Sunday, February 8, 2015

'Hot' from RichardC - 'Napoleon and Ozymandias'


As soon as the bonus round themes were announced, I started coming up with ideas. Some rounds were obvious, others have undergone three or four changes. The “hot” round is one of the former.




I bought this Brigade figure of Napoleon in Egypt way back last summer (I think the one day of sunshine we had inspired me). The figure is very nicely sculpted, although the camel did have a fair amount of flash to dispose of. I was, however, stumped about the basing, as I felt that a simple sandy base wouldn’t have the oomph factor.

I was watching a thriller on tv where a vital clue turned out to be the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
 



I had my idea for the base. Originally, it was to be a 54mm Pharoah painted as a statue, but then I spotted the “shattr’d visage” on the Element Games website. I hacked off all the large scarab beetles (or I thought I had – one escaped, and was only spotted after the painting started).



Many thanks go to the Awdry Towers Photographic Studios.

16 comments:

  1. Look behind YOU! That's a hot entry. Very nice base and lots of detail on Napoleon. Cheers

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    1. Michael A and I were posing the General, when suddenly this ruddy great Jabberwocky appeared from behind the backdrop. Luckily, Napoleon put the spurs to the camel, and he managed to get away!

      Pip pip

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  2. Well done Sir, lovely to see this in the flesh - the detail is really wonderful.

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    1. And many thanks for your photographic skills. It was equally nice to see Lucifer in the (red) flesh!

      Pip pip

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  3. Replies
    1. Cheers for that Dave. It was nice to get back to something Napoleonic.

      Pip pip

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  4. Beautiful painting and basing on this figure.

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    1. Sean, many thanks. I really enjoyed painting this (well, Napoleon anyway - I have history with camels!).

      Pip pip

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  5. Replies
    1. Pater, Thanks for that. I'm starting to get my eye back into painting (well, my optivisor at any rate). A nice distraction from the pressures of "real life".

      Pip pip

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  6. Wonderfully detailed work and the appearance of the Jebberwock is inspired.

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    Replies
    1. Well it seemed wrong not to put the two of them together.

      Pip pip

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  7. Great looking piece and the basing just adds to it

    Ian

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  8. That's an outstanding piece of work, though I never thought Wellington or Blucher quite that ugly.

    The little details on Napoleon and his camel are outstanding, even without the base. As mentioned previously, the base just adds to the whole scene.

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    1. Thank you very much for that Robert. I've got a feeling this won't be the last camel I'm going to paint for the Challenge!

      Pip pip

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