The Last Cigarette?

摘要

The story of this figure began when I was asked by my friends from the Kempense Modelbouw Klub to do a workshop on my way of painting figures with oils. For this purpose I thought it would be helpful to have some figure parts big enough to allow every spectator to see what I was doing. So why not sculpt my own bust? I had a bust that had been sculpted by a friend based on a 1/6 scale action figure, which made me choose the same scale to be sure about the basic dimensions. As I was after showing my usual techniques just in the larger scale I made a late war German tanker as a subject, which I had painted several times before in both 1/35 and 1/16 scale. It was for sure one of the most striking experiences for the German late war tankers in particular on the Western front, that their weapons had lost their decisive fighting capacity due to the enemy's air superiority. That is why I wanted to show my figure looking up to the enemy-ruled sky with an anxious expression. In addition to the challenge of creating the impression of anxiety, I wanted to do so with a young looking face, which combined to create plenty of character.