I came up with an idea for Gamblers and Risk Takers which I planned to go with but my wife Cath came up with this one, far better than my original. I think Otto Schindler not only took massive risks once he realised just what he had been doing but poured so much into his ever increasing risks he took to create a safe place for the people he was trying to save.
The hunt was on for two suitable figures, I knew immediately what I wanted to produce, just needed to find it. Both Cath and myself spent an evening looking for suitable figures with Cath finding the little girl whilst I ended up on Dixon's site looking at Gangsters!
It was clear right from the start I would have to tackle greyscale, something that I was rightfully worried about, given the skill set of the recipient. I then set about searching for images that would help with the painting. Both film stills that really helped and grayscale images to give me a better idea. I went on Curt's blog and very nearly called it off given that one of the figures Curt had already painted as part of his WWI Greyscale Project!
My risk taking came in the form of conversions, you have to keep to the theme you know. The best looking figure for Schindler had the wrong headgear on, a cloth cap really would not do but I had a Artizan Partisan who's hat worked but face did not. Hat swap rather than head swap then. The girl simply needed cutting away from mum and hand re-cutting a bit. I also raised the arm just a fraction as I wanted her to be reaching. On the other hand (the gags keep coming) I wanted Schindler to be reaching down so cut the gun out of his hand and bent that downwards.
After a lot of filing the hat was in place, mind you the back of his head was not. On taking the cap off I had cut away a chunk of his head and had to replace the hair with some white putty. The hat also looked far too small but it was the only one I had so would have to go with it.
The greyscale was challenging and whilst it's no Curt it captures what I had in my minds eye. I have tried to keep to the depth of colours from the film though he wears both light and dark shades of coats the greatcoat seems to have been always rather light.
The coat had great definition to work with and as it was about the last part to be painted I was starting to feel more at home with the process. Good job as it's the most obvious part of the figure. In the end, once painted the hat actually looks about the right size, panic over.
The girl was much easier to work on, though I spent a lot of time on that coat before giving up and adding a wash to get as close to the look as I wanted. It was at this point I knocked a new and full pot of GW Nulin Oil over the table wrecking my other work meaning I had to go back to primer on my next submission, oh joy.
I was originally planning on having the girl on a snow covered section with Schindler on the summer base, in the end I thought it would work better just bleak on her half of the base. I was trying for them reaching over the impossible void and she obviously is the "could have saved one more" from the movie.
So hopefully Curt will forgive me my use of a none standard sized base, I could not get the look I wanted otherwise. I have to say that I am rather pleased with the result and maybe just maybe I can be forgiven for Dylan last year ;-)
Wonderful and very poignant vignette Ian. You have captured some iconic imagery from a powerful movie. Well done with the figure search, the hat swap and the conversion work. You also done a wonderful job for your first foray into grey scale. As someone who games with Curt on a regular basis, I fully understand the trepidation in venturing where Curt has gone before. His painting is intimidating to beheld in comparison to.
