Andrew C Stadden Blog Post 53
A few months ago Rustington Museum asked me to do a talk titled 'The Life And Work of Charles Stadden' about my father, as they had recently acquired a few prints, figures and other items for their 'Chas C Stadden' display. Although I had given a talk about my own work for W Britain at the Guards Museum, Birdcage Walk, back in around 2005, I had never given a talk about Dad. The date set was 21st September 2022.
Two hours seemed a lot to fill, but in the end I slightly ran over time as there was plenty to talk about. I had recently completed Dads life story up to the end of WW2 on my website, but I had to do a fair bit of new research to help fill in the rest. That part of the story will appear on my website in due course. The talk also included a few stories told by my father himself using sections of audio recorded in the 1990s.
There were around 50 people in the audience, pretty much a full house for the museum. It was good to see some of my friends, several of my parents neighbours, and a few of my customers along with a lot of people I didn't know.
One of my Dads painting outworkers from around 40 years ago came along too.
A big thank you to everyone who attended, I hope you found it entertaining.
As always with an event like this, if I was asked to do it again I would change a few things but the reaction was very good and it seemed to go down very well.
I am often asked to repair or repaint (or both) my fathers old 85mm figures. They have not been produced new since around 2005 but it is possible to buy them on the second hand market. Mint condition examples are quite rare but it is satisfying to take damaged figures and restore them. This Royal Irish Rangers Piper was originally finished in shiny polished pewter, and it had the two right hand drones and ribbons missing.
Most of my work this year has been sculpting military figures to commission, so there has been little time to add to the items for sale from my website shop. As always there is a lot of paddling beneath the surface so I hope to add some new figures soon.
I have also been painting some of my 1/43 scale figures for various customers, especially since Paul and Carole at Detailed Miniatures decided to retire. Here are a selection.
Several modellers sent me photos of Andrew C Stadden figures that they had painted, and kindly gave me permission to show them here. The first ones are 1/43 scale from Peter Hollins, very nicely painted.
Secondly, Dave Cutler, his wonderful mid Victorian 1/76 scale layout features some of my loco crews and Brunel on the platform next to Lion.
Finally, Richard sent me photos of 1/76 scale passengers for his NER Autocar. He said it was 35 years since he last painted a model figure but they look very good. He's chosen bright colours so they can be seen clearly through the windows.
