G'day Phil and Franco,

Great that you two blokes should be on the planet together. I've been dying to tell you guys what a breakthrough I've made in my painting since switching from oils to acrylics, using a mix of oil washes and pastels.
For some time I felt I was putting too much paint on the surface of my figures and creating layers of paint, rather than a deeper wash of colour built up over multiple applications. It left lumps of paint on the surface that affected the blending and created raggedy edges when I wanted them straight.
Franco, you showed me how to do it, and for that I'll forever be grateful. That weekend workshop you ran last year was a revelation. I'd been slowly building up my collection of acrylics at the time and after your workshop I spent $50 on paint at Stanbridges and $100 on brushes at Jacksons. I also decided to buy a beautiful figure, one that looked "classic" so I chose the 90mm Andrea French Imperial Grenadier Guard.
Phil, me ol' cobber, you ignited my passion for figure modelling all those years ago in Melbourne when little Aubie was chewing the heads off your figures and Chris was a spotty little bruiser. I regret I didn't learn how to scuplt from you, but you were the first person to teach me how to paint, and I couldn't have had a better tutor. Now I find myself each month sitting around the tables at HFMS in Perth with both Franco and Chris, and I feel like I'm with good mates and really great figure modellers.

Phil, I'd love to show you some photos of the Grenadier I'm working on at the moment. It's a "classic" figure, so my first goal was just to get close to the example photo on the box art. Then I checked the photos on the Andrea website and downloaded a lot of reference material from various Napoloenic websites.

Franco tells me he spends up to 100 hours painting a 54mm figures, which I always thought was extremely slow. In the past I've knocked out a 35mm figure or a 120mm figure in less than 20 hours. My impatience to get on with the job of finishing the model, meant that I didn't take the extra time to feather light washes of colour onto the figure and allow the paint itself to build up in a natural way.
What I've found is that by keeping the paint thin, and not creating complex paint mixtures, within a simple colour palette (hence the choice of a grenadier guard white, red & blue!) allows me to slowly work the paint up to the edges a bit like the waves rising up the beach as the tide comes in.
By employing Franco's Five colour shades (deep shaow, light shadow, base coat, light highlight and highest highlight) and working very carefully with the Winsdor & Newton Series 7 000 brush, I'm starting to see the results I've always wanted to see.

I would say that each square millimetre of the surface of this figure will have had over 300 brush strokes over it by the time its finished. Last night I spent two hours just painting four little brass grenades on the flap of his ammunition pouch. I'm going mad, but in a good way. I can't wait to get home from work and hit the hobby room.

It's still a work in progress, but I'll take it to WASMEx this weekend and hopefully someone can take a couple of pics for you to see. I'm really excited by what I'm seeing happen at the end of my paint brush. It's like everything has just clicked into place for me; a new painting system.... THE WAY.
With a bit more practice, I'm confident of taking "the next step" and taking a few models on the road. First stop Model Expo in Melbourne for the Australian Open, then I'm hoping to take the family to the UK next year and if I can time it right there's Euro Militaire,....and then there's the World Expo in Spain....?? MMM. Now I'm day dreaming!!

Anyway guys, I just wanted to let you both know that you have inspired me to find new joy and satisfaction in something I've loved doing since 1975 and to thank you both for teaching me new ways to improve my enjoyment of our great hobby. Phil, you know that Chris has a brother here in Perth, he's always welcomed in my house. Hope to get my hands on another one of your Kokoda figures one day!!

Franco, I hope you manage to get away from work to see WASMEx. I've decided to enter Aragorn and the big Digger figures into the comp, and I'm dusting of a few old figures for the club display cabinet. I hope you can bring a few of your better pieces along.

Thanks guys, see you later.
Cheers Tony

Welcome Aussie !!!
Like most of us we 'lost' some years doing the regular modelstuff. It's a very good basis.
I'm waiting too until I'm a hundred !

G'day Franco,

I did say it would be this year didn't I guess I'm running out of time.
I have been waiting for some cheap airfares from virgin or jetstar but they don't offer them to the west, I'll look into it some more, would be great to catch up and make a weekend of it.

Hey Tony, if you plan on coming to Melbourne expo next year drop me a line.

Leigh

Hi Leigh

If I do make it to Expo in Melbourne next year I'll definitely look forward to catching up with you.
I've noticed that the number of figures being entered in Expo seems to be dropping, although the quality seems to be improving. What are your thoughts on this? I lived in Melbourne for many years and attended Expo every year for at least a decade, and the figures section was always popular, even if the quality was highly variable.
Tony

Light Horse figure

G'day Tony,
No I never got a hold of the Lighthorse Charging figure done by Steve Lennon. He doesn't even have any. And trust me I have tried. As you said, it is the best L/H figure done in that scale or at least close to 120mm. There is another by Fusiliers of a Digger on foot going over the top. Not bad but now starting to get outdated. You could also try the Micheal Roberts 70mm Gallipoli figure as a base to convert and correct.
Now that I have seen what you and Alan can do with the larger scale, I tempted to have a go myself.

Cheers Jason

G'Day Tony
Jason took a few photo's here at home today of the Naked Army figs i've painted as well as several conversions that are either in progress or complete i'll get him to put some up here for you.
Mate they are large but i really get a lot of pleasure with the finished product.
Cheers
Alan

Alan,
I've just seen the pics on Jason's thread and they are great. Having painted 2 Naked Army figures I know how much work goes into doing a 310mm figure. My RAR digger took at least 6 months and I got bored with it after a while. I only finished it to get on with some of my other projects, and the second figure is still a WIP. Do you use acrylics or oils, or a combo of both?

Have you tried airbrushing??

I look forward to seeing more of your work Alan.

Jason, the quest for the "charging Lighthorseman" consumed me for quite some time, but I eventually gave up. I wish Steve L. would knock off a few castings! I did a conversion of Phil Walden's Lighthorseman, with the Verlinden British Eight Army figure head and mounted him on a Dragon 120mm horse from the Florian Gyer kit. The lower torso was scratchbuilt and most of the horse tack and kit was made from spare parts and putty. If I can find a photo of it I'll post to you.

Cheers guys

G'day Tony,
I think figures have been under represented at Modelexpo for quite a few years. It's lucky the interstate modellers attend because I don't believe there are a lot of figure guys in Victoria.
There were certainly some nice pieces in attendance last year but I didn't get to the show this year.

Leigh

WASMEx half-time report

Leigh

The Western Australian Scale Model Expo (WASMEx) is on in Perth this weekend (at the South Perth Civic Centre for any locals who want to come!) and the figure category was swollen with entries. This year we had not only an increase in overall enteries, but the standard was very high.

We were very pleased and impressive to see Ben Flood turn up and announce his arrival in WA with 5 beautifully painted figures. Ben is a well known and respected figure modeller from Queensland and we are very excited to have him in our ranks. He's certainly shown he is a quality painter and a top bloke too.

We've also been blessed (and cursed) by the presence of the boys from Empire Hobbies, who have brought their entire range of Seil figures and accessories with them. MMMMM......figures....

Considering WA is the same size as mainland USA and has a population of just over 2 million people, I think we have a very deep pool of figure modelling talent here, and i hope to show you the evidence soon.

I hope to have a few photos of the figures from WASMEx tomorrow, and will post to the planet ASAP.
Cheers
Tony