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Translation : Daniel Serrano
My
name is Miguel Felipe Carrascal, i
was born in Madrid in the district
of Chamberi on 28th october 1961.
Nowadays I live in Mostotes a city
near Madrid, with my two loves, mi
wife Lili and my daughter Rebeca. (and
my dog Donna).
Iwork technical
supervisor of mobile materials in
the subway, where I joined as
apprentice in January 1976, 30 years
ago.
I
think i’ve been always fan of kits
and figures, I remember that since I
was a little child I used to buy
those bags of Montaplex with little
plastic soldiers and armies and do
amazing battles in the street or at
home with my friends.
When I was studing in
1975 I met my friend Daniel Estacio,
he built and painted Airfix 1/72
figures and tanks from Tamiya.
One day he
invited me to his home to see his
Works and I was amazed watching tose
models painted in Humbrol and tose
decaes… I decided I wanted to
do the same and asked him where to
buy tose kits.
Casually near his house there was a
shop called El Bazar del Jueguete
that was directed by Mario Ocaña, a
great friend since then. There we
joined a nice group of friends with
the same hobby but some liked
figures, others combat vehicles,
planes… and people like Luis Gomez
Platon, Manuel Martin Beato,
Santiago Sanchez, Ismael Rivas,
Jesús Carreras , Cristóbal Vergara
,etc, and one day we founded the
club Magerit 81 .With great illusion
and less capacity we managed to
organize our show during some years
(do you remember, Luis, tose walks
going to the shops tho promote it?)
and it become a reference for the
modelers of Madrid.
In those years, early
80’s, I started to win my first
awards (Magerit 81,Bazar Lojume,
Barreira Militaria, Hobbys Vicente,
Asociación Dos de Mayo,etc), tose
awards encouraged me to get better
and better, I painted every tour I
could and in a self-taught way I
tried to create my own style and
tecnique.
I read and watched
the pictures of magazines like
Modalismo & Historia, a referente in
our country, founded by Rodrigo
Hernandez Cabos and that alter years
it has become the base of a great
number of today publications that we
all can enjoy (Euromodelismo,
Euromodelismo Figuras, Panzer Aces,
etc).
During tose years I manager to get
like 60 awards or more and I had the
opportunity to know a loto f
interesting people.
But what I think is that the thing
that has helped me more in the hobby
is trying new things and techniques
without fear because we can learn
from our mistakes and get positive
things.
In
1988 I started to visit a shop
called Maquetas 113 directed by Juan
Escarre and his wife Manuela, great
people and friends, and it was there
where I met a great bunch of people
that today are still my friends like
Jose Villalba”Kuki” ,Juan Gonzalez
Arteaga, Jordi Escarre, Julito, etc
, this evidences that this hobby
helps to gain friendship and help us
grow as humans.
My
first experience in international
shows was on Euromilitaire ’90, with
Kuki and Jordi. It was amazing and
an incredible show for our eyes to
see all those stands of Poste
Militaire, Almond Miniatures, Chota
Sahib, Historex Agents, On Guard
Miniaturas , Andrea, etc, it was
like a dream come trae.
There was such
a great quantity and quality of
pieces. That first year I didn’t get
any award but it was only the
beginning of tripping to
internacional shows.
Next year on 1991 I got my first
award at Folkestone, a Commended
that I keep as a treasure because of
the happiness I felt when I got it.
That encouraged me so much that the
next year I worked a lot and got
better and better. I started to
sculpt my own figures with Jordi
Escarre. We were getting better step
by step, encouraging each other.
Euromilitaire ’92 was a magic show
for the Spanish modelers because
none had got a gold award but Jesus
Gamarra, David Mencia and I won a
lot of them and we were known as the
Spanish school in miniature
painting.
After that I’ve gone to a lot of
shows in different countries Sevres
in France, MFCA(Valley Forge)
,California Show, Long Island Show,
in USA, Euromilitaire in England, La
Petit Soldat (Vall de Aosta) in
Italy, and spanish shows as Soldat
de Plom in Gerona, AMT in Torrente,
Leon Rampante in Madrid, MODEL
STATIC in Segovia, CMEAG in Alcala
de Guadaira, Premios Ejercito
Español , etc, having more than 200
awards.
The ones that have a special valour
for me are the gold medal in
Euromilitaire 1992, Champion of
Champions award in Model Static
1994, the two gold medals, one in
open division and the other in
painting division, I won in the
Mundiale at Paris in 1996, my first
Premio del Ejercito Español 1996 in
the diorama cathegory, Cup of cups
trophy in Sevres 1995,en la
categoría de Dioramas, Trofeo Copa
de Copas en Sevres 1994 , Best of
Colonial of the California Show in
1999, gold medal in Soldat de Plom
in Girona 2000, and first Premio
Ejercito Español 2003 in the figures
cathegory.
For me the most
relevant artists in our country are
Jesús Gamarra ,Roman Navarro, Joan
Masferrer, Raul Garcia Latorre, Juan
Carlos Avila Ribadas ,Diego
Fernandez Fortes, Pepe Gallardo,
Luis Esteban Laguardia, Luis Gomez
Platon, Albert y Jordi Gros, Jose
Hernandez Sanchez, Rodrigo Hernandez
Chacon , Julio Cabos, David Romero,
Jaume Ortiz , Angel Terol, Joaquin
Palacios, Luis Martin Espada, Iñigo
Rodríguez Carballeira ,Miguel Angel
Canarias and many others i can’t
mention because the list would be
endless. I think our country is in
the top level World Wide.
Foreign artists I
have to mention Bill Horan, Stefano
and Pasquale Cannone , Mike Blank ,
Doug Cohen, Marjin Van Gils
Gianfranco Speranza, Diego Ruina ,
John Rosengrant, Kostas Kariotelis,
Nello Rivechio, Danilo Cartacci ,
Mariano Numitone, Adrian Bay,
Philippe Gengembre,Michael Saez,
etc.
My
favourite subjects are the Victorian
Era, specially the campaigns
involving the british army, the
napoleonic era because of the
spectacularity of the uniforms, the
spanish army because of the great
and rich militar history and the
first and second World war.
My
favourite scale to sculpt is 54mm,
but I also like the 75mm and
sometimes I paint 90mm or 120mm,
normally as commissions.
Since I started until now I’ve used
every way of painting figures, oils,
ennamels, acrylics… today I paint
basically with Vallejo acrylics,
unbeatable because of their quality
and properties.
I’m a bit maniathic
with brushes because I look the top
of the brushes, I use the marta
Kolinsky numers 1, 2 and 4 and the
better ones I’ve tried are the Casa
Pontes and Vallejo ones, both of
them of great quality.
Today I’m member of the association
“El Baluard” where I help for the
next World Expo 2008 that will be
helded in Girona. I make figures for
collectors that are also great
friends like Pacifico Prado, Nunnari
and Renato Scuterini, and some more
northamerican and Europeans.
I
also do some masters for Art Girona,
the manufacturer owned by the
Masferrer family (Pere, Margarita
and Joan) who are also great
friends.
I
still go to shows, nationals and
internationals, some times
participating and some times just as
Jury. I always try to have fun and
meet my friends, specially Jesús,
Joan, Kuki and Roman.
The future of our hobby is safe,
under my point of view, because
there are more and more young people
participating in shows lately.
Luckily the circumstances and
possibilities are different from 30
years ago, there are a lot of
magazines, Internet has become a
revolution in our world and the
information gets to the people more
fluently and rich.
For last, I want to thank Pablo Roig
for giving me this opportunity to
express and share my experiences in
this wonderful world of military
miniatures and encourage him to keep
this web spreading our hobby.
Greetings all from my heart.
Miguel Felipe
Álbum
Gallery
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