Who killed King Louis?

Hello my friends,

Well, nobody has killed the Sun king as far as I know. And certainly not one of the Zonneschuts has had a hand in his death. He died of old age in Versailles. So why this weird title?

This bust in white metal is a miniature copy of the famous Bernini bust of Louis XIV that can be seen in the palace of Versailles. With a 7 cm (2 3/4 inch) height it is quite big for 1:12 scale. Too big for putting it on a table or the top of a bookshelf, but not too big for a collumn or pedestal in a grand hall or a garden. It just needs a bigger room than average in 1:12.

When I assembled the different parts There remained a visible gap between the face and the whig. An ugly open seam that needed to be filled. quite annoying. I experimented with some clay to fill and hide that gap and model it to resemble curly strings of hair. 

It worked quite well in closing the gap. But, in an eerie way, it looks like a blood trail, trickling down his face as a result from a blow to the head. That explains the title of this post. But thankfully nothing unsavory happened to "good old Louie".

However. That being the case, does not change the fact that the 'evidence' of this addition/reparation needs to be hidden from sight. If one wants to conceal something, conceal it well. In this case several layers of paint...

I decided to give this bust a terracotta finish. And not a light and fresh terracotta colour like I did on the woman's bust. No, this time I wanted a darker terracotta colour. Perhaps it has been weathered through standing outside in the garden for a few decades?

The first layer was a Revell skine tone. I applied it as a primer. A thin layer where the metal colour still shines through in places. And being a metal paint it is waaaay to shiny to pass as terracotta, but the next layers should cover that sheen.

Now it is time to deepen the colour. Although I know what result I want to achieve,  I make each step in the painting proces up as I go. I mixed a bit of primary red, some light Venetian red, and a small amount of burnt Sienna into a deep brownish red. And applied a layer onto Louis. When still wet it rather looked like the bust is made out of solidified curry ketchup....

I added some raw umber to the mixture and applied another thin coat of paint. Because the second layer was not yet fully dried I take of paint with my brush in places instead of applying it. With a bit of juggling more paint was applied onto the bust than was taken away. And afterwards it looks like the picture above.

I quite liked the result but it needed something more. I mixed some pigment powder together with acrylic medium and added it to the bust with a brush. This is layer number four.

And finally after the acryllic medium has fully dried we get something like this. The bust looks weathered and a bit flaky. The pigment powder has dulled down the sheen of the paint a lot. Which is good because terracotta is usualy unglazed and should have a matte finish.

Well, this is it for now, my friends. I hope you like this post about my journey to create a good terracotta finish. Although I like the result it is not yet the perfect recipe. Perhaps the next try will be perfect. So stay tuned! :-)

Huibrecht.

A (terracotta) bust is a must

Hello my friends, welcome back. The last few years I have bought several kits and miniatures that only need to be finished. Looking at all those items to make or to finish there should be something that could be done while "in between miniatures". Then I saw the two busts I bought from Alison Davies last year.

A Roman emperor and a lady. Quite popular models by Alison Davies, cast in white resin. Often you see these finished as aged sandstone or marble. Beautiful, but I wanted something different, but what? Busts come in all kinds of materials besidse stone or marble. Just think of wood, (blackened) bronze, lead, pewter, (glazed) terracotta, painted porcelain, et cetera. You name it!

So  I wanted to try something new. A painted terracotta finish. Terracotta was used by artists for studies before the attempted cutting the bust in marble. It was also used for making copies.  For those who can work with clay it is a wonderfull material that can be teased into almost any shape or form.

There are probably very good articles and tutorials on creating a faux terracotta finish. But I could not find one. So I had to think up a method myself. Terracotta is not rjustone colour. but a range of different colour (tones and hues) Depending on the type of clay used the natural colour of the real material goes from soft grey to pink and from sandy yellows to a beige with a burgundy hue. That natural variety gives quite a lot of freedom. After I found pictures of good examples I tried to recreate their colour.

First I aplied an undiluted layer of acrylic paint called terra. As you can see for yourself, this looks way to orange! As if it came from a factory where they make brand new terracotta sewer pipes. yikes! I had expected this because this is meant as the basecoat to shine through the next layers. And so, after it had dried, I applied a second layer of pinkish beige. Something close to a light skin tone. 

The result looked quite promising colour wise. much better than the basecoat Unfortunately this colour did not come in matte finish. As you can see on the picture above it is way to shiny! It almost looks like it is glazed! Not good! I apllied a matte varnish but that dit not tone down the sheen in any way. So varnish was not going to help me with this.  

So what now? In a local store I found (vallejo) pigment powders used on miniature (train) diorama's and such. typically for ageing and such. This could help. I aplied a thin layer of medium and a dusting of the powder. When the medium dried I rubbed the bust with a soft cloth. I ended up with this as a result. Quite dark but it has that subdued sheen that (older) terracotta often has. 

The darkness in the last picture was replaced with a lighter result after it had fully dried (took quite some time) The end result can be seen on the picture above. I am very happy with the result. 

I also painted 2 1:24 vases. I followed the same steps but omitted the first step of painting them in terra like the bust. So the skintone paint was added directly on the resin vases. Because of poor light (it is a rainy day) it is a bit hard to see compared now, but their terracotta colour is actualy a bit paler and more yellow than the bust. Just like with gilding, the base colour affects the final outcome of the colour. 

I have enjoyed this little trial and error. The result is even better as I had hoped. I had expected to need to use more layers of paint to achieve this effect. And who knows some of you may benefit from it someday. :-)

Huibrecht