Friday 8 June 2012

Bigfoot!




A Victorian era Sasquatch, I hear you cry?  An incredulous,"Really?" heard around the blogosphere!   There I was quietly perusing the 'Newline Designs' website, when out of the virtual pages leapt theses great big hairy beasties!  What was a boy to do?

Ever since then there have been spurious reports and sightings of these bipedal hominids in and around the lead pile at ‘Awdry Towers’, but it wasn’t until the wolves and subsequently the bears were flushed out into the open that an idea started to germinate in my confused and jumbled brain.




I have, now fading, memories of ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’ a television program first aired in 1980s – I was very young!   One of the episodes, entitled ‘The Missing Apeman’ investigated the evidence for the existence of both Bigfoot and the Yeti.  This was the first time that I had seen the 'Patterson-Gimlin' film and long before the average household had the technology to rewind and view again – if you blinked you missed it!  For those few fleeting seconds I was totally absorbed; I had seen Bigfoot and it was real!


Being such an impressionable lad, this sort of imagery left an indelible mark on young master Awdry and so you can imagine my delight when I came across these curious cryptids  by 'Pontoonier Miniatures'.   Perhaps a little too reminiscent of the creature from that 1987 cinematic marvel  ‘Bigfoot and the Hendersons’, they were certainly nicely weighted and proportioned.  Like the bears, relatively straightforward to paint, although a little more time was required on the chest, face and hands to bring out a sense of personality.  The bases were done to match those of the recently completed bears and to bring a sense of cohesion to the still fledging idea that is slowly gathering pace.


30 comments:

  1. Really nice paint job and autumn basing. The mountain men and old-grizz, in your upcoming epic, are in for a time of it...I do believe.

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  2. awesome! love the minis :) great brush work too
    I'll have to add those to my prehistory project, thanks for the tip!

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  3. Great post!!
    the first picture is perfect!!
    Very good painting on the "bigfoots": very nice figures!
    (and I agree with Jay: the basing is beautiful!

    (we know that the "Patterson Gimlin film" is a fake, but it's nice to dream!! we are all children who play with our "little soldiers".... why not with a Bigfoot ?)
    thanks !

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    Replies
    1. It is a fake!!!!! Oh no say it is not so! ;)

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    2. ok, Mickael: it's NOT a fake!!

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    3. Phew! You had me worried there for a minute! ;)

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  4. Lovely paint job… and I do like your base treatment. Where do you get those lovely leafy bitz?

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  5. Lovely paint job Michael, the opening photo totally got me – thought it was a 'genuine' pic.
    I do like the treatment of your bases… where did you get those great leafy bitz?

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    1. Thank you, spent far too long on 'picmonkey' editing those photographs! I picked up the leaves from Antenocitis Workshop at Salute. They were a bit of a luxury and quite fiddly to stick down, but I just love the effect! These are simply called 'Autumn Leaf'.

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  6. Lovely paint jobs and basing :)

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  7. I like the left's one abs!
    Terrific....simply terrific Michael.

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  8. Great stuff Michael! Lovely paintwork and basing.

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  9. I say there old chap there seems to be an Abominable Snowman in your photo dont you know, what?

    Great work again there Michael, I love it

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  10. somewhat scary. great pieces , i take it the melee factor will be high!

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    1. There will come a time when I'll be able to answer that question with confidence, but just at the moment I haven't a clue! ;)

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  11. Superb painting and basing on these Michael. Picture number 4 with the chap cooking his breakfast, oblivious to what is happening around him is a cracker.

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    1. Thank you Pat, I think I spent as long editing the photographs as I did painting the miniatures!

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  12. I never knew they actually made a Fran look-a-like figure!!!! Great painting!!!!

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    1. :D Perhaps I should have put some orange in his fur!

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  13. Cracking paint job sir. Love them both. Something for those plucky adventurers to fend away from there camp in the middle of the night. I bet they will put the 'bump' into the night for sure

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    Replies
    1. Oh definately and more madness to come! Thank you for the kind comment too.

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  14. Excellent job! I can just imagine your earlier Sid character bagging one of these brutes !

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  15. what are these beasties called? love them, great pj, but can't find them on the Newline site, just the Arkansas swamp ape...

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    1. I've just been to check myself and you are absolutely right, they are no longer there!!!

      There were simply called Bigfoot and it might be worth emailing them to see what has happened.

      Best of luck,

      Michael

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    2. curses...

      this may be of interest: story about a Choctaw search party in 1855 looking for the giants that had been stealing their children...

      http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/human-bigfoot-war-oklahoma-1855/

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    3. Great story thanks for that; sorry to hear about the elusive Bigfoot miniatures though.

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  16. Did you know that you can shorten your long links with OUO and earn dollars for every visitor to your shortened urls.

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