70th Annual MFCA Show and Mart

[the Baron]

Hi, all! We held our annual show April 29-30, our 70th, and I've finally been able to get the pics I took

uploaded and organized, so here is a little tease to start everything off...

These figures are in 1/6 scale by Colonel Skip Tyler, who has been a Grand Master for over 30 years. A British

grenadier and a Union cavalryman with his tack:



Solider of the Corps of Discovery, 1805:



Cavalryman (sorry, I missed the year):



Cnfederate cavalryman:



USMC, private, 1812:



Confederate private:



Col. Tyler uses the old Marx "Best of the West" figures as his mannikins for these conversions. I mentioned that

I've got old GI Joes that I've thought about converting, but he noted that the Marx figures have better hands for

converting to different poses (I never had any GI Joes with Kung-Fu Grip!). Also, we agreed that the horses from

the Marx series are the best and the most accessible in this scale. The Marx series also had some very good

examples of the ordnance from around the time of the Civil War up through the Plains Indian Wars.

Speaking of Indians, he's also converted the Geronimo figure into a Plains Indian scout serving with the US

Cavalry, but unfortunately, he didn't have room to bring that figure along.

Col. Tyler's display was part of a retrospective of past Grand Masters that we like to hold, to show earlier work

to the younger audiences. He's a real gentleman, too, and I hope those of you who made it up to the show had a

chance to chat with him.

More to come...

 

[the Baron]

Here's the second installment...

"Sniper", depicting British paras landing in Arnhem:



An SS Tiger at Kharkov:



and our own Wendy's figures:









Sorry, Wendy, I missed noting the titles of your pieces, and I didn't get a photo of Tinuviel (which, if my nerdy senses are correct, is from The Silmarillion)

More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

This is by Al LaFleche of the Wings & Wheels IPMS club, Springfield, Massachussetts, a great bunch of guys! I think it was entitled, "The Robot's Victim":



Al had some mecha pieces which you'll see in a later post.

More figures...a Roman legatus:



and an homage to Gericault's painting, a Chasseur of Napoleon's guard:



A pair of Civil War figures, always a popular subject:



Athena, goddess of war:



and a wonderful pair of busts of Indians, an Osage warrior:



and a Hopi maiden:



More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

More subjects from the American west:



and then to the other side of the Pacific, Maeda Toshiio-sama!



Another Napoleonic, Captain Pierre Daumnesil:



A fine bust of American ace Frank Luke:



and a French chasseur alpin from the Great War:



and a collection of Napoleonics in 54mm:



More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

Hi, all, here is the next installment in the pics that I took...

Some excellent flats; here, Seljuks of Rum (also spelled Rhum, if I am not mistaken):



and the classic, "Girl with a Pearl Earring":



Forgive me, I don't know the actual name of the painting that inspired this flat. I could only label it as "Girl with Veil":



Look at how the artist achieved the effect of the thin veil over her hair and shoulders!

and here, St. George and the dragon:



Here is a group of rounds by Vaughn Whisker, who otherwise paints flats, his Nativity:



More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

Back to fully-rounds...

Here is a Baden dragoon, by Stephen Malia, from Malta:



I was glad to see this in person, after following his build blog over at PlanetFigure (www.planetfigure.com), and it was great to see Stephen in person again.

The next photos are of artist Keith Rocco's display. We have been fortunate to have him as a vendor at our show, with his great paintings.









And not only for his art, but Keith and his wife are very gracious, really nice folks to meet and talk to.

More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

Here is Dave Maddox' excellent diorama, "A Captured Moment", inspired by a period photo of the Red Baron and Werner Voss:



From the photo, Dave conceived of showing von Richthofen and Voss in black and white, as in the photo, but showing the photographer in natural colors:



Here are the aces, standing before their two-seater Albatros conversion, made specially for von Richthofen by the company, and which he used as a squadron hack:



Dave scratched the aircraft section. He also explained how tricky it was to achieve the black and white effect, including researching from the photo.

On to another piece of ordnance, "Under Fire" by John Rosengrant:



The kit is by Tamiya, with figures heavily modified or sculpted from scratch.

More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

time to get back at it, and post the rest of the pics I took at our show this year.

As a lead-in, here is an excellent flat by Greg DiFranco, a French Napoleonic dragoon:



I wish I were better able to show you the subtlety of Greg's work. His shading is so fine, that he approaches a photographic image.

This next group consists of works in progress by the Italian figure sculptor Ludovico Carrano:



Again, you can see the quality of the work shown in our exhibition. Ludovico produces marevellous figures.



I can't wait to see these finished and painted!





From connoisseur figures in progress, we turn to classic toy soldiers. These dimestore conversions were made by Roger DuBois, and won the Best Old Toy Soldier award:



Using old Barclay and Manoil dimestores, Roger produced Prussians in pre-1910 field dress



including a signals unit



and a color party



and here is an example of the raw materials he used:



That brings me to a word about judging in the Toy Soldier categories. We judge Old and New Toy Soldiers, based on the soldiers used as the starting point. Roger's fall into the Old Toy Soldier category, because he used old toy soldiers. Displays using King & Country, such as Alan Gold has made, are judged as New Toy Soldiers.

More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

Some sci-fi ordnance, by Al LaFleche:





Back to figures...a bust of a GI, winter 1944:



and a what-if piece, of sorts, "Sgt." John Rosengrant:



John sculpted this piece, giving the figure his face. It's been available as a resin kit for some years, and I'm sorry, but I didn't get the name of the artist who painted it.

A tribute to the USMC, "Bloody Solomons":



and the vignette, "The Chosin Few":



and wrapping up this installment with the winner of Best New Toy Soldier, a pair Prussian grenadiers by Tradtion, and painted by Ben King:





More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

This model of the Monitor was brought along by a gentleman who was helping man his friend's table in the vendor area:



He had brought it along to put it out for sale, and hadn't thought about displaying it. But I talked him into it. The work he did is outstanding. Here is a cutaway to show his interior work



More figures, this time, Ian McKenzie's French hussars:



I had a nice talk with Ian about how he kitbashed the figures and the horses, which are by the French firm, Metal Modeles. Ian also explained how he sculpted the riders' lower halves first, then sculpted the saddles, so the places where their legs and the saddles meet would fit naturally. Many kits are often weak in this area, and you'll see daylight between rider and horse.

Back to WWII and the Pacific Theater we go, with "Bradley on Suribachi":



and a figure of Patton:



and a grunt, humpin' it in Iraq:




and a Prussian (Imperial German) officer, 1914:



More to follow...

 

[the Baron]

This is an example of the diorama work we see in the exhibition, a cutaway of a German bunker:



The rest of the box showed the action on the ground outside the bunker:



and this diorama of a WWII German howitzer:



These next pieces, taken as an entire display, won the Brian Spruyt Award for the Best American GI. When Brian passed away in 2006, we decided to honor him, his service as a veteran, and his love of figures and history, by establishing the award. We award it for pieces that depict the American soldier, from any time in our history. We also like to award it to lesser-known or newer artists, to encourage work in this subject.

These were all done by Ed Schaefer, as a tribute to the Marines. The first is "Khe Sanh '68":



"The Old Breed", Marines on Peleliu:



"Semper Fi!":



and, "The Hot Rock's Summit":



When we were judging for Brian's award, we all had various pieces on our lists, but we all had Ed's pieces selected, too, so it was easy to agree.

And here, I wrap up the pictures I took in the exhibition, with "Yorktown" by Doug Cohen:



and this vignette of Leonidas' speech to his commanders before Thermopylae:



We're almost home...

 

[the Baron]

Now I'd like to share with you, the figures I picked up at the show.

First, Rich Dutkin had Tradtion's new Seven Years' War cavalry kits at his table, so I picked up four of the six total, Scots Greys:



and the Inniskilling Dragoons:



I opened the one Inniskilling kit, so you can have a look at the quality of the casting. It shows Tradition's usual fine quality, is relatively easy to assemble, and I should have these painted up soon. I plan on getting about a dozen each, to be able to display a small troop from each regiment. And the Inniskillings can be converted relatively simply to any of the other dragoon regiments in the British army of the day.

Along with new kits, I picked up some older figures. First, Imperial German Garde zu Fuss, by Russell Gammage/Rose Miniatures:



Of course, now I will be on the lookout for more of these, to be able to put a larger guard and music together. These will go with my Guard Corps Alexander grenadiers and the rest of my Christmas parade group.

And these were other acquistions, for the Seven Years War, and one Imperial German:



From left to right, a Hessian grenadier by Scheid, a Rose Austrian grenadier, two British grenadiers by William Murray/Old Guard, and a officer of the Gardes du Corps, dressed for palace duty 1910, by Bussler.

And finally, three unusual pieces, vignettes using Stadden figures. A diorama of the "Soldier King", Frederick William, and an officer and grenadier of his Potsdam grenadiers:





a group of Austrian cavalry:





and a pair of Prussian grenadiers:



Greg DiFranco was given these, from an acquaintance's estate, and was asked to bring them to the show and give them a good home. I was more than happy to take them on. I thought at first that I might strip the figures down, and rebuild the vignettes with some updated materials. But the more I thought about it, I decided I'm going to leave them as they are, as a tribute to the unknown modeler who assembled these some 40 years ago or more. They remind me of pieces in the Stadden catalogs from back then, so they're interesting to have now in my collection.

Well, that's the end of it! It was a fun show, as it always is, and it was good to see everone in person, and spend a couple of days, just indulging in the hobby.

Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

[Chiefpettyofficer]

Wow, thanks for sharing. Im looking forward to see that french sappeurs painted, too

 

[sunsanvil]

Do you know if the Tinuviel is an original, or is it a commercial figure?

 

[the Baron]

Thanks, guys, I'm glad you enjoyed having a look into our show! It is a lot of fun, the high point of the year in the hobby for me and the others who organize it.

@Sunsanvil--I don't know, but I can find out for you.

 

[the Baron]

Do you know if the Tinuviel is an original, or is it a commercial figure?

Hi, Sunsanvil, here you go...it's the 30mm "Wood Elf Noble Lady in Travelling Clothes", sculpted by Tom Meier, and is available only at www.thunderboltmountain.com. Foot figure is $3.50.

Hope that helps!

Brad

 

[sunsanvil]

Thank you for that. Some really nice small pieces there. I'm going to have to look into doing an order!