Round 10 - Imperial War Wagon vs. East Africa Rifles Advance

[Prof.Witchheimer]

[Captain Blood]

Great use of perspective and scenery Dolmot. Feels like we're right in the middle of a forest 
Are those 20mm plastic figures? I don't recognise them.

Four of the same figure Mike. I was going to say that must have been a bit of a chore to paint. Then I remembered back to the days before multiple poses in packs of miniatures, and I thought nothing of painting a unit of 24 identical figures   

[bob and his dog]

The figures in the woods might be nice but I  cannot really see them, faces or details.  Bad presentation of what might be good painting.

The  East Africa Rifles Advance were well lighted and so possible to see the good detail.  Even with four figures the same, they are painted differently.  I did not even notice the same poses until the other writer pointed it out.  Good background.  Scene did need a dog. 

What are those Rifles figures, I like them but do not know them.  Thanks

[Scootboy]

I agree that while the woodlands view is aesthetically pleasing, it is hard to see the details of the figures themselves.

Same might be said for MikeDemana's.  For the past few weeks his photography has been more 3/4 view or "from above", making it hard to see his wonderful attention to detail.  In this one the hats are doing their intended job, shading their faces from the "sun" 

Thanks to both of you for your time and effort put in this season!  I look forward to being a "Monday Morning Quarterback" every Sunday 

[khartoum2]

In defence of Dolmot I find getting a good picture of the appropriate size a real difficult task.  My mobile is full of what seems like 100's of snaps with different light and positioning - Some are ok some are really bad

Its something I will have to learn for next year as what I think was one of my best sets of figures was spoilt by a poor picture.

I think both of these are good entries

[Dolmot]

I definitely admit the issues with this scene. I can partially try blaming the good old problem of running out of time, doing far too many things this week and having zero buffer for this last round where I went for all the extras - an unfamiliar theme, a "big thing", and especially one that contains a load of fiddly bits which must be prepared, painted and gradually assembled in a strict order. No harnesses of any kind are provided with this model either so I had to build my own from scratch. It all adds up, which doesn't mix well with work deadlines.

However, that takes me to the other issue unique to this entry, which bugged me greatly, namely that a tachanka is a dastardly model for depicting in a single photo. In a front view you'd miss the gunners (and the gun) almost entirely and a lot of the cart's details too. In a side view two horses and again some of the cart are gone. In a rear view you can see the gunners but only a bit of a horse's behind and very little of the driver. If it's not from the top, you can't see the horse team and its harnesses properly. If it is from an elevated view, even slightly, you can't see any faces of the crew. The action is just too evenly divided on every side. When I was building the scene at ungodly hours on Friday night after returning from an all-evening event and pondered this conundrum, at some point it just turned into a proverb which contains an expletive. This was the "least bad" way I managed to come up with for showing a bit of everything, although nothing particularly well. It's a trade-off I didn't enjoy solving after midnight with the final glue joints probably still wet.

"Green on green" is admittedly a bad idea for getting any "wow" points, but on the other hand that's how camouflage colours work. It's one of the technical innovations of WWI when you think about it. Here it's unfortunately even more effective than I originally predicted. A lot is lost in 800 px resolution. Not a surprise per se as it's the tenth round of my third league, but didn't help either in this case.

By the way, the models are from Eureka and nominally 28mm, but I'd say that's only for very small values of 28. The minis are small, and only have detail I'd expect from 20mm or so. For example, you can barely distinguish some fingers, not necessarily an accurate number of them. The faces, whatever little has been sculpted there, have been painted but they're nothing to write home about. The strongest point of that model is its overall charm and that's what I tried to show. Doing just some more 28mm CoC characters instead would probably have bought me more votes, but I wanted to respect the theme round and the centennial in general. I definitely learned a lot of things - about history and assembling fiddly horse carts...

So, that's it for the excuses. I can post more angles later if you're interested in this thing.

[mikedemana]

I would definitely like to see close ups from different angles. I sympathize with you on figuring out the best photo angle. In our previous 2 LPLs. I made heavy use of zoom sub photos. I chose my elevated view (which blocks out eye, hair & face detail for similar reasons -- it coveyed the scene action the best.

I know it is early in the voting, but I take it as a HUGE compliment to have a lead on as fantastic a painter as you, Dolmot. I've enjoyed your cultists and other unique entries throughout the league. Good luck!

Mike Demana

[khartoum2]

Here Her Dolmot- Having finished mine at 2 am on the Friday I can totally sympathise

Decided to take pics that night and sleep in as opposed to getting up early Saturday morning

Interesting your comments on the Eureka model as have thought about getting one to go with my Copplestones - As they are on the large side and the wagon is on the small side it may look a little odd so may spend cash elsewhere

[Neldoreth]

Both excellent entries gentlemen! I really like the fact that they both have great scenic composition and the from-the-sky angle is also cool!

Kudos guys on two great final entries!

n.

[miros]

Bob and His Dog,

The EAR figure that has multiples is Foundry.  Not sure about the others.

[Dolmot]

I know it is early in the voting, but I take it as a HUGE compliment to have a lead on as fantastic a painter as you, Dolmot. I've enjoyed your cultists and other unique entries throughout the league. Good luck!

Hey, if you really had an alarm going off hourly, you probably earned it. My pressing obligations on that Friday included five hours of sauna and light boozing. But believe me, it was important. That's how we get things done here.

Which brings to me to another important matter. Gentlemen, cast you final votes...

[thebinmann]

Good job both, but Mr D the lack of Cultists may have made the difference!