Personality (test or disorder?)

As I finish off painting the last few personalities for the Estavian army, I've been musing about why I have so many in my SK armies.

Obviously one of the main influences stems from Charles Grant and "The Wargame" where his general figures appear: Fritz von Tarlenheim and the figure miscaptioned as Graf von Grunt (the Wargame Companion reveals this is none other than Von und zu Trinksblut und Eisenessen). These were wonderful Willie 30mm miniatures, some converted. To a lesser extent I was also swayed by Peter Young and "Charge" where numerous Staden and Willie staff figures were shown cantering all over the table (it always looked like too many to be practical to me....).

As an aside, I liked one of the figures so much, I had to try and replicate it, so the Graf von Gruntzen, Herzog von Landesburg was made:

When planning the campaign I relied on Tony Bath's book for ideas. He was very keen on creating characters; this had also appeared in the Grants (senior and junior) writing, so it seemed perfectly natural to incorporate these ideas, after all who doesn't like a nice general figure? I had initially planned to duplicate the Wargame and use Willie figures. However, when creating family trees as per Bath, I realised I would potentially need rather a lot.....

At that time, they were difficult to get hold of being manufactured in Sweden. They have since become easier to obtain and are competitively priced. There are however, a limited number of miniatures to choose from, even if using Stadden in addition. I realised I was generating far more characters than the 7 to 10 suitable figures could accommodate, even with conversions.

I toyed with just having them as the monarch; what to do about the rest? In the end inspiration came from a different source, Peter Dennis:

https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/sculpting-figure-from-fimo/

Unlike the obscenely talented Mr Dennis, I couldn't imagine attempting a horse. I did have some old GW plastic horses and some old Rospak ones (which look like the odd way horses are painted in C18th portraits). So I gave it a go.

My early efforts; nothing was wasted or thrown away:

I later discovered a source of plastic toy horses; by then my sculpting skills had improved. For those not in the know, Fimo or Sculpy is firm enough to support itself. Unlike other clays (Miliput and Green Stuff) it doesn't require a dolly or armature to sculpt onto. It does however loose details at the merest touch.....

The trick is to work downwards and shape out the basic rider, including face, then go back and add arms and finer details. The esteemed Tony Barton uses Fimo and sculpts in two halves, baking inbetween. It's possible to add to a baked figure and re-bake. Getting the temperature correct is essential. I have had disasters both when sculpting and baking. If it's during the sculpt, it's possible to simply start again. When baking, most of mine are under-done which makes them brittle. Quite a few sword scabbards and legs have broken off. Fortunately, PVA and Cyrnoacetate glue works. There were some that were left a little too long.....I rescued them before they melted! While hard, I had a lot of distortion with finer thin parts....

Anyway, while still not ready to tackle horses, I have made a few dogs.......