cut open, teeth will be added later. The ear wedge was glued on with the ears pointing backwards. The neck was grooved and bent so the head is lifting off the ground.
At this point all the chunks are glued together with various spacers and wedges and set aside to dry overnight... ready for putty tomorrow.


Throughout the operation I had a helper/critic/cheerleader making sure all went smoothly. If he wasn't there... it just might have.


Thanx for checking in... anyone with ideas on the best way to approach the rider's trapped leg, by all means, please chime in.

Cheers

Colin... and Shooter the Kat

Hi Colin,
Looks great, I think you have captured the look and pose of a fallen, distressed horse in battle superbly. Will your Cuirassier be wearing a cape or long top coat? as in the picture.
If he is, don't sculpt the right leg, let the viewer imagine the leg and boot are under the horse and are obscured, then use the cape/coat to mask this at the saddle end, if this makes sense.
Looking forward to the next installment. Shooter's intense gaze is giving a point of view of purrrfect too
cheers
Richie

Interesting Bench with paints all nice and neat ,mine are a pile in a drawer
Are you going to use the fur from the kitty for the horse hair plume on the cuirassier

Looking good so far.

That bench is surely interesting.
The addding of living cotton is great. No hairs into the painted figure.

Marc

How can you work in front of a cat? They ae even worse than wives for looking critical while saying nothing. -)

Colin

Nice work Colin, I like the look of the horse who looks distressed, been following this and I am looking forward to seeing more.
Richies suggestion should work well for the trapped leg, if you do not go down this route dont forget that the actual leg under the horse will only be a very thin section, it will be practically compressed by the weight of the horse and the ground bellow, maybe carve out a channel in the horses belly/side to allow a leg to fit underneath.

Steve

Agreed with all that was said before. the horse really look good, and real. . .
Again, just can say to keep up! Wainting to see all the pieces together ready for painting and in place to see what it gonna look like.

Regards
Pedro

Your progress Colin looks very good and I look forward to seeing how this ptogress's,I have 3 cats and none of them are as well behaved as yours,

Brian

Cool stuff, Colin! Hope to see it in Guelph! I know, it is a lot of work to be done, but the progress is very good!
Looking forward to see the whole composition. I'm sure it will work very well!
Cheers,
Zeno

Thanx all, there was some useful advice there as always. I wasn't sure how to approach the pinned leg. I will try tapering it down as it disappears under the horse.
Cat fur for horsehair.... I LIKE IT! Shooter won't but too bad... he scratches . If he gets anymore comfortable on my bench I think I'll start using him to clean my brushes.
Zeno or Colin, do either of you know the date of the Guelph Show? I know the Hamilton Show is March 3rd (I don't think this will be ready for then) but I can't remember what Brian said at Ajax. Let me know, Please?

Cheers

Colin

Colin great work on the fallen horse , a very convincing pose and looking forward to following.

Cheers Ken

I don't remember if he mentioned a certain date, just that it will be a show in Guelph this year. I just checked the website and is not announced yet (www.thesprue.com). I'll keep an eye on it.
Cheers,
Zeno

Last year was April 14 so I hope it's in the same ballpark this year... the later the better as far as this project is concerned

A great start! I have no suggestions to give you, I already seems perfect as well. The only advice I can give you is to not make a setting with snow ... .. .the battle was fought on 7 September ....
Cheers,
Andrea

Well its a fantastic yet ambitious idea Colin, and as usual I think you have nailed it

Thanx Andrea
This is high praise coming from you
Don't go by the painting... I was just using that for the pose of the horse and rider. From what I read, September 7 1812 was fair weather and the fields were dry. The Cuirassier won't be in the cloak and the Russians will be in their green coats.

Thanx again
Colin