Domenico Greco

[Kekso]

It is an article (+ video) about sculptor Domenico Greco. It is in Italian language but one can see few interesting pictures. I never knew that masters are so big .

https://www.corriere.it/cronache/18_novembre_22/scultore-domenico-greco-italia-ha-giocato-miei-soldatini-468df5ec-ee89-11e8-862e-eefe03127c3f.shtml?fbclid=IwAR3AL0-hV2eNprXi6zEWIAx6dFhOAEGlQN3bMFX1xT405qZS2z04YS10Q8w&refresh_ce-cp

[Bluefalchion]

Now I really wish I could read Italian.

[Wiking]

I am too impressed that masters are so big as Kekso mentioned.

The space figures (Comic figures) of Atlantic in evilbay often mentioned as 1/72. Now I can clearly see that they are bigger as 1/72.

It look like the master maker for ex ATLANTIC is now working for Waterloo ?

[sansovino]

It´s really a lovely video of an old master in his small courtyard-space of vibrante Milan. He is talking much how the culture has changed that his Atlantic figures were in the past integral parts of an italian childhood. He could seen them nearly everywhere. Nowadays the young ones are preferring sadly more the internet and there are mostly only collectors who buy them....

[Kekso]

It look like the master maker for ex ATLANTIC is now working for Waterloo ?

I thought the same.

[Mr. Andrea]

I confirm is the sculptore of the Atlantic figures, that after the closure of the firm kept on sculpting for Esci, Italeri, Waterloo 1815.
Google translator works pretty well nowadays, just copy and paste. If you really want I can try a translation for you (in episodes )

[marc zijp]

I think I really want it. So if you’re able to I’ll appreciate that.
Thanks in advance!

[Bluefalchion]

I confirm is the sculptore of the Atlantic figures, that after the closure of the firm kept on sculpting for Esci, Italeri, Waterloo 1815.
Google translator works pretty well nowadays, just copy and paste. If you really want I can try a translation for you (in episodes )

That is quite a resume.

[Wiking]

The same modeler for this different style of 1/72 figures ?
Wow !


Top row: Esci, Italeri.
Next row: Atlantic, Waterloo1815.

The red and green (white painted) figures are in scale HO.

[Mr. Andrea]

I think I really want it. So if you’re able to I’ll appreciate that.
Thanks in advance!

Et voilà...

The sculptor Domenico: «Italy played with my Atlantic soldiers»

From Calabria to Milan, the boom in the seventies: "At first I did not say anything to my fellow artists, but I liked the new activity. And it paid well "

"Boy, do you have 100 lire? Here are our news for you ». To remind him of this réclame of Atlantic soldiers that in the Seventies, from Topolino to Intrepido, was advertized on every comic, the sculptor Domenico Greco smiles. "How can I not remember it? I sculpted those soldiers, I believe we have made playing at least two generations of Italian children, "the Maestro" proudly asserts, 72, Calabrian origins but has always been resident in Milan. His studio is in via Bramante, near via Paolo Sarpi. You can enter it from a barely visible gate betweeb the succession of Chinese shops and "just in this laboratory, shortly after 1970, Sandro Compagnoni came to see me". A name that perhaps says little, but those who live over the fifty years owe to this businessman the endless battles with the toy soldiers in the afternoons after school.

The Atlantic
Together with a friend, Pietro Guerra, Compagnoni founded the Atlantic, the firm of the Bersaglieri, Alpini, paratroopers, pilots and sailors of Italy. Boxes initially rather naive but that soon became cured in every historical detail. With the corollary of endless controversy came the famous series dedicated to the revolutions: Lenin and Mao, but also Mussolini and Hitler. Then the fantasy in power: planes, models, the "Giocagol" (poor relative of the Subbuteo). And those works passed in the hands of Greek: from the series of ancient Egyptians - considered the most beautiful under the artistic profile - up to the western ones. Finally, the "astral" - as he defines them - that had as protagonists Capitan Harlock and Goldrake, the very popular protagonists of Japanese cartoons broadcast on the second Rai tv channel. These last two collections were "the swan song of the Atlantic. After entering the eighties, the children stopped playing toy soldiers. They preferred video games from the first consoles ". The company, which in the meantime had made itself appreciated from Europe to the United States, had to close its doors.

"They paid well"
The Maestro continues with a flashback: "Compagnoni had heard of me, I do not know from who, perhaps from his wife who had a toy store in Via Sarpi. I was just over twenty years old and I made statues for the cribs. He asked if I wanted to dedicate myself to the toy soldiers and answered yes. It was not really my job, but I would have made an attempt. A little 'I was ashamed and initially I did not say anything about my new business to colleagues with whom we discussed the evening of Michelangelo and Canova. But I liked it. And I must say that Compagnoni paid well ".

A long process
Ready, go: chisels and blades of the Master - author of monuments to the fallen in different Italian squares - they begin to model wax that turns into bows, spears, helmets, Colt and Winchester, beards and bare breasts. Then the space suits of Actarus and Alcor, the galactic uniforms of the crew of Arkadia, the spaceship of Harlock. The "statuette" - about twenty centimeters - out of Via Bramante were just the first of the steps that would have brought the soldiers inside the boxes. The following only indirectly concerned Greco who sent his works with a courier company in Treviglio, in the Bergamo area, where Atlantic had production. «Here the models were wrapped in shells of araldite, a sort of very hard and resistant resin - he continues -, from which the mold was taken, a real" imprint "that then went to work with the pantograph, a precision mechanical instrument that allowed to "reproduce" these shells by reducing them in the scale 1:32 or 1:72 ".

After closure
They were those fogures "bu whoch children identified small and big toy soldiers at the toyshop. Careful three-dimensional processing today replaced by electronic printers» which was followed by the production in thousands of pieces. After the closure of the Atlantic Greco has not stopped sculpting: he worked for "other famous companies, Esci, Italeri, Waterloo 1815. But they are series aimed at adults and collectors". And the children of the seventies? "I confess: if I saw them playing with my toy soldiers, I would stop and say," You know, I carved them. What an emotion...".

[Mr. Andrea]

And I was one of those Italian playing with his figures

[Bluefalchion]

And I was one of those Italian playing with his figures

I was one of those Americans doing the same.

[Wiking]

Thank you for the translation Mr. Andrea.

Very early I own a few of there cowboys but did not know the brand Atlantic.
Airfix, Esci was well known to me. The LHS sell only these.
Via Nexus I came to the name Atlantic in the very late 90ies.

[Graeme]

I was one of those Americans doing the same.

And I just bought a few of his Egyptians to have some fun with in the future.

Thanks Kekso and Mr. Andrea, a very interesting video and article, I knew that masters were made larger and pantographed down, but I didn't think the masters were quite that big; I would have guessed about 1/32 size.

I read the article using the Microsoft Edge translator that's pinned to the top of my browser. Usually this works very well, better than the other translator I've tried. This time it was just good enough to give me a general impression. Mr. Andrea's translation was MUCH clearer, so that was greatly appreciated.

[Bluefalchion]

Wait...wait. Mr. Andrea translated that for us into English...by himself?

[Mr. Andrea]

Wait...wait. Mr. Andrea translated that for us into English...by himself?

Not that I couldn't do it myself; only it would require longer. I told you guys: google translator dramatically improved over the years and keeps on improving. That was just 15 minutes of copy and paste, plus some word polishing. When a word has multiple choices in the other language, the translator always pick the wrong one (Murphy's law) with hilarious results.

I am glad you enjoyed the reading. I did, and I wonder if my Italian alpini, bersaglieri, sommozzatori, together with the WWI English, Russian red army, WWII Japanese army etcetera etcetera may have survived somewhere in the attic. I am afraid not. Need to ask family

[Susofrick]

I missed Atlantic, but in 1984 I saw some ESCI figures and started buying again. And this ime I didn't stop! I do have some of Nexus re-issues of the Atlantic range. It is always very interesting to read something like this. A long time ago I read about a British sculptor who worked for Accurate among others. Don't remember his name though.

[Bluefalchion]

The PSR reviews of the WWII Atlantic sets are some of the funniest web pages I have ever read. Even though the figures are not really close to being 100% accurate, I love them, just the same.