posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa.

I have finished a little mad project lately.

Mad because there is so much in it I can't explain in words. So much meaning to me. So much impressions and memory and gratitude. So much friendship. I'll try to explain myself a bit more after showing you the final project and tell you on how I came upon the idea. Later on in this posting.

The Project was done in about 9 days, where 3 days were used for planning, 3 days for basing and 3 days for painting. I can't remember such a mad timed project on my own so far but I have enjoyed it a lot, with reasons - those you find later on too. At this point I want to thank Raffa for helping me with the photos and the video. Now I start with two quotes:












Now I try to explain a little bit about it:

Reasons and thoughts:

- First Reason was the Paintit 2011 contest on the german Bemalforum.de with a special category called "Wild Wild West" where it was asked to show the really wild West out there. Somehow this got me with several ideas :)

- I was stuck from now on to the idea of using 1:72 Indian Warriors. Those I was used to play with when I was a little boy. I was not only stuck, I was also crazy about the idea and dreamed of 400 Apaches riding free in the wind, all in 1:72. Then I calmed down a bit and the idea changed to a Cowboy Barkeeper, who stands in front of a bar with a diorama tank of riding Indians in the back of the bar. The idea switched to a Barkeeper who sculpts the Indians in a picture during his free time when there are no guests around. So I went further with the idea. I found this Set of Black Scorpion Cowboy Civilians and choose the Barkeeper for the final scene.

- I've bought some really cheap 1:72 Indians and produced something I was not sure how to use it in the end.


- Now the project was dead for a while after we left for Monte San Savino Show 2011 to Italy. Monte San Savino Show 2011 was really a great experience. My personal review is still in the write up and will soon hit the jungle, but what I can say is that this weekend in Italy somehow helped me again to listen deeper in my heart and somehow made me grow in person - hard to explain, can sound pretty stupid, maybe. But it did.

- Shortly before the last painting class in Schoeppenstett I picked up the project again. 6 days before the final date to sent photos in for the competition. Normally I am not so disciplined when it comes to a competition but there was also another reason ahead: Raffa's Birthday. As Raffa is a very important friend in my life I wanted to do something for him. I had planned a little Rose for his collection of Roses but already knew I would fail to finish her. So I decided to do homicide and start an even bigger project and build up this base and switched from the barkeeper to the blacksmith miniature.



- Then we went for the painting class for the weekend and I had the blacksmith with me for starting the paint. The base was left home not yet finished or primed.

- I came home exhausted from the class, with some colour on the blacksmith and did not rest from the weekend. Hitting the base right away after everything from the class was unpacked did lead me to a primed base and then I had 3 days of hardcore, powerful, joyful painting time. Thanks to my girlfriend who helped me dance with the muses during these freaky days, love you my angel :)

- In the end I made it very close to the Competitions end on last weeks wednesday night. Thanks to Peter for helping me creating a ton of saw chips, we did them by sawing small timber while time was running away, at least we did not need the amount I had expected first.

- In the end the competition wasn't the breath behind this project. Maybe the competition was a little wind, but compared to the Hurricane that I felt during working on it because of those different reason it means nothing: It was the friendship to Raffa who gave this birth deep out of my heart. Somehow I could tell you stories now on what different emotions are in this project. It seems the whole last year appears, goods and bads are all in it - the divorce of my parents, the problems afterwards, my girlfriend, my family, our kittens, my friends, time spent with them, love, Monte ... can't find words for that all. It is just in there at least for me and this is really a little scene I will never sell so it was a good decision to give it to one of my best friends, to my brother in brush and brain (my bibab :D).

- I had 2 songs that run over and over again during this project, really up and down, up and down all day long during the last hardcore painting days - in fact the first song is right, I did sleep around 4 hours per night and in the end it wasn't sleep at all, it was dreaming and thinking about the project :D

Tina Dico & Helgi Jonsoon - No Time to sleep
Two Steps from Hell - Magika

Now I don't know what to write further, I am still a little bit brain offline after those days - if there are any questions - please drop a line in the comments. If you like it or don't please feel invited to drop a comment too. If you got nothing to say like I do now after all the typing, don't write a comment :)

I want to say gratitude to all the people who are involved in the inspiration to this project and don't know about it! There are too many to list them all up here!

Hope you like it?
Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman