The Imperfect Modeller

Welcome to this week’s Musings.

A list, a list, my kingdom for a list!

I looked at my work space over the weekend and decided it looked a mess. More than that, because I had figures and bits and pieces all over the place I realised I’d lost control over what I was working on and what I was planning to do.

Now I can’t begin to tell you how out of character this is for me. I am by nature neat and tidy, a methodical worker and above all a lists person. I have a list of my lists!  As a list person I have only two things to remember in life. Firstly to write whatever needs to be done on the list. Secondly, to remember where I put the list.  The latter is becoming trickier with age.

I have no idea where things went wrong but the situation is way out of my comfort zone. A tidy up is drastically needed and a list, especially a list!

Monthly Painting Challenges

Azazel kindly provided me with details of the challenges lined up for April, May, June and July and I have been mulling the matter over since then.  I will probably give June a miss, being a non wargammer I don’t have squads to start let alone complete.  A neglected model (May) and a centre piece or something cool (July) both sound good although if my attempts at being a cool teenager all those years ago is anything to go by then my idea of a cool figure should be interesting.  In any event I’m up for May and July.

April is a choice between build or convert/kitbash something that you have wanted to do for ages.  Whilst I’ve been known to undertake the occasional amputation conversions are not generally my thing (something to consider more for the future perhaps?).  “Kitbashing” I assume is constructing a new figure from the parts of at least two other different kits to make hybrid figure. As I don’t have the kit figures for this then for now I will have ro rule that option out too.  This leaves me aiming to complete a model, possibly a vignette, that I have wanted to do for some time.  But what to do?

On more than one occasion over the years I’ve contemplated doing something within the Si-Fi/Fantasy genre, purely for something different but have never been able to get my head around how to satisfy my vignette/diorama needs.  This all changed following a recent post by Wyrd Stones & Tackle Zones entitled “Tinkering with Elves”.  A dodgy title it must be said and I did point out that in was something I felt sure you could get arrested for.  Nevertheless the post led me to doing a bit of elf searching which in turn threw up some images of “wood elves”.  In particular “Athrand Nightblade” a Wood Elf Sergeant made by Reaper Miniatures caught my eye.  Wood Elf, woodland setting?  Works for me.  The start of a new genre?  Perhaps but one step at a time, we’ll see how the April challenge goes first.

Something deep and meaningful?

It occurred to me that I know very little about the people I follow or who follow me other than where in the world they are.  I believe IRO made a brief mention on this matter a while ago too. The occasional snippet might present itself but generally “I know nothing” as Manuel would say in Fawlty Towers.

I do not know if you are black or white, tall or short or fat or thin.  I don’t know your religion, if you have been in prison or your sexual orientation. You could be young or old, a working professional or unemployed.

I do know that we all have a shared interest and that we all get on because of it. Bias and prejudice it would seem has no place in our blogging.

If only the rest of the world could be like that!

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Until next time.

TIM

Welcome to this weeks Musings.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear TIM, Happy Birthday to you!

This month, the 22nd to be precise, sees the first anniversary of The Imperfect Modeller blog.  It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by and even harder to comprehend that I’ve managed to keep the thing ticking over and gain some followers along the way.

I’ve no desire to get all slushy and sentimental but I must at this point single out IRO, not that the rest of you that follow me aren’t inportant (more on that in the second musing in just a moment) because you are but he was my first follower and although he had no way of knowing he started doing so at a time when I was thinking of calling it a day.  I wont embarase him further as I suspect he is a stereotypical Australian, which is to say he can crush cans of Fosters with his eye lids, surfs on the backs of Great Whites and particpates in weekly bar brawls (notice how I didnt mention modelling for fear it might not be macho enough!).

So, to IRO and indeed to the rest of you thank you for your interest, your “likes” and your “comments”, they all help to inspire and motivate me to being a better but “not perfect modeller”.

This Time Next Year I Wont Be a Millionaire!

In the lead up to Christmas I received a newsletter email from Wayland Games, Europes biggest game store,  which carried an advert asking if anyone wanted to blog for them to get in touch.  After some initial thought, and spurred on by my plans to retire later this year, I thought I would express an interest.

Now I’m not under any illusions.  I’m not the greatest modeller or blogger, I simply enjoy both, so it came as somewhat of a surprise that after a brief exchange of emails and content I was told they would like me to blog for them and also for Warcradle Studio!

Remuneration was never discussed but I feel certain it would have come with a six figure salary, an endless supply of modelling freebies and invitations to countless corporate jollies in exotic locations.  So where did it go wrong?  Well, perhaps not unreasonably Wayland Games wanted exclusive content which essentially would have left me with next to nothing to put on my own blog.  The question therefore was do I give up my blog and my small but hugely important number of followers for the fame and riches of blogging for them?

When it came to the crunch I decided I couln’t turn my back on my followers, that’s you lot by the way.  My blog is my baby.  As Golum would say it’s “my precious” and I value sincerly each one of you that follow TIM.  I’m also, and my brother can vouch for this, an idiot!

Photographic Light Boxes

Until recently I was completely unaware of photographic light boxes.  I think it was a throw away remark in one of Azazel’s posts that brought the matter to my attention.  Curious to know what he was refering to I Googled the subject to learn some more.  Most illuminating.  Sorry that’s a dreadful pun.

It turns out they are relatively inexpensive and potentially could improve the quality of the photographs I’ve been posting.  I have a decent SLR camera but consistent quality is to say the least hit and miss.  Will it improve with a light box?  Maybe.  In any event I have ordered one from Amazon and it is due to arrive later this week.  For better or worse I’ll let you know how I get on with it, well for better I will.  If the photo’s are still crap I’ll keep quiet.

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Until next time.

TIM

 

 

 

 

Those of you who were kind enough to read and even comment upon my last Musings may recall that I said I would consult with my brother, Alan.  IRO had suggested a “Western” themed model challenge based around “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and this led to me mulling over who, in Hollywood acting terms, would be the nominees.

Now my brother is a world leading authority on all things “Old West”, so much so that Google refer to him before responding to user enquiries on the subject.  I should also point out that he, possibly like a good many of us, has OCD, to such an extent that we refer to it as CDO – you gotta have those letters in order!

Before handing over to my brother I think I ought to take a leaf out of the BBC’s book.  When they introduce the sports news they invariably say something along the lines of “for those of you who do not want to know the score look away now”.  This article is very much about Western Movies so log off now if it’s not your cup of tea and simply try to contain you excitement between now and my next more modelling related post.  That doesn’t excuse you IRO for whom his 5th film choice, set in Australia, may surprise you!

Over to my brother …

TIM

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Having pondered the question posed by TIM, or my brother as I call him, as to who really were the goodest, baddest and ugliest actors, from within the western movie genre, I came up with a shortlist of about fifty. However, I doubted that my list would match anyone else’s by a country and western mile, so I decided to take another look at this and try to do better.

A good western usually has a hero, a villain, a smattering of love and if you’re really lucky some degree of authenticity. For example: Nobody wants to see Gary Cooper’s portrayal of an 1880’s Sheriff using a Luger from the 1940’s, falling in love with someone that looks like your grandmother, or having to defend the townsfolk from a baddie, who is only 6 feet 3 inches tall when sat on his horse.

You catch my drift I’m sure.

So, with that broad generalisation in mind, what western movies have some, if not all of those elements, which ones to choose and where to start? Shane was mentioned by TIM and I can’t fault that movie for the first of my Top 5 choices, which are in no particular order, other than release date.

Shane, made in 1953, was one of the first grown up westerns, based on a grown up book by Jack Schaefer. Alan Ladd plays the hero, Jack Palance the baddie, Jean Arthur is the love interest and Van Heflin, although not the ugliest of actors, definitely clipped a couple of branches when he fell from the ugly tree. The Ryker brothers are no oil paintings either, being played Emile Meyer and old time character actor John Dierkes. The movie was directed by George Stevens and the scene where Shane (Alan Ladd) shows the young Brandon De Wilde how to shoot, includes one of the fastest ‘real-time’ draws by any actor in movie history.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, made in 1962, has two hero’s for the price of one in this classic John Ford western. John Wayne and James Stewart play the hero’s, Lee Marvin is the baddest of baddies, Vera Miles is the love interest and as you would expect from a John Ford movie, there are more character actors than you can shake a stick at. John Carradine, Andy Devine, Strother Martin and Edmund O’Brien, are just four of them and although none are truly ugly, they’re close enough. The excellent Denver Pyle and Woody Strode also appear.

Ride The High Country, made in 1962, has another two hero’s for the price of one in this early Sam Peckinpah western. Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea play the hero’s and Mariette Hartley is the love interest. The Hammond brothers, acted by John Anderson, John Davis Chandler, James Drury, L.Q. Jones and Warren Oates play the baddies and uglies between them. This vastly underrated and rarely seen movie is a real gem and well worth checking out.

Once Upon A Time In The West, made in 1968, is a sprawling epic of a western by Sergio Leone. Charles Bronson plays the hero, Henry Fonda the baddie, Claudia Cardinale is the love interest and Jason Robards rides the rail between goodie and baddie. The uglies, for want of better candidates, are played by Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock, but as these guys don’t speak and are all killed off within the first fifteen minutes, I’m not sure they count. Nevertheless, with a run time of nearly three hours, this film is now generally acknowledged as a masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made. So who am I to argue with that?

Quigley Down Under, made in 1990, is my last choice and is certainly not your average western, being set and filmed in Australia. However, this is a terrific movie which echoes back to Hollywood westerns from the 1940’s and 1950’s. Great music, a good storyline and strong cast. Tom Selleck plays the hero, Alan Rickman makes a nasty baddie, even for an Englishman and Laura San Giacomo is the love interest. There are no uglies, the whole cast being as good looking as the epic locations. The film was directed by Simon Wincer.

Finally to sum up. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Good: Charles Bronson, Alan Ladd, Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Tom Selleck, James Stewart and John Wayne.

Bad: Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, Jason Robards and Alan Rickman.

Ugly: This was a difficult category to fill, especially with names that anyone would remember and therefore it has been left intentionally blank. Hollywood rarely employ ugly people and there are three good reasons for this:

1: They are not good box office.
2: Roles would be few and far between.
3: No one wants an ugly person crying in their office.

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Have you ever had one of those weeks when everything you do and everything you touch turns to gold?  No, neither have I.  In fact this week has been the complete opposite of a Midas week and I’ll leave you to determine just what everything I have touched has turned into.

Welcome to this week’s Musings.

This Weeks Objectives

I thought I would start by focussing on my aims for this week, chiefly for my benefit so I don’t get side tracked. Normally the order I work in doesn’t particularly matter, mainly because end dates, if any, are self-imposed and therefore entirely flexible. However, the WW1 project that I keep banging on about is the first time I’ve ever made a modelling commitment to anyone but myself and I’m determined to stay focused. My primary aim therefore is to fulfil my promise of last week which is to complete another unfinished WW1 model by the end of this week which will bring the end of the project in sight.

Having achieved last week’s aims I thought I deserved to reward myself, it’s only right and proper to have an incentive. To this end I have ordered various figures and also begun a little WW2 diorama for which I purchased the figures before Christmas.  As this model will possibly be a post for the coming weekend I’ll not bore you with more details at this stage.

Female Figures (and civilian figures too)

Those who follow Azazel, and I’m guessing most of us do, will have seen his recent post questioning the lack of female figures.  To be honest this is something I had just accepted without question in much the same way that I simply accepted the shortage of civilian figures too.  My logic, particularly given the historic periods that appeal to me, was that women and passers-by simply do not feature in war and therefore war games and figures.  Bollocks really but that’s as much thought as I had ever given the matter until now.

In mulling over the matter I was reminded of two incidents which took place on a visit I made to Euromilitaire, Folkestone with my brother Alan many years ago.  The first occurred when looking at a table containing Phoenix Follies figures.  I don’t know if they are still in existence but Andrea do something similar.  Basically they are figures of scantily clad females in titillating poses aimed presumably at perverts.

Why perverts?  well the guy standing next to me, not my brother, said “they’re nice aren’t they?”.  “Yes” said I not wishing to be rude.  “when I paint them I always do the underwear before I paint their clothes over the top” he went on to say.  “Uh! What the f…” said I and quickly moved on.  The point of this tale is that as best I can remember these were the only female figures I saw at this huge event.  Whilst things may not be great now some progress has been made since those dark days, or at least I would like to think so.

My other memory was of the trade stand for Hornet figures.  Hornet had not long before brought out a Wild West range of figures which at the time stood at 12 figures.  Talking to the guy he told me that another 6 were due to be released but the remaining 6 of the 24 series would mostly likely never see the light of day (and they haven’t).  Naturally I asked him why and was told that for every Wild West figure he sold he could sell 40 WW2 figures.  Quiet simply it was all about supply and demand which leads me to think the same could be true for female (and civilian) figures too.  Of course there is a chicken and egg situation here as well.  If there are no figures then you can’t buy them!

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Those that follow IRO will presumably have seen his post last week of a western themed project/challenge under the heading The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. 

Now the old west is not everyone’s cup of tea, and of course the challenge doesn’t have to be met in the traditional style, but given my interest in this period I cannot say no. I suspect I will go traditional if I can find the figures I want out there, hopefully I can.

The obvious thing is to go down the route of the film of that title featuring of course Clint Eastwood, and this I may well do, but then I got to thinking who in silver screen Hollywood terms was the “Goodest” cowboy, the “baddest” and the “Ugliest”?

My brother is the font of all knowledge on these things so I will discuss the matter further with him. If nothing else I’ll be interested to see if he can come up with anyone “gooder” than Alan Ladd in Shane – but is there a figure out there?

Goodbye Old Friend

Sadly this week I had to say goodbye to an old friend, my Renaissance Pro Arte No: 1 Sable paint brush.  Despite the fact that I buy the same brushes in the same various sizes and from the same supplier some seem to work better than others. This brush had become a firm favourite and seemed to apply paint where I needed it without fuss or protest, a true friend indeed.  Sadly nothing lasts forever so now the task of breaking in a new brush begins. Like a new puppy it wants to please but simply doesn’t understand.

—000—

Until next time!

TIM