I did some dusting in my Wargaming room - itself a rare occasion and had to take down and dust some larger scale figures I once painted and having dusted them I thought I should celebrate the moment by posting them . First up 'The Good Soldier Svjek' (one of my literary heroes) I made this from 'Flymo' (?) putty - the sort you bake in the oven . Think I made it about 40 years ago - my only attempt at sculpting - being a cartoon character helped but I think I captured the character of the man. The writing on the base has faded I'm afraid.
Next up a MASH nurse , must have been from the time MASH hit the TV screen. I was given the sculpt I think ? - I once belonged to a modeling club - the now defunct Westmorland Military Modeling Society* , I think its 70mm tall and I painted it using oil paints - Women/girls are very hard to paint I find - getting the face and complexion right is difficult.
Probably from the same era (30 years ago ?) 'Waiting for the Noon Stage' - I know this cos I wrote it under the base . I think I got it as a Christmas present and again I used oil paint - which was a popular medium back then . A larger figure about 4" tall . I haven't I think painted a large scale figure since then - obviously a stage I was going through.
*PS I tried Googling WMMS and found nothing - pre internet of course .
Wonderful figures Tony with your usual excellent paint jobs! Your sculpt has loads of character and the nurse is quite lovely! The sheriff seems ready for action with whatever comes in on the noon stage!
ReplyDeleteThank you , it was a long time ago and I haven't done anything since.
DeleteImmediately recognized Svek. Would have thought him a commercial figure had you not informed us that you had sculpted him. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased with him , my only attempt at sculpting .
Delete"Fimo" was a popular sculpting material. For an only sculpt that's darn good even if I have no idea of who the character is.
ReplyDeleteI painted and converted 54mm' for display in my teens, before I got hooked on wargaming. Not sure my standards were quite as high. Some of the Sanderson figures I got from the Greenwood & Ball catalog in my later teens when I was in military college, were perhaps a bit inappropriate to display in officer cadet's room.
I think being "cartoon" type helped with the model yes it was Fimo - you've jogged my memory. Looking back I enjoyed using oil paints - but NOT the smell of turps used to clean the brushes !.
DeleteOf those three sculpts I really like Svjek the best, I know it might be easier to do as he's a cartoon but the others are seem charmless when set alongside him. You ought to do a few more.
ReplyDeleteYes the other two metal castings do lack something - might be my painting style !?
DeleteSpooky coincidence? Just bimbling round my local shops this morning and I came across all 4 Svjek books in two hardback volumes for only £5! Unfortunately they were in their native Czech(?) otherwise I would've succumbed just out of curiosity.
ReplyDeleteWorth the buy - if they had been in English ! , not an easy read it was originally written in installments for a newspaper (?) and it rambles a bit - the authour, Hasek was an alchaholic who died young and the book was unfinished.
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