That made me laugh Colin about you waiting for the wife and sculpting in the car,just great ,from what I've seen so far it's going to look great and I can't wait to see the next stage of this project

Undercoated head and better camera. Working on shoulders and shako.

I was watching the interview with Keith Carradine on the Blu Ray of The Duellists. I love the fact that Ridley Scott chose to film in Sarlat, France due to its retention of period architecture and atmosphere. The first day of filming in the Town Hall, the cast looked up at the wall to see a copy of Gros' portrait of local personality Fournier, the inspiration for Harvey Keitel's character. A coincidence and perhaps an omen for a film to be remembered.

Colin

Looking good my friend... Great coiff on this guy. Could be my next haircut

Colin

It wouldn't suit you....not Cossacky enough. My wife says he has Elvis hair....told her the back story of Fournier deliberately insulting ladies so he could duel with their husbands and now she is definitely in the non-fan club. Guess she is not alone.

Colin

Elvis hair! that remark would have been enough for him to kill you a complete and utter one he was

Liberace hair is more like it ,that would get me killed
Seriously this is looking great Colin

Ron

Best pistol shot in the army, dandy, utter bastard and friend of LaSalle and Junot. Need I say more? Thanks Ron.

Colin

Oh yeah...
you haven't seen my new haircut. The long tresses are gone. Now it's very "cossacky".

Colin

Shako complete except for chinscales and plume/holder.

Based on Gros and the Rigo plate on Fournier. I have 2 issues with the Rigo plate - firstly the cockade should be gold, not tri-colour; secondly the peak placement makes no sense given other surviving examples; common sense and looks to be inconsistent with Gros' painting.





Shako is a solid piece of sculpey with the top and bottom recesses sanded and drilled with a dremel. The inner bag with drawstring lining is based on recreations from Empire Costumes, a great site for in-depth research on Napoleonic senior officer uniforms.

http://en.empirecostume.com/

Colin

Question Colin
How do you get the cylindrical shape for the Shako.

Ron

Ron - basically it's a large ball of sculpey, measured against his head, then rolled on a Lino oil painting palette to get the sides right, dremeled down to get the flat top and recessed bottom with various attachments. Lots of hand sanding on the sides too. The dremel is key to the process not taking days. Sculpey firm is hard enough to be durable but soft enough to sand easily and quickly.

Colin

Got the Dremmel got the sculpey ,just looking for the skill

Great movie (The Duellists) and great work Colin.

Cheers,
Pedro.

"The Duelists" - Oh, Boy! my favorite movie! Friend of LaSalle & Junot, eh? What a gang! No wonder they ravaged the whole Europe.
Awesome work, Colin! Looking forward to see this gem!
Cheers, my friend!
Zeno

Hi Colin, great work and such a large scale, it will make a very fine piece when painted, i hope you dont mind me throwing a very small spanner in the works, and this is just my opinion, but i think his ears are a bit small and to low down, normally ears are lined up so that the bottom part is level with the bottom of the nose and the top part about eyebrow height


other wise brilliant stuff

Thanks Paul. His ears are indeed too far down. I disagree on size but that is judgment. I won't be changing them as there is always something I notice at a stage when correcting would be a major pain in the arse. If I kept going back I would never move forward and finish anything. That's also why I don't do commercial work. I try to take note and not repeat the error in my next project. On the positive side I have seen people with ears set lower than the norm. Also it is one of those faults exaggerated in photography. It's harder to see in real life.

Thanks

Colin

Colin, Very nice. Though I can still sculpt relatively small I do like doing larger busts. They're also require a LOT less eye strain. These larger busts also lend themselves well with the amount of detail some of these Napoleonic uniforms had.

Gary - I agree. I can pound in a lot more detail when working in this larger size. Also I think the visual impact if the finished piece is greater, especially to non-miniaturists. I could do a great job on a 54mm and a lot of my friends and family would say nice toy soldier. A large scale bust blows them away when they find hits is original. Just one reason I like large pieces but it's not an insignificant one.

Colin

Shako basically finished. Perhaps some more texture on his plume once cooked.

Colin