At 11:30am precisely every day,
the Clockwork Guard changes
in the courtard of Buckingham
Palace under the calculating
eye of their commander
Colonel Steel.
Lord Babbage himself always
said that the human element
remained any army's
greatest weakness.
Colonel Steel is designed to be
the sole point of decision-making
in the soulless legion in
Her Majesty's service.
Once unleashed, the Colonel
becomes a true juggernaut of
destruction.
Thanks for tuning back into The Art of Caesura!
All good things must come to an end, and this week marks the end of the past 6 weeks of looking at all of the full-body sculpts of the Gentlemen from The World of Smog. This has been such a fun project for me! Each miniature is jam-packed with character and they're all quite different from each other - diversity is the spice of life and all that!
So, this week we end where it all started (the first miniature I posted on this blog was the bust of Colonel Steel (which I used as a reference for this guy, and even makes a reappearance at the end of the post!)
Last week we saw that Parvin's scientific mentor, Countess Lovelace, was an actual historical figure. So this week I looked up Lord Babbage (from Colonel's flavour text above) and found the following (from Wikipedia):
Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage is best remembered for originating the concept of a digital programmable computer.
Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's analytical engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century.
Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage is best remembered for originating the concept of a digital programmable computer.
Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's analytical engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century.
Although much of the artwork by Coolminiornot (the company that made this game) depicts Colonel Steel in blue, I opted (as I had done for his bust) for the more recognizable royal-guard red, synonymous with the Bearskins of Buckingham Palace.
Colonel Steel was fairly straight forward. His colour-scheme was relatively predetermined by the Buckingham Palace guards I used for inspiration. The only thing I had to ponder was what colour to do the fur trim on the overcoat that he's in the process of flinging off with his right hand. I thought about white or gold, but figured that with the gold bands crossing his chest and his white gloves it might make the model a bit busy and tricky for the eye to scan. I settled for the same value of deep grey / black as his iconic bearskin hat.
Colonel Steel's posture is a lot more open and dynamic that Parvin's last week, but it isn't without its quirks. The pose is a little awkward, I think it would have been cool if he was lunging forward a bit more and I considered straightening out his back leg (cutting it at the hip, knee and ankle and green-stuffing it back together) but I was having too much fun flying through the painting of these guys to slow down with even a small conversion.
It's funny, on the bust of Colonel Steel he has a crank sticking out of his back; this full-body mini has some kind of mechanism on his back but without the actual crank. I like to imagine that this is because the bust represents him "in stasis" before he's been wound up and this full-body miniature shows him in action - after he has been wound up and the crank key removed.
Having refined a happy technique for the bases of Master Fox and John Brown, I completed Colonel Steel's in the same way.
And there they are, together at last!
Thanks again for tuning into this 6 week Special, focusing on the full-body miniatures from The World of Smog. See you next week on The Art of Caesura!
Reading: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery - Henry Marsh
Drinking: Robber's Gold - Me
Listening: Mandatory Fun - Weird Al
Next Week:
An auric brew...
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