Blaster Collection (1 Viewer)

[Napoleon1er]

Absolutely brilliant. Josephine is particularly beautiful, and the dresses are great all around. Can we see an image of Napoleon from the front? I would love to see the Legion of Honor collar.
Rgds,
Sandor :salute::

 

[blaster]

The Cardinals

The four cardinals, including Cardinals Caprara and Fesch (Napoleon's uncle), are standing on the altar and just behind and to the sides of the pope. Their costumes consisted of a voluminous red cloak surmounted by a large white mantle that draped over the shoulders. Around each neck was hung The Legion of Honour cross on a red ribbon. This was made from Nimix brass-etched parts. Cardinal Belloy, seated elsewhere, is wearing the same costume. The Historex heads were all built up with Duro to represent older faces. A small skull cap was added. Their hands are clasped in front of them. The costumes were built up, using parts from the cloak of the Historex Napoleon and Josephine set as guides for the drapery. At that time, I was still learning on how to sculpt drapery.

Here is a photo of Cardinal Caprara.




The Bishops

The mitre hats were built using Milliput. A nondescript lump was first allowed to harden. A second layer of Milliput was now added and crudely shaped into a mitre hat. After hardening, it was carved and sanded into a mitre shape. This was the only satisfactory manner to obtain mitre hats. Details were added with Duro.
The bishops wore a stiff wrap around cloak which was modelled with epoxy putty. Folds were created and smoothed liberally with water. Feet were added to these figures as their cloaks did not quite reach the ground.


The other priests and wardens, acolytes were similarly built up from wire figures, mostly sculpted from Duro. Feet if can be seen were added from epoxy putty.

The mitre hat for the cross-bearer is faced with a shiny fabric. A light paint was applied over this and when dry, I lightly buffed the paint with felt tip attachment on my motor-tool. This created the shiny surface of the mitre hat. The cross was a jewellery item glued on top of a brass tubing and embellished with Duro. My sculpting skills were limited then...

 

[blaster]

Absolutely brilliant. Josephine is particularly beautiful, and the dresses are great all around. Can we see an image of Napoleon from the front? I would love to see the Legion of Honor collar.
Rgds,
Sandor :salute::

Hello Sandor,

Thanks for looking. You were smitten by Josephine, too, same as Napoleon? She was over 40 by the time of the coronation and had bad teeth by then...
I'll post updated photos of all the models (still in the suitcase) after I have uploaded these earlier photos.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

The Marshals and Princes

The ceremonial dress of these officials was the petit habit. As the cut of this dress was identical for all these figures, the modelling notes will deal with them as a group. The hat had a wide brim with the front upturned. Numerous feathers adorn the hat. A short cape was worn over a Marshal's uniform. Surprisingly, Historex doesn't make any figures in ceremonial dress. I used several New Hope Design (NHD) Marshals in ceremonial dress conversions in the diorama. The most useful of these are Augureau, Lefebvre and Perignon. These are great figures and they set the tone for the degree of detailing on the other figures.

The main grouping consists of four marshals (Murat, Bessieres, Moncey, Serurier) and de Segur (Master of Ceremonies) in the background behind Josephine. De Segur's costume should be in deep purple.

In this grouping, Murat is the most prominent due to his charismatic good looks. Murat's pose was problematic. I decided to use the bottom half of a Mokarex Robespierre figure for the legs. This was before NCO Nemrod released their new resin civilian legs. The upper torso was built up from Milliput with a Historex Murat head. His hat seems to differ slightly in shape from the other marshals and was modelled accordingly. A paper brim was fitted over the head and feathers were added from Duro. The main coat and cloak was shaped from epoxy putty. The sword was identical to Napoleon's and was made accordingly. Details added were from Duro and wire was used for the cords.

Moncey was sculpted similarly to Murat. The head was sculpted from Duro. The circular tray that he holds was sliced from a doilhouse cooking pot and details included a wire ring.

Serurier, partly hidden, was the NHD Augureau unmodified. The pose was almost identical. I resculpted the left hand to hold a ceremonial pillow.

Bessieres, mostly hidden, was a generic Marshal figure.

De Segur was an unattractive man with an upturned nose. I selected a suitable face and sliced off the nose. I resculpted a new nose from Duro and when all details were done, I gently pushed the tip of the nose up to create de Segur's unique protuberance.

I used the NHD Marshal Lefebvre with a Historex Napoleon head (sibling resemblance) for Louis Bonaparte as the stance was almost identical. The left hand was snipped off and resculpted with Duro. The Lefebvre head was used for Count Deternaud.

Joseph Bonaparte was scratchbuilt completely. Legs were from the Historex French couple man. I used Louis Bonaparte as a guide to sculpt details.

Photos of Moncey and Murat - notice the changes from the first to the final pose

 

[blaster]

Women

These women were Napoleon's sisters and Julie Clary was Joseph Bonaparte's wife. All figures were based on either the Historex French couple woman or the Historex Academy Female Nude. Although the hairstyle is correct (Grecian), the Historex bun is moulded too low. Hence, this was removed and a new bun and hairpieces (parure) was resculpted in Duro.

I substituted a different female head for two of the figures so as to avoid too close a facial resemblance between adjacent figures. Although not apparent in the painting, the ceremonial costume for each of the five women includes a train as was worn by Josephine. To create a basic figure for the women, only the upper torsos were used, drilled through with wire inserts. Milliput was used to fix the wire to create a scale height for the figure. Epoxy putty was now used to shape the lower half of the gown, including the train. As most of the wrinkles flowed downwards, water was used to smooth out the surface. Close attention was paid to their stances to avoid these figures looking too alike to each other. Final details were added in Duro.

The young Prince Napoleon was sculpted from a Preiser Victorian child's head.

 

[blaster]

General Junot and Eugene Beauharnais

Both of these figures dressed in hussar style costumes feature prominently in the painting due to the flamboyance of their costumes. I decided to model both of these as full figures due to the fact that attention would be drawn towards them. I used Historex Marshal Ney's head for Junot and a resculptured Preiser head for Eugene. Bodies were the inevitable Historex Hussar torsos. I had Junot hold his shako in his right hand. Costume details for these two came from Historex bits and Duro. Eugene was dressed as Colonel General of the Chasseurs of the Guard.

Photo of General Junot

 

[blaster]

Other Background Figures

Esteve Group

This group can be found behind and between the Marshals group and the Bishop with a cross group. The only full figure in this group is Senator de Harville, converted from a Mokarex Louis XVI figure. The treasurer-general Esteve stands out because of his prominent dark hair. His head was an Historex smiling musician head with sculpted hair from Duro. All the figures were attached to the full figure by wire inserts.




Altar Boys

The two altar boys behind Eugene Beauharnais were built from epoxy putty. Their youthful heads were from 1/35 scale Verlinden supplies. The incense burner was scratchbuilt from bits, Duro and the chains were wire.

 

[blaster]

Accessories

These included the crosses, the altar pieces and the ten regalia items. There are two crosses in the painting, one held by the Bishop and the other cross is on the altar. As the detail on these crosses are quite specific, I decided to sculpt them in using plain costume jewellery crosses for the diorama. The crucified figure of Christ and other embellishments were sculpted in Duro on both crosses.. This was done in stages so as not to mar any fine detail during the sculpting process.

The candlesticks were cut from brass tubing and inserted into upturned bells (again from costume jewellery). Further detailing was Duro and/or bits and pieces from ship modelling accessories. I toyed with the idea of inserting fibre optics into each candle stick to light up the scene.

Sculpture

The large sculpture behind the altar is a pieta. The theme is Mary holding a dead Christ on her lap. Part of it can be seen just to the right of the painting. I have a photo of the sculpture in Notre Dame Cathedral and one of the engravings of the ceremony does show this sculpture with a large cross and surrounded by two cherubs. 1/24 scale Preiser nudes were used for the Madonna and Christ figures and 1:32 scale figures for the cherubs. I posed all the parts with wire. All drapery was in Duro.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

The Diorama setup with the polystyrene tile base

This was the initial stage that I reached with this diorama. You can see other figures which were conceived but not photographed or completed then.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Here are the figures in the present state. Additional figures were completed in the second stage of this project and can be seen in this batch of photos.

All the figures were kept in this old Samsonite briefcase. I had converted the inside with two black velvet-covered boards modified with wire twists to hold the figures securely.




The first figure is Napoleon. I had sculpted additional drapery and repainted the figure. I may actually sculpt in the ermine tips into the fur on the cloak instead of merely painting them. I took all-round pics to show the figure from the viewing side, and also the unseen side which I don't bother with. I apologise for the front fuzzy shot of the Legion of Honneur necklace. I'll try again in a later photo session.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Here is the Josephine grouping. I had added "zig-zag" shoulder laces to the women's dress robes but these are too thick. I intend to resculpt these in the future.




The Pope in photos all -round. I only sculpted the dog heads completely on the visible chair posts.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

By the way, I have a very large print bought from the Louvre museum of this magnificent painting hanging on one of my walls. It makes it very easy for me to pore over the details.

The Women group. Reading about their temper tantrums over the coronation period was quite interesting. I tried to capture the essence of these women as portrayed in the painting. More details of embroidery were added to their dresses.


The Esteve group. Following the preliminary layout on the polystyrene tile diorama, it was obvious that I had to build up more of the underside for this front group which could be visible from the front.


The Marshal group. As can be seen, my modus operandi was to quickly get a sense of the proportions and pose in my sculpting, using either a wire armature or commercial parts. I had used a lot of Kneadatite Duro green putty then, which I will be replacing with A&B putty if I upgrade my figures in the future.

 

[blaster]

The Cardinals. This group are wearing red robes. I think that the facial likeness is quite good here, especially Cardinal Fesch.





The Bishops. I classify this group as wearing mitrecaps.

The first photo is the cross bearer group. Notice that I have built up the robe of the clergyman with his hands in prayer. The other clergyman is holding up the Bible.




The second photo comprises the group including the Greek Primate (in a hood) standing behind Napoleon and to the side of the sitting Pope.

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Figures standing behind the altar.

Prince Eugene Beauharnais. The pose appears awkward as he is straddling two steps on the altar. As this figure is quite prominent, it will be resculpted to tie in as a group with the Altar boys.




The Acolytes and Altar boys.

 

[nmrocks]

Wow! have been following your project Blaster, really extensive, well researched and quite artistic in the "building" of so many custom figures! Wonderful to watch! :salute::
Ray

 

[blaster]

Re: Blaster Collection - Le Sacre

Hello Ray,

Thanks for your comments. I post here a clearer picture of the Legion of Honneur necklace and also my large print of the Sacre on my wall.

Rgds Victor

 

[damian]

Thanks for posting

 

[Obee]

Victor,

now I'm back home following my holiday to Melbourne and the K&C Dinner, as promised, here are some images of the MHSP Miniatures (Historiques de Soldats de Plomb ) figures I have painted.

More to follow ...

 

[Obee]

Also Alexanders Toy Soldiers has made a set of figures, seen here from the London Toy Soldier Show - June 2014



Hope you like all these, and looking forward to see all of your finished, so keep up the great work,

John

 

[Obee]

Forgot to post the link to the MHSP website for the Coronation figures so you can see who they are and how they come as castings:

http://www.mokarex.fr/mhsp_sacre_uk.html#

John