French civilians ... interested?

[Poilu]

Hi,
As mentioned previously, I am working on a WWI Light Railways layout/diorama. Have been looking for figures of French civilians, but noticed that there are not that many available. There are some English 1/76 railway modeling figures, which can be used, but these are missing the French touch. So I started looking for pictures which could be used by a sculptor to create a figure. Below is an interesting original colour picture made around 1916 during WWI in France of butcher Minouflet.



I went looking for a 3D sculptor who could create a 3D model of him. This model can be used to print a master to be able to cast it in white metal.
Found a very good one and this is the result ... please note it is still WIP.



Before continuing this project, I would like to know if any of you would be interested in these kind of figures. I am thinking about creating a set with 4-5 figures of French civilians, which could be used both for WWI and WWII.

Curious to know what your thoughts are.

Cheers,

Jeroen

[Michel]

Very lifelike...! Great Idea...!!!!!

[Peter]

I like the idea to! Very usefull

[entrauner]

absolutely stunning! I'm interested, of course........

[Paul]

The 3d sculpt was made just from the photograph!!? That´s pretty amazing.

[Poilu]

Yes, it was made from only the one photograph ... I also find it quite amazing!!

[santifernandez]

Poilu.I`m interested.....too.
You can write mp for new comments.
santi.

[Paul]

Yes, it was made from only the one photograph ... I also find it quite amazing!!

I didn´t know that could be done!! The possiblities are endless! I´d really like to see how they did this.

[von Auerbergh]

This is indeed amazing - and a set of civilians woul be really useful

[Dad's Army]

WOW, and yes I am interested!
Cool the way this figure turned out, hope you got more photo's to get a live in 1/72

[Poilu]

I didn´t know that could be done!! The possiblities are endless! I´d really like to see how they did this.

Hi Paul,
I am not quite sure what software he is using to sculpt this. For the sculptors among us, there might be an interesting piece of software to play around with. It's called Sculptris and can be downloaded at:

http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/

Although I am not a sculptor myself, I played around with it a bit. It is like working in virtual clay... quite interesting!

Cheers,

Jeroen

[zzed]

current Zvezda's range is produced by some small company, most likely in Russia
obviously they are using 3D software sculpts to make the moulds

probably they are bound to produce for Zvezda only, or they will be, but it would be smart to find out these details, who knows

as for the civilians, the best thing would be 10-15 poses in a big box, like the latest Zvezda's soviet platoon, massively produced to lower the end price

at the price of 6-10 euros per box, it will be a bestseller
maybe a cooperation with Zvezda?
they will probably give up from their gaming system big boxes in the next year
I smell they are not selling them well at all

[deon]

Potentially a great idea, I would be interested in french civilians although I might make them pose as Italians

[Poilu]

Potentially a great idea, I would be interested in french civilians although I might make them pose as Italians

Hmmmm... you have a point there, maybe it would be an idea to make them fairly generic so that they can be used all over Europe. I have ideas and pictures of other civilians, but am of course open to suggestions. They need to be European and have to fit both WWI & WWII. Pictures are always welcome.

Cheers,

Jeroen

[poky]

the 3d sculpt looks excellent, hope it prints well, I have seen some 28mm figures that looked awful after printing but they did not use the finest layers possible and the sculpt was also off, this one looks much better
dont forget too at a few ladies.

[David O'Brien]

I think the issues are promotion and distribution. Everybody on this forum wants them (inc me) though how you get them made and distribute them is step 3 (or any number after 1&2).
These 3D programs have been around a long time but they were intended for people dedicating a long time to them to get good results. What is interesting is they are skipping the tec side and going for an intuitive approach so you manipulate the nurbs ( non uniform rational B-splines) as if they were clay. This has also been around a while but some solutions have been just as complex eg True space, Maya or 3Dsmax which are like half way. There are also some user interfaces that allow sculpting in space. I worked with 3d designers 25 years ago (inc ENSAD in Paris and the French seemed to be ahead in the 80s) and most of the stuff was around then but prohibitively expensive for anything other than leading edge technology. It has taken a lot longer to cascade down than I thought. These new developments are actually in accessibility which could be good for hobbies and the creative arts. I still think the age old problems of distribution and promotion (awareness of the product ) are there.
This figure is a good generic figure. My reaction would be having his sleeves rolled down marks him as French though the cap, neck muffler, apron etc could be anywhere in Europe at this time ( a character like this could stretch to WWII). My grandad using to work with his cap on and had that type of moustache but always had his shirtsleeves rolled up. The shoes look like clogs or sabot but then the difference between boots and clogs would be hard to tell in 1/72nd scale. The woman is far less generic though somebody may have photos of for example Cornish or Scottish fishworkers who look very similar.

Good luck. You have identified a need and people like your prototypes now the simple bit getting them made and into our collections.

David

[SamSagace]

A very interesting figure!
I think too that it could be good for other countries and periods.
My father, who was a butcher, looks a little bit like this man, except that he didn't wear his cap when he was working....

[Andreas]

Very nice , i´m getting more intrested in this way of sculpting .

[Phalanx]

Great......and other periods?

[T. Dürrschmidt]

It looks amazing. My grandfather was a butcher too, so I would certainly buy this figure.