Blaster Collection (2 Viewers)

[blaster]

Hi All,

I've been building up a figure collection for many years now. Now and then, I refurbish older pieces and place them in with my newer pieces to create meaningful context. Many of these pieces are featured individually on separate threads here.

Here is part of my collection. On this thread, they look very colourful when displayed together. These figures are of an Ethnic/Oriental theme and I've grouped them on this shelf.

Rgds Victor

 

[Obee]

Victor,
thanks for showing us all some of your most unique collection.

I'll have to make sure that we meet up in person so that I can seem them all, next time I'm in S'pore

Well done,

John

 

[zblang]

They look great. I love all the vegetation on the bases

 

[blaster]

They look great. I love all the vegetation on the bases

Hi Zach,

Thanks for your comments. The groundwork is quite fun to do, but is always messy.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Victor,
thanks for showing us all some of your most unique collection.

I'll have to make sure that we meet up in person so that I can seem them all, next time I'm in S'pore

Well done,

John

Hi John,

Thanks for your kind comments. You are always welcome to visit.

Rgds Victor

 

[theBaron]

Thanks for sharing your collection, Vic! I also always enjoy following your restoration projects and seeing how you work.

Prost!
Brad

 

[blaster]

Hello Brad,

Glad you enjoy this. Weren't you going to start a few new threads yourself on the SYW?...

BTW, I saw a lot of SYW figures and kits for sale at the Berliner Zinnfiguren website. I won't post the direct link here for all as you already know it. Give you a headstart....


Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Hi All,

While sorting out parts of my collection, I came across this old suitcase full of converted figures and original sculpts made to represent the above scene as painted by J L David. I had started work on this project about 30 years ago but I haven't worked on it for a few years now. At that time before the advent of the internet and digital cameras, I had taken some real photos, made notes and had organised the many references, all kept in my notebook.

Most of the figures are kept locked up in this suitcase for protection as it is still very much a work in progress. However, it does form a substantial part of my personal collection and, perhaps, its time to give this project an airing. It may inspire me to continue to work on the diorama. I hope you enjoy it. Vive le Empereur!

The story actually starts off with this painting.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

My notebook was customised from this rather attractive bound notebook. Dark green with gilt decorations - it is just missing the letter "N" with crown and some imperial bees...

I removed some of the pages to make space to stick in pictures, photos and various cuttings. A notebook keeps all the key references, primarily pictorial, together and organised.





I then scoured as many books as I could get on the background to this painting, and managed to get hold of three schematic illustrations which attempted to identify all the key personalities in this painting.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Here's my summary of the notes that I had made regarding the background to this painting.

Introduction

When Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor in 1804, it was the start of a glorious chapter in French History. A new Imperial court had to be formed to star in the coronation ceremony. Titles and pedigrees were showered on members of the Bonaparte family as well as close friends and others. Besides the Empress Josephine, Napoleon's brothers Joseph became Grand Elector and Louis the High Constable, with the titles of Prince and Highness respectively.

The other two consuls, Cambaceres became chief chancellor and Lebrun was the chief treasurer. His close friends Armand Caulaincourt was appointed Grand Master of the Horse, Duroc Grand Marshal of the Palace and Berthier Master of the Hunt, with the slippery Talleyrand being appointed High Chamberlain. Eighteen Marshals (including Berthier) were also created, who were given good places at the coronation. Louis- Philippe de Segur was to be the Grand master of ceremonies, assisted by de Remusat.

The painter lsabey and two architects, Percier and Fontaine, were to decorate the key buildings inside and outside as well as design the costumes. The crowning ceremony was to be held in the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The architects hid a great deal of the Gothic facade beneath a triumphal arch studded with figures representing the cohorts of the Legion of Honor and with Napoleon's armorial bearings, the eagle and golden bees. Inside the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the choir and side-altar railings had been removed and stands were erected all along the nave and in the choir. Velvet draperies and carpets were scattered everywhere and above all, an enormous platform blocked off the nave between the fourth and fifth pillar. Over it rose a triumphal arch bedecked with eagles above a red velvet dome; beneath it stood great thrones for Napoleon and Josephine. The small thrones with prayer-stools in front were placed near the altar, on the same level as the raised pontifical throne at the side.

De Segur arranged all the guests in order of precedence for the coronation: ministers, generals and councillors of State on the twenty-four steps of the throne; senators, representatives of corporate bodies and of the towns were all in the nave. The clergy were beside the transept, and behind them stood the invited princes and dignitaries. The cardinals sat in the choir, facing the Pope; representatives of the diplomatic corps, families of high dignitaries, members of the Institute and delegations from the general staff and the prefectures were in the stands.

The event, dubbed The Coronation of Napoleon, was immortalised in a painting by Jacques-Louis David, the most celebrated painter of the Napoleonic era. David himself was present throughout the event in the stands in the choir. Napoleon wanted to record the events for posterity and despite the high prices David was charging, the painter was commissioned with the work. Originally, it was to form part of a series of four paintings but acrimonious haggling over prices eventually resulted in the completion of two paintings. The painting was finished in 1808 and when presented with it, Napoleon studied it carefully and declared it a masterpiece.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

The Painting

The work has been accused of being fictional, as David had made various changes in the painting which did not occur in the actual ceremony. For example, Napoleon directed David to paint in his mother Madam Mere, who was not present, into the scene. She had stayed away in support of Napoleon’s brother Jerome, who was forced by Napoleon to renounce his marriage to an American girl Elizabeth Patterson. Jerome was not present at the coronation.

Josephine requested for a prominent place in the painting. Several other luminaries also requested for changes in their positions to be made so as to be more prominently featured. Certainly, David painted the coronation to please his clientele. There are at least two engravings of the same scene from different perspectives for comparison which allow for a decent all-round visualisation for the whole scene. Thus the anomalies may be compared to the engravings for accuracy. The stands mentioned in the text and inferred from the raised heights of the background figures are not shown in the engravings. Were they there or not? The pontifical throne had also been painted lower to create a unified composition that sweeps upwards from left to right across the painting.
The three principal characters are Napoleon, Josephine and Pope Pius VII. Their positions in the tableaux are consistent in all three depictions. The scene has also been made much more compact than the engravings have indicated. It is known that David condensed the action to draw the viewer into the scene. He also changed the actual dimensions of the interior of the Notre-Dame cathedral to accommodate the scene.

Due to its apparently hideous gothic interior, the artists Isabey and Fontaine, cloaked the columns and flooring with drapery made from silk from Lyons as Napoleon wanted to champion the Lyons silk industry during the Continental blockade. One glaring detail is that the colour of the drapery which has been recorded as being of venetian red. In the painting, the drapery is green! In both of the engravings mentioned earlier, the floor has been recorded as bare with the original mosaic tile designs being prominent. Again, the painting depicts a floor covered with green cloth. The figures in the background appeared to have been placed on a higher level so that they may be seen. However, the engravings show a level floor for these personages. Some items such as the ceremonial seats are clearer in the engravings. In cases of discrepancies, I largely followed the painting.


To further add pomp to the ceremony, ten regalia items were resurrected from ancient lore and carried by different personages throughout the proceedings. Three of these items were supposed to be from Charlemagne's era and were a crown (carried by Kellermann), sword (Lefebvre) and sceptre (Perignon). These items are barely visible at the far left of David's painting. The other regalia items were Napoleon's personal regalia and were a collar (carried by Bernadofte), a ring (Eugene de Beauharnais), an orb (Berthier), a basket for the mantle (Talleyrand), a sceptre, a sword, a crown and the hands of Justice.

In addition, David had made numerous preparatory sketches of individual portraits which were incorporated into the painting. These preparatory sketches reveal hidden detail which may be obscured by other figures in the final painting. The more I delved into this painting, the more I realised that it is full of factual errors. Still, it is a wonderful painting and I will stick closely to this interpretation of that event.

I decided to make a diorama of this event based largely on David's painting. Here, I show the detailed planning and stages of work throughout the whole project so far.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Background Research for the Diorama

This project has been a truly an enjoyable experience because I have had to do extensive research on the background of these people and, in some cases, identify them based on their roles in the coronation. At the same time, as most of these figures are partially hidden behind others in this crowded scene, I have to reconstruct their possible costumes and this also depended on their roles in Napoleon's court.

To organise myself logistically for this diorama, I had obtained several schematic illustrations which showed about 80 identified personalities in the painting. I then merged all into a single tabulated listing and then expanded the list to include practically every visible figure, whether identified or not. However, I have had to guess at the identities of some of these personalities. This listing of all the figures is important to keep track of about 200 estimated figures!





Having identified many of the key personalities, I referred to larger sized portraits of the principal figures to get a better feel for their facial features. With proper identification, their correct court costumes, especially in the case of military personnel, can be accurately sculpted. In the case of civilian costume, and there are many of them in the painting including women, I referred to the excellent out-of-print book "Age of Napoleon", available from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This amount of detailing is necessary as a 3-dimensional diorama will reveal many details brought about by depth of vision which are not visible in a 2- dimensional painting.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Here are some pictures of individuals who were involved in the coronation ceremony which I managed to get from various sources.

 

[blaster]

Broad Planning for the Diorama

To make effective dioramas, I relied on Ray Anderson's "The Art of the Diorama" and Shep Paine's “How to Build Dioramas” books. Interestingly, Ray Anderson advocates bringing the action right up to the front whereas Shep Paine suggests pushing the scene back from the viewer.

I was aware of this scene having already been recreated in flats (Segom) and also partly in ronde-bosse (Lucotte and MHSP). However, these are not cheap and their representations of the scene are not comprehnsive.

Thus, I had decided by then to recreate a truly grand diorama and that, for so many figures, it was only feasible to contemplate doing conversions based on commercial figures to speed up the work. 54mm scale was my obvious choice due to the huge variety and range of affordable figures and spare parts available, especially from Historex. There are about 200 figures in the scene so it looked like a lot of work!

In order to speed up the work, I decided not to worry about the unseen portions and that all the visible details on all figures were to be carefully finished only on the side facing the viewer. In addition, numerous background figures were to be only partially constructed. These half-hidden partial figures were attached to the foreground full figures by wire inserts.

As the construction of the diorama was expected to take place over a long period, perhaps years and, in order to maintain the same standard of workmanship between the first and last figures, I resolved to paint only basic details for all the figures until most of them were completed. Then I could go over the earlier figures and continue to improve upon them and, thus, maintain the same standard of modelling throughout the scene.

I decided not to exaggerate the perspective too much. In this way, I could utilize most of the Historex range as compatible spares for my work. Hence the figures were to range from about 60mm in the foreground to 50mm in the background.

A footprint of the diorama was drawn up. From this, I determined that the maximum depth of the diorama was about I foot. The painting showed that one end of the scene was walled off by the altar. This end was tilted to face the viewer. This would maintain the suggested perspective view for the diorama according to the painting. For the other end which extended into the cathedral void, I proposed to add a piece of mirror to reflect the box lighting and to suggest a bigger crowd. The mirror would be tilted away from the viewer.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

General Modelling Notes

Using a large supply of commercial heads from various sources, I then identified suitable heads for each figure. I tended to use 54mm heads for the front figures and 1/35 scale heads for the back figures. I tried to avoid using the same heads for adjacent figures in order to avoid unnecessary close facial resemblance.

In the Historex spares part list can be found numerous Napoleonic personality heads. Many of them do bear a close resemblance to their namesakes and were used as such. Sometimes, a different head with closer physiognomy was substituted. Historex Nemrod NCO also supplies very good character faces. I found the Hornet range of heads to be equally excellent but these, being slightly smaller in scale, were mostly used for background and young altar boys' faces. I tried to use some New Hope Design heads for the forefront figures and all other heads were from Airfix and Verlinden sources purchased in bulk to save on costs. I did resort to resculpting some facial features in order to get a better resemblance in some cases.

Surprisingly, many commercial heads have poorly moulded ears and these were substituted with ears from Verlinden's resin heads. Another cost cutting exercise was to remove the well-moulded ears from the hidden side of many heads and to append them to the visible side of other heads. As there are roughly an equal number of heads facing sideways to either side in this painting, this proved to be a practical approach. All the heads were placed onto wire bodies for animation and each figure was tagged with a numbered sticker for rapid identification. Believe me, with close to two hundred figures, this was absolutely necessary!

Finally I stuck the wire figures onto a piece of expanded polystyrene tile to gauge their positions and for further identification. Continuous readjustments of the figures tended to ruin this tile. Having satisfied myself that most of the figures were accounted for, a second piece of expanded polystyrene tile was covered with a grid of one inch squares and every figure was now carefully transferred onto this second polystyrene tile with their set of coordinates recorded in the table. In this way, I quickly identified figures which were missing from my initial inventory. This also allowed for easier positioning of all the figures relative to each other.

I decided to drill holes and fix all dissimilar material parts with inserted wire for internal strength. A mixture of commercial parts and various epoxy putties were used to build up the figures. Milliput has excellent smoothing qualities and cures rockhard. Duro Kneadatite has excellent adhesive qualities for detail work. A blend of Duro and Milliput (blended epoxy pufty) has both properties.

There were two sculpting modes that I employed throughout this project:-

i) Soft sculpting is working with malleable putty. This was used on draperies and detail work such as fringes, hair, ceremonial objects, facial changes, feathers.

ii) Hard sculpting is carving. This was employed on angular-shaped objects such as mitre hats. Only Milliput or blended epoxy putty is suitable for this. A blob of the material was allowed to harden and carved into the desired shape.


I tried to tackle the background figures initially. As my expertise and skills improved, foreground figures were then modelled. In this manner, the more skillfully-made figures were prominently displayed. I also had to resculpt many figures several times as I checked them constantly against each other. Also, more details become apparent as work progressed on this project.

Most of the figures were now grouped into crowd scenes. The background and half-hidden figures were then attached onto the back of the front figures. In this manner, various groupings of figures were achieved.

 

[blaster]

So far, it's been mostly blah-blah-blah. I wanted to give a full account of the thinking and planning that went into this consuming project. A little more info and then I leave you with the first figure.

Most of the figures were now grouped into crowd scenes. The background and half-hidden figures were then attached onto the back of the front figures. In this manner, various groupings of figures were achieved.

However, I have categorised the following modelling notes based on figure groupings in the painting and also in the different types of ceremonial dress worn, which are as follows:

Figure Groupings

Napoleon

Napoleon and Josephine are central to the whole diorama. These two figures are available as a Historex couple. Thus, I used them to kick-off the project.

Starting with the Napoleon figure, it was altered drastically to change the pose. his laurel wreath was resculptured in Duro and an ear added from another source. In the painting, Napoleon is offering the crown to Josephine with his hands held up high and his right foot forward. The hands were cut and repositioned with wire inserts. Hands from Preiser nudes were substituted for the original Historex hands. The feet were removed. The lower torso of the Historex figure was pared down. A piece of wire was drilled into the right hip and the wire was bent and a right foot added. The left foot was repositioned and Milliput was added to fix the pose. Parts of the original train were used with new drapery sculpted from epoxy putty and Duro, following the contours of the original drapery. Care was especially taken to distinguish between the lighter cloth in his costume and the heavier material of the mantle.

The Legion of Honneur necklace was built up from eagle turnbacks of Historex grenadiers. The sword hilt was converted from the Historex original but with a substituted scabbard made from plastic card. The crown was sliced from plastic tubing of the right diameter and sanded down to the right thickness. This was superglued to the fingers and the crown details were based on a costume jewellery brass ornament, flattened out and bent into a 'crown' shape. The orb on top was from a French Shako pompom and the tiny cross was cut from Nimix brass-etched parts.

This is my converted Napoleonic figure. Throughout, as work on the diorama proceeded, I had to resculpt Napoleon several times so that the quality of detail on this figure was not subsumed by other figures. I hope you like it. The photo was taken many years ago...

 

[johnnybach]

Good to see some of your thought processes - as you prepare to get going on an ambitious project. This essential research is very often unseen by the casual viewer of painted figures - once they have been posted - but can often take as long ( or maybe longer) than the actual painting itself.

I'm sure that there may be changes along the way - but will look forward to watching this project progress - for as long as it takes.

Bon Chance, mon ami! jb

 

[Obee]

Victor,
It's great to see what you are constructing with this diorama of the Coronation of Napoleon.
Have you seen what some other makers have produced ?
There are 3 that I know of:
CBS Minot
M.H.S.P. -Which I have painted and are on my website no
A.T.S. - Which are not yet showing on their website yet, but I saw them in London.

I'm away on holidays for 2 weeks, but will send you images and links when I get home.

Looking forward to seeing this project as it proceeds.

John

 

[blaster]

Hello John and JB,

Great to hear from you two. Missed your regular updates. Don't take too long holidays - your grey army may develop lead disease...

The Sacre scene was always a too-ambitious project, in terms of effort, time and costs. However, at that time, I had a lot of Historex parts which I had bought cheaply when Historex was folding. As I am not primarily a collector but a maker, it was obvious that I had to do my own thing.

The whole project is still evolving, with more figures being added and upgraded now and then. These early scanned hard-copy photos will show chronologically, the project then and, the early work that went into creating the pieces, some of which are incomplete and others fairly well-developed. I'll then update with recent photos to show the current state of the figures.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Josephine and The Two Ladies-in-Waiting

These three figures had to be modelled together as they were linked by the cloak which Josephine was wearing and the train was carried by the two ladies.

The Historex Josephine figure was converted to a kneeling pose. The figure was cut at the neck and waist. Wires were inserted and the figure was repositioned. A hint of a double chin was added with epoxy putty to Josephine’s features. The hair was remodelled with a parure (small crown) set added. The pillow for kneeling was made from epoxy putty.

The two ladies-in-waiting, M de La Valette and M de La Rochefoucauld, were sculpted separately. I used the Historex Academy female nude upper torso for both figures. Their heads were repositioned and clothing was added to the figures. I tried to capture a degree of likeness for each figure. A small amount of epoxy putty was used as a base to bind the three figures together. While it was still uncured, the figures were juxtaposed in relation to each other. Josephine’s cloak, made from epoxy putty, was now sculpted onto the base.





Pope Pius VII

The pope was quite a delight to make. He wore a simple skullbone cap (his mitre hat being carried by a priest just behind him). The head was from Historex. Starting off with a wire body, commercial hands were drilled and added to the wire figure. The hands were detailed and manipulated into position and epoxy putty was now added to fix the pose. His robe was sculpted from Duro. I took special care to make tighter wrinkles to represent a thinner cloth.

A doilhouse plastic toy chair was cut up and glued to the figure. The chair posts were sculpted in Duro to represent dog heads and the chair legs were given paws in the Empire style.