Andrew C Stadden Blog Post 52
I was just thinking that it was about time that I made a blog post, and was astonished to see that it was over a year since I had done so.
I'll get the bad news out of the way first. I have had to increase my prices for the first time since I started selling model railway figures from my website shop. As this was about 15 years ago this was very much overdue. Hopefully this will give me some time to more create new products, as this is the part of my work that I enjoy most. I always aim to keep the standard of my figure castings as high as possible, and that includes using good quality pewter rather than whitemetal. The price of pewter almost doubled during 2021, which was a bit of a shock to the system!
Many thanks to those of you who contributed to my '26.2 Songs, 26.2 Miles' at Brighton Marathon for St Barnabas House hospice, in memory of my late wife Julie. After Covid delays I eventually got to do the run on 12th September 2021.
more details of that amazing day here:- https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/26songs26miles
Here's just a few projects that I have been involved in since my last blog, hopefully I'll have more to show you later in 2022.
The first photo this month shows four of my 1/43 Hi-Vis Drivers painted for a private order. Sadly Paul and Carole Boisclair at Detailed Miniatures recently decided to call it a day for their figure painting service. They used to use a lot of my castings so I have been painting for some of their old customers.
This one shows my 1/43 LBSCR Loco Crew now with new separate alternative heads. I aim to improve all my old 1/43 Loco Crews in this manner to give more variety along with the separate arms and shovels. The 1/43 Cambrian Loco Crew have also been given this treatment.
Now and again Nick Dunhill asks me to make a custom Loco Crew for his superb 1/43 scale locomotives, this time a GWR Rover Class. They were to match the crew in an old photo that he provided. This pair also have separate heads and will appear in my website shop in the near future. I didn't paint these ones myself, I just provided the castings but I think they look fantastic.
At the end of last year I received a second commission in connection with an exhibition by Yinka Shonibare CBE. This time I was asked to make a 12cm tall replica of a life sized mask.
I was given a file of reference photos taken from many different angles which enabled me to draw the mask in 3D on my laptop. After 3D printing the mask, I tidied it up and added guide marks to assist in the painting. I then made a mould so I could cast copies in resin, which I painted using Humbrol paint. The supporting rods had to be soldered to the square metal bases before the masks could be fixed on top. As the order eventually rose to 53 copies plus a couple of extras, this was a lot of work and kept me very busy over Christmas!
I was kindly allowed to use the two photos above, credit the following:-
Artist: Yinka Shonibare CBE
Title: Hybrid Mask II (K’peliye'e)
Date: 2021
Edition size: 50 +3 APs
Overall dimensions: 20 x 8 x 8 cm
Medium: Hand painted resin mask on a brass plinth Photographer credit, image courtesy: Courtesy the artist, Deutsche Bank Emerging Curators Fellowshipand Frieze, London. Photographer: Photographer: Ben Broomfield