Another episode in my Muketeers WIP. This time,
Senors y senoritas I present to you the great swordsman and bravo,
el Capitan Alatriste, as portrayed in the film of the same name by Vigo Mortenson.
Unlike the sartorial elegance of
M de Bergerac,
el capitan is a bit of a scruff. As you can see from the pictures below his clothing is well worn and grubby.
First off, I based the figure as I have the others and a new base, pinned and glued to a new home made base. Here he is back left, with a black base coat (Games Workshop Chaos Black) and a zenithal highlight of Halford's White Acrylic primer.
Next I blocked the figure in using Valejo Red-Brown, Saddle Brown, British Uniform, Vallejo Air Black, and a little Yellow Ochre. I can't say precisely what, where and how as, since I began with the wet-pallette anything goes. Seriously, I have found that whereas before I would have applied a solid base colour over the undercoat, (and probably covering up a lot of detail) now i apply a much thinner layer of coIour, the detail is preserved better and even base coats get blended. In this case, the red browns went on first then I applied some areas of yellow-ochre, looking to make the areas of wear on the doublet.
Once that was dry I gave the whole model a wash of Games Workshop Sienna wash. It doesn't look that spectacular, and it is very glossy but this is very much the first step.
Once that was well dry, I then went back to the blacks and browns but this time instead of thin, wet colours, I dry-brushed them on. There are several advantages to this
1) dry brushing kills off the gloss of the wash.
2) highlights the details nicely
3) brings up that worn look
Also at this point I blocked in his linen - shirt collar and cuffs. rather than base coat these with a white-grey I used Iraqi Sand with a touch of Basic Flesh, this gave me the creamy colour of unwashed linen.
The figure is also equipped with a scarf (the proper term for a waist or shoulder sash). Scarves were worn to identify officers and other persons holding rank. The French at this time used a white scarf, ECW Royalists tended to go with rose-red, and the Parliamentarians usually used an orange-tawny scarf. There were no hard and fast rules, so I gave
Alatriste a deep red scarf, because I wanted it to match the general pallette of colours and not stand out.
This latest day's work saw the baldric, scabbard and boots, high-lighted. The hat done in a black brown and his linen finished with an off-white, gloves in an ochre-brown-black (highlighted up using white) and the face started.
For the next hour or so I moved back and to between areas, adjusting them to suit, keeping the same basic pallette of colours, hghlighting mainly, but at one point going back with a fine brush and a very thin black/khaki mix to line between areas and define them better,
Alatriste's face and hair were worked in using black, brown and white, and highlighted, and the wear on his boots worked in.
And apart from the base and the blades, I'm happy with him!
He pretty much looks how I set out for him to look - dirty, dusty and deadly! (That's TWO! Two, in as many weeks after years - decades - of trying!
I've got two figures how I wanted them!)
Like the
de Bergerac figure, he will need some back up. In
Cyrano's case it will be some Gascon Cadets, for
Alatriste I will do some Spanish
bravos, who will mix it with anyone who looks at them sideways.
Also on the go at the moment, are a couple of Musketeers, and some street scenery for them to fight over, as well as some old Paris buildings, and washng lines.