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Translation : Daniel Serrano
My name is Diego
Fernández Fortes and I was born in
April 1st 1964 in Pontevedra. I
lived some years in León and lately
my family went to Sevilla where I
grew my childhood and adolescence,
until 18. Then I decided to live
free in Sabiñánigo, a little village
near Jaca in the Pirineo mountains
in Aragón, where I met my wife
nowadays, Marisol. Since 1990 we
live in Zaragoza, where our child
Miguel was born.
I remember the first kit I had, a FW-190
from Hasegawa, 1:32 scale, that my
father bought me on my 12th birthday.
It came with glue and I had some
scissors at hand so I didn't have
too many problems building it. I
decided to use watercolors to paint
it but the results weren't too good
so I also tried the paints I used at
school. Then I put the stickers (which
tended to unglue!). Lately I knew
that some friends of my father that
worked as airplanes mechanic at the
Air Army, built those kits that were
buying at the Military Base in Morón
from many years ago... and they did
it really good.
Luckily at the end of the 70's, in
Sevilla, new specialized shops were
opening: Hobbysur, Sesimbra,
Cuevas... so I discovered the
amazing world of Humbrols, Airfix,
Frog... with some other friends that
also had this 'kits fever'.
Then I started to build vehicles (a
lot of Sdkfz!). In the shop I
watched to some painted figures from
Labayen but they didn't attract me
as the vehicles did. I tried a
couple of EKO figures from the Civil
War but I didn't like the results.
Why did the paint strip off from the
metal?
As Luis Esteban, I dedicated the
80's to many other activities. I
changed my hobby and started to draw
and paint, I even did some
exhibitions.
But everything changed one morning.
I was having a walk in Malaga, with
my wife, and I saw a magazine:
Military Modelling. It was october
1989 issue, with Bill Horan's
Chasseur D'Afrique on its cover. I
bought it inmediatly.
Inside there was Horan's article
about his diorama "The ghosts of
Chillianwallah". I was speechless.
Was it possible to do such things
with figures? Depict proud, pain,
fatigue...? In that issue there were
also articles from Greg Di Franco
and Derek Hansen with his Cameron
Highlander in 70mm.
Back at home I took my old ennamels
and started to look for figures and
materials that I didn't know where
to buy: Milliput, silicon... It was
impossible to find that in a village
in the Pirienos Mountains since I
discovered the shop Kit's in
Zaragoza. There I met other people
that painted figures, there was no
internet then. So the trips to
Zaragoza on weekends where becoming
more frequent (I also enjoyed the
night life of Zaragoza!) until we
moved to the city (I can't stand
more than a week in the country).
I tried the techniques I read in MM
and Modelismo e Historia, except
acrylics, because I used Bill
Horan's enammel technique. Then I
started to use oils and with my
friends of Sevilla, Luis Miguel
Rivera y Eduardo López Munuera (who's
a master with this medium), I
painted entirely with this technique.
By those days I got in contact with
the Agrupación Artística Aragonesa (Miniaturism
section) and I joined as a member
and went to exhibitions.
With my wife's encouragement I
exposed my figures in Kit's and,
surprisingly, there were people
interested in buying them. By those
days I was looking for new
profesional challenges so I thought
that it would be nice to combine
hobby and job so I decided to work
24 hours in figures.
Since the beginning I tried to
sculpt my own figures with poor
results because of my lack of
experiencie and materials. I started
with Ceys putty from plumbery. From
those days I still have a summerian
warrior (Airfix' Highlander
transformation). Then I got Milliput
and my skills were improving.
I earned experiencie sculpting
conmemorative figures for the annual
expo of my association and that
encouraged me to found my own
commercial brand. The ignorance is
audacious.
'Miniaturas La Compañía' born in the
early 90's. I felt like an orchestra-man:
I sculpted, fund, paint, take
pictures for the box art, pack them,
go to the post office...
Because all of that I earned a lot
of experiencie in some areas and I
also noticed that to mantain a
company it was needed a lot of money
that I didn't had, so I finally sold
it but his new owner didn't continue
the activity for some reasons.
By those years I started to use
acrylics, basically after a showroom
that Rodrigo Hernández Chacón did in
Zaragoza, where I discovered the
dillution point of the pain and some
more details.
To promote 'La Compañía' I had to go
to different shows and that's why I
met a lot of people of this little
world of ours: Raúl García Latorre,
both Rodrigo Hernández, Luis G.
Platón, Beneito, Andrea, Jesús
Gamarra, Miguel Felipe, Luis Alemany
and, of course, colectors as Fabio
Nunnari.
I did figures for Andrea and Beneito
but, after leaving my brand, I
dedicated almost to do one off
pieces for collectors and visiting
shows: Euromilitaire, California, St.
Vincent, Paris Mundials, Glasgow,
Roma, Boston, Torrent... I still go
to shows, some times participating
and other times (more, each time) as
judge.
Talking about awards, it's something
that today I don't take care but I
did when I started. I remember
specially the gold medal I won in
Mundial de Paris (1996) because I
couldn't believe it. Since then I've
won it in each Mundial show I've
been, except in Roma, where there
were some particularities, that
every one who attended could notice.
I also remember some deceptions but
it's something that with the
experience and knowing the events,
you take the real care it deserves.
Maybe it's my professional point of
view because I recieve the
recognition of my clients, that for
me it's more important than awards,
but well... everyone loves awards!
Nowadays I still do one off pieces
for collectors although lately I've
been doing some stuff for Art Girona
and AMT, AMIS or Seil Models. As
time goes by I've learn that the
best thing is to work for and with
friends like the Masferrer family of
Art Girona.
The future of the hobby, for me, is
a bit confusing.
It's easier to start now than it was
15 years ago but the contribution of
the young ones seems suspended. The
average age of shows is between 35 -
45 years old. I thought Warhammer
figures may be the beginning for
more people than it has really been.
Manufacturers give a lot of new
figures each month but I think that
you can count with the fingers of
your hand the really good ones.
I also think that the painting level
is very good and the next step for a
lot of people will be sculpting. In
fact you can see more and more
complements for transformations each
day.
There's going to be a new impulse of
new ideas and approaches (see Marijn
Van Gils works) in the near future,
but maybe there will be less fans
than today.
Regards,
Diego Fernandez Fortes.
Gallery
Album
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