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Frederic II of Swabia (90mm Pegaso)
Another large scale historical piece for me. I just absolutely LOVE this sculpt. The wind is captured so wonderfully in both the tunic and the flight of the falcon. From the write-up presented with the mini, Frederic seems like a pretty interesting chap. He was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and reclaimed the Holy Land in 1229 without a fight because the Muslims saw in him a man of peace and of science (he spoke 6 languages italian, latin, arabian, german, french, and greek and was well versed in philosophy and astronomy ... pretty cool for a knight, eh?) About the figure, it was quite a challenge. He is from Germany. So, I tried to make his face be both pale/grizzled/suntan/burnt to give him the look of a European traveled to the Holy Land ... also, I tried to give him a kind/fond expression in his eyes as I wanted to show his fondness for falconry. The REAL challenge was that I've never painted this much white before and never realized just how difficult a color it is to paint. After some subtle shading w/ ultra thin Vallejo Sombre Grey and the clean up with Skull White (and believe it or not Brush-on White Primer), then it was time to get it all dusty and worn from the environs of the Holy Land (cobra leather ... really thin lightly brushed here and there). The wood grain on the shield is freehand ... it was sculpted perfectly smooth. I accomplished this by laying down a basecoat of thinned Flat Brown and then successive rapid "vertical" strokes with Light Flesh and Charred Brown to get the wood grain. The falcon is based on pictures of a peregrine falcon ... my background in watercolors came in quite handy here as just the thinnest mix of Dark Grey / Black were used to tint the stripes on the feathers. I used a little Dark Prussian Blue in the metallics and like the way that turned out. I hope you like this one. It was a challenge and a pleasure to paint.
Posted: 7 Mar 2004
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