Posted by Morat on 06 Nov 2022, 15:39
Hi,
My name is Roland Rüesch, born in Switzerland but living almost half of my live in the USA. Born 1962, in the late 60s and early 70s, I painted napoleon soldiers on horses just because they looked so good on those cardboard boxes. Mine, of course did not looked good, since I had only a few crabby Revel colors.
Later I gave up this hobby and shifted to model trains. After spending a fortune over the last forty years, I found out my passion for medieval history and my old hobby of painting figures could be combined. When I saw a box of Swiss Infantry of 14. century I gave it a try. I had already the brushes and the Paint (Vallejo) and only had to invest $14, so I had nothing to lose.
With help of this and other forums, my first soldiers turn out okay. Now I was dreaming big. My main focus was building a battle diorama and not really pursuing to master the art of super realistically painted figures, we all admire on this forum. Especially since I am almost 60 years old and my hands and eyes will not getting any better.
I chose the battle of Murten/Morat as my theme because of many reasons.
First, probably my ancestors fought in that battle or more likely came a day to late since I can trace my family back to a town in St. Gallen.
Second, more literature is available on line about this battle, than any other Swiss conflicts. Living in the USA, far away from Murten makes it a little harder.
Third, the battle has knight on horses and a lot of them. 50 years later, I am still crazy about mounted soldiers and we cannot forget the flags. In the description of the battle, it says “a sea of flags.”
When I am not painting my figures, I am hunting on the internet for the coat of arms of the participants of the battle at Murten and redraw them for later use.
In the next few weeks, I will take some pictures and show my work of the last 1 and 1/2 years.
Thanks to all for getting my to this point with your posts and “how to” instructions.
Morat