"Appeal To Artisans About Faces" Topic

Please consider making 18th Century 28mmish civilians who are not overweight, mutants, elfish-looking or who belong in a sinister and evil-looking robber band. Attractive faces = critical. No more people who resemble Boris Karloff! Thin and attractive comes to mind especially. Making some miniatures in fashionable garments would be nice too. There are enough farmers, bar maids, old hags and peasants but hardly anything else.

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Attractive and normal-looking faces are possible given miniatures I have from Castaway Arts and the Perry twins.
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You CAN do this.
Please try.
Bill
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Huh! Just when I was about to release my own special range of morbidly obese mutant-Elvish footpads in unattractive garments, I get this dash of cold water thrown in my face!

Yep, some normal-looking folk like this:

link

…or this:

link

…would be appreciated.

Ahem…whats wrong with morbidly obese faces? More surface area to paint = more face for your money.

BigLee
link

Bill,

Did you think anyone at this site would take you seriously? I do agree with you that some regular civilian would be nice. Hopefully someone will listen or you could take the path that Minden Miniatures did and make your own.

Geez Alan, I just spewed coffee all over the screen!

I assume that the Boris Karlof faces would be a reference to the Foundry range of 18th Century civilians. Front Rank has some civilians that look nicer, but they are all pleasingly plump. The few Suren figures have correct proportions but they have "village idiot" faces (see the old Britains village idiot figure as an example).

Leave it to the Perry's, Bill. Just not enough of them:

link

Edit: Oooops, the link only goes as far as the Home page. Check out AW 73 in their AWI range.

This topic concerns historicals only:
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I loved your point Howard!
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It seems to me too many of today's artisans of the past decade or so are stretching the boundaries of anatomy in a quest for something very different, bizarre and over the edge of reality. Impossible is another word that comes to mind. Even the Hogarth examples given above do this as a form of expression and/or exaggeration to make statements via caricatures. Compare "Realism" painters and sculptors with say Picasso or Modern Art.
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Realism appears to be returning via the Perrys, Castaway Arts and the Mindens and a big thank you to them for that. There is also a 28mm (?) Western range that has a 20ish woman in a swishing skirt, long hair and a winchester that is realistic. She does not look like a caricature. She is a lovely gem – not a distorted buffoonish cartoon character.
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The bottom line for me is, let's get some of these on the market too. In addition to….what there is now.
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We need more Michelangelos!
Bill

Shadowforge.

Gracias,

Glenn

Thanks Mark,
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Those Perry civilians are terrific. All of them. There are no civilians portrayed in their 20s and 30s and the usual female is a plumpchen – again. Very nice plumpchen though. ~~
Mark let me know if/when you can break away for SYW games.
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Thanks Warbeads,
Yes Shadowforge has the young woman (not overweight) in her 20s with winchester. She is not a plumpchen. How did that happen? I just might buy that miniatures for my Wild West stuff.
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Cheers and applause all respondents,
Bill

Maybe women were just plumper in the 18th Century. I haven't seen many beauties in the various painted portraits that I've seen from the period.

""Overweight, mutants, elfish-looking or who belong in a sinister and evil-looking robber band. Attractive faces = critical. No more people who resemble Boris Karloff!"

And what the HELL do you think civilians, especially 18th Century civilians look like?

Wake up man!

Women weren't necessarily plumper in the 18th century. It WAS the beauty ideal of the times though so they where naturally more often portrayed.

As for the faces… Tom Meier does realistic faces in 28 mm. No one else does. And it's harder than you might think.

I've been tempted to do a range of fantasy lace wars figures with races based on grotesque contemporary charicatures… after a sci-fi comic strip that featured a similar concept. Doubt I'll get round to it tho anytime soon

I wouldn't say that the sculptors of minis are avoiding attractive features. Last time I looked at any crowd of regular people, the humble and gosh darn ugly ones outnumbered the attractive ones.

Arguing that non-attractive features on miniatures is not natural is silly. I would say that if you gathered up the average crew of any war that a good lot of them would not pass the "cute test" especially after some time in the trenches.

Pulpy characters tend to be sculpted along the lines of their literary and media equivalents rather than historical references.

To add to the list of features MISSING in miniatures I might include the following –

1) gapped or missing teeth

2) unattractive brow lines

2) unflattering hair.

3) Height variation

4) Women who are not either in distress, peril, or strumpets or high adventurers.

5) Heroes of particular ethnicity who are not blatantly so.

The list could go on…

-Eli

So I guess your subjective view of what looks "attractive" or "unattractive" is the new Arbiter of All Things? All Hail the Grand Poo bah!

axybraxy: I think that you are reading way too much into this thread. The gentleman is simply stating an opinion about what he would like to see. He is not setting himself up as the final arbiter of all things.

BTW, the Grand Poo Bah would be me, didn't you know?

25mm Minifigs has a few normal 18th Century figures. Waht are the Blue Moon ones like? I've seen the box, but I can't recall what they looked like (from 4 months ago). And that wasn't cold water, MJS.

Most people are ugly
or too fat
or too skinny
wear bad clothes
or bad,dirty clothes
that don't fit
need manicures
and regular dental appointments, and thats today
Imagine 1757 I really can't imagine it too well without getting the willies!

I think it is strange that all our 25/28mm soldiers can look normal, with normal body structure and even normal faces. But the villagers we paint seem to have all come from Mordor.

Very good insight mrkprkr,
Which reveals in a compelling way the circumstances I raised at the beginning of this thread.
Respectfully,
Bill

<<Last time I looked at any crowd of regular people, the humble and gosh darn ugly ones outnumbered the attractive ones.>>

By any chance did they all have annoyingly unwieldly/oversize backpacks and smell bad?

The sculptors of fantasy ranges don't seem to have a problem sculpting attractive looking females. Look at the figures that Tom Meier sculpts as an example.

Are you saying that the sculptors of historical figures don't have the talent or simply aren't up to the task? I don't think that is the case.