"Retreat from Moscow Vignette" Topic

Maybe old news but the Winner of the 2013 Perry Painting Contest has made a superb vignette.

From here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Is everyone else totally convinced by this? It is superb quality, skilled, painting and each individual figure would look great straight off a parade ground, in such vivid and glossy colours. The cart paintwork hits you right between the eyes. To me they look like Toy Soldiers frankly.

But do they look cold? Where is the frost on their spotless clothing and beards? What is this strange waterwork, a sort of Belgian canal they are crossing in the middle of Russia? Why is the little bridge covered in what can only be soapsuds?

I do love that figure at the front right in the grey coat and the Burberry scarf however. Worth a prize on his own.

Easy to criticise and these figures are my next project…once I have done my Saxon G du Corps, finished the Union Brigade, painted those brilliant Westfalia artillery train figs with the caisson…etc…….

See what the two protagonists look like in the Duellists at this stage. Bloodshot eyes, cracked lips, skin pale yet filthy, sunken eyes……..the grenadier lacks his bearskin plate and the first lad across the bridge, the Pole, really should not be carrying a flamethrower in 1812

This was at Historicon this year

I like the groundwork. I agree with deadhead, The figures look too bright and clean. What really throws if off for me it that bright drum. The drum looks brand new. Overall I like it though.

and the drum straps are clearly frozen solid. Just got a second opinion from She Who Must be Obeyed…her comment? "Looks like a Disney version of Retreat from Moscow"……….cannot improve on that.

Does anyone know of a tutorial for painting cold skin. These chaps look rather warm of flesh.

That looks like a cool birthday cake.

FAR above my poor abilities.

VERY nice!

WOW this has to be one of the harshest shredding of someones work that I have seen in a long time.

The figures look pretty good overall, a bit shiney, yes but some people like the shiney results (not me, I like matt finishes) and I believe snow is hard to get "just so".

I don't have a problem with toy soldiers looking like toy soldiers.

Looks pretty good to me. The fact that the diorama maker uses crisp, bright colours is a matter of taste, not artistic talent.

You guys think you could do better, take a shot. Til then, show the painter some respect.

Surprised at the level of criticism this has got.
Quite well done. A bit bright perhaps but good shading and highlighting. Looks like he uses a white undercoat, that really helps make the colours more vivid.

The snow looks as good as any I've ever seen, Ive been to Russia, but haven't yet combed the whole countries examining small bridges to see if this is accurate style of bridge.. but considering the limitations of 28mm figures id not care if its slightly off.

The only thing that slightly bugs me is there is a man freezing in just his tunic when a perfectly good greatcoat is not being used next to him.. that would have been nicked surely.

OK so I was bit critical…and not alone in that. I did concede that this is very skilled painting, (shading highlighting etc) but that the end result is so unrealistic. We have debated before in this forum whether playing at men freezing to death, dying of disease and malnutrition is ethical…maybe painting such figures too realistically is equally dodgy and this is how it should be done. I worry when I see Helmand figures currently for sale, for the same reason….too close to home.

Snow is difficult, frost on clothing not too hard, freezing faces actually easier. Tone everything down. Skin very pale, seriously, with a touch of faint blue. Dark sunken bloodshot eyes, cracked bleeding lips and filthy. Perhaps these are better indeed than the realistic version……

I only went for this because it was entered for/won the Perry prize. That renders it liable to judgement.

Final comment…how right of 79thPA. Let's see if I can do it better. If I ever get around to it………..

deadhead

As a showpiece it is very good. Great skill in painting etc.
But you don't get that 'freezing cold' and 'troops suffering' feeling looking at it, possibly because they are, in my opinion, too neat, tidy and shiny for suffering troops on a bitter retreat. And close up, the snow looks a bit like cake icing.

They might look a bit like toy soldiers but I don't think they can be classed as toy soldiers because toy soldiers are for playing with, not looking at, as they are in this case, although I guess some toy soldier collectors collect toy soldiers just to look at. But much better in a scene like this than wasted in a box.

Yes, great skill and setting and certainly worth a prize but not really great aesthetically, in my opinion. But certainly beyond my impatient painting skills.

There certainly are nice aspects to this diorama. I applaud the effort.
However I'm certainly in favor of an honest critique done respectfully. The maker can take it or leave it but there could be things brought out the maker wasn't aware of which would be helpful in the future.
Generally speaking one is not doing the maker a favor by stroking them if critiques are called for. There are games and figures shown here that I think look substandard but I would never critique due to the maker not asking for opinions.