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My name is José
Francisco Gallardo, I was born in
November 13th in 1963, so that means
i'm 41. I live at Malaga, in the
south of Spain. My life has been
blessed with 3 people that encourage
me, criticize and advice me
unconditionally, my wife Silvia and
my two kids, Jose Carlos and Silvia
(16 and 12 years old). I work in the
Department of Accounting and
Bussines Advising in a society group.
It doesn't let me too much spare
time for the hobby but I try to
spend as much time as I can for the
hobby.
I think I started as the rest of the
people in my generation. In my case,
when I was 13, I built 1/72 airplane
kits at school. By those days I got
some H00 soldiers from Airfix, Esci...
and I painted them with devotion. I
was amazed by the WWII and I spent
my first stage of the hobby painting
figures from Tamiya, Verlinden,
Andrea's first ones, Hornet... and
then other historical times.
As many others I had a time that I
didn't paint anything (girlfriends,
military service, moving to a new
house...).
What got me back to the hobby was,
curiously, an advert in the
newspaper SUR at the early 90's that
my friend Miguel Rojo and me read: "People
with experience painting miniatures
needed..." We just couldn't believe
it. It was in village 20 km far away
from Málaga. There we found the lost
brand Taxdir, from Tomás Castaño,
who just arrived from Madrid. He was
the first one who told us about
lights and shadows, show (Folkestone),
gave us painting classes with
Humbrol... That got us really
motivated and while he lived in
Málaga he managed to teach a lot of
guys who nowadays are first line
modellers, but that's a different
story.
There are two things that changed
everything hera at my town, one is
the creation of the shop HOBBYMANIA,
that helped to find and unite new
talents, and the other is the birth
of ELITE Miniatures. Those things
built the bases of the next years of
work and dedication, with good and
bad moments, but all of them where
worth the living.
For myself, the change from ennamels
to acrylics happens when I saw the
first issue of Todo Modelismo, with
the works of people who learnt with
F. Beneito (rest in peace). That's
when I start to pay attention to
acrylics, trying to use what I had
learnt with ennamels and the
anglosaxon way of painting figures,
to paint with acrylics. It may seem
that it was easy but that's not true,
I learnt by contacting people who
where using acrylics. That was a
long time ago and even now there's
so much to learn. The characteristic
we liked most was the fast it dries.
That change meant a special moment
because in a little time, the
spanish painters where getting world-wide
known because of our way to paint
with acrylics.
Today everything has changed a lot.
Personally I think it has changed
for best. Magazines, specializad
books, new materials (some of them
unthinkable years ago).
If someone decides to start to paint
today he may be confused because
there's so much to choose that you
may not know where to start of.
My first award come in the year
1986, with a IIWW diorama named
'Francia 1944'. It's rained a lot
since then.
The show that made me walk on the 'path
of glory' (as my friend Adrian Bay
says in an article published in
Euromodelismo, although I would call
it the 'dangerous path of glory')
was Euromilitaire '94. It was the
first time I was going to a
international show and I got a
bronze medal. I was the happiest guy
in the world. But that year I also
had the chance to meet Jesus Gamarra
and Bill Horan (it was the beginning
of a friendship that lasts today).
In that year Bill won 6 gold medals.
A friend of mine Miguel Cuadros told
me "you, first year here and gets a
bronze medal competing with the
elite of the hobby, this is more
serious than you think...".
Those words encouraged me a lot.
'The glory', has Adrian Bay says,
brings "lights and shadows". But if
you manage to get your feet on the
ground you'll remember the good
things, the people you meet and your
personal history, made with your
sweat. I don't think, like many
others do, that awards are not
important. In fact i think they lie.
A show is a competition and when
someone (overall the beginners)
competes, wants to win and works
hard on his figures. In our hobby,
everybody (beginners and masters)
loves the fact that people recognize
your work, and admire it. I believe
it's a matter of stages that you
pass through. It's a matter of
humility and common sense.
My personal experience was working
harder, painting more figures and
beeing demanding, critic with my own
works, painting more figures,
historical and artistic research,
more figures... and then, one day,
in one show, win, others lose... but
what is winning or losing? There's a
moment where you notice that what
you've won are friends, people at
your side. You notice that you want
to go to an event to have a meal or
drink some beers with your friends
or talk about figures without time
limits... You notice that everybody
should join or have those talks,
interchangind techniques and ways of
working to learn more and more, and
that's when you see how positive is
this hobby.
Well, that has been, very resumed,
my personal experience and I hope it
helps.
Talking about events I've always
thought that the most fair system is
Open because it gives the chance to
analyze and judge the artist's 'trajectory'.
The other system, competing each
figure separately, I like it too
because each figure in its scale or
category gets more valued.
I think that the events organizers
must help out to display the figures
from a decent distance for the
public so they can see the figures
as the jury can, or at least with a
decent light and as close as
possible because all the figures
look the same when they are 1 and a
half meter away.
My opinion about being jury is that
not everybody is ready to be jury.
If a judge thinks that his category
is not one of it's best should be
humble and ask to judge other
category, or if he thinks that there
are a lot of pieces, he should ask
for help. I think that the judges
don't have to jury attending to
their favourite tecniques or
historial periods, and they have to
accomodate their points of views to
judge the pieces. A good judge won't
leave any piece without being
analized. In conclusion, not
everybody can be jury, and not all
of them love to be jury, but I have
to say that we have a bunch of
judges in our country, impartials,
serious and knowing what they do, I
trust!
To talk about who have been my
influences or which ones I admire,
I'll had to fill lots of pages and
please forgive me If I miss someone.
You can see the pics on the personal
gallery to see my friends and there
are also new young guys in our hobby
that will have a spectacular future.
Bill Horan is an exceptional
modeller because he can capture the
pose perfectly and he works really
fast. Sculptors from other countries
would be Stefano Cannone, Andrea
Jula, Derek Hansen, Adriano Laruccia,
Roger Sanders... they are the best.
Closely followed by Mike Blank
Serebriakov, Stefano Borin, Mike
Good, Adrian Bay, Michel Saez, Bruno
Leivovitz, Youn B Son, Numitone,
Riviecco, Terlizzi, Iotti, Maurizio
Bruno, Victor Konnov, David Lane,
Calvin Tan and a long list that gets
bigger every day. I've always loved
the italian painters like Gianfranco
Speranza, Pasquale Cannone, Danilo
Cartacci, Diego Ruina, Signanini.
Others are Philippe Gemgebre, Greg
Difranco, Bay, Lane, Marion, new
talents like Massimo Moro, Azeglio,
Pasquali, etc... The truth is that I
know them all personally (and for
those that I haven't mentioned, my
greetings because I'm sure they
taught me something of this hobby).
About spanish people, the list can
be endless, i enjoy painting pieces
of sculptors like Juan Carlos Avila,
Angel Terol, Carlos Andrea, Pablo
Sapia, Latorre, Fortes, Carrascal...
Inside the new talents like David
Romero, Pedro Abreu, Moltó, Miguel A
Canarias, Enrique Rubio I have to
mark Joaquin Palacios' works,
because the impact and high quality
of his works. A future artist.
Talking about painters, I think that
the level has raised a lot during
the past years. I've always admired
the works of Rodrigo Hdez. Chacón,
Raul Latorre, Jose Hernández, Juan
Carlos Avila, Luis Esteban, Luis
Gomez Platon, Roman Navarro,
Gamarra, , Eduardo L.Munuera, Julio
Cabos, Victor Castillo, Miguel Rojo,
Fidel Rincón, Albert and Jordi,
etc... etc... And new guys as Jaume
Ortiz, Pedro Fco.Ramírez, Alfonso
Prado, Samuel Perez, Juan Carlos
Garcia, de Dario Ruiz, Delso, Diego
Jiménez, Genaro Ortega and a long
etc...
My main tools are Davinci brushes, 1
and 2, I also use Maestro brushes,
marta syntethic... I don't have a
favourite manufacturer, I think all
of them are trying their best to
offer the better figures every day.
In my opinion Pegaso, Andrea, Elite
and Art Girona are the most
representative manufacturers today
but I have a lot of figures in my
collection from Taxdir, Poste
Militaire, Metal Modeles, Chota,
Ara, Dgrieve...
I choose the figures to paint by the
sculpture, fundition and historical
period. I've worked a lot with Elite
Miniaturas, i've seen it born and
grow, and I want to greet Manuel
Moya for not losing his eye for the
taste and elegance (what it's not
easy), converting Elite in
synonymous of quality.
I've also worked with Euromodelismo,
I also know the people who work
there and I know they try their
best, with more or less luck, but
working hard. I've also done
articles for Figure International,
Figurines, Historical Miniature,
Millitary Modelling, etc.
I know there's a lot of life in this
hobby, but it only deppends in
ourselves, in the new people that
keep teaching how to paint in
acrylics, people who organize events,
people who show proudly our little
art works... I know that computers
and videogames are our enemies but
there's still young people
approaching to our hobby.
I want to thank Pablo the
opportunity to express and tell a
little part of my life. I want to
encourage him to keep the passion
for this hobby.
I also want to name other guys that
have been near by when needed, in
the good and bad moments: my childs,
my wife and her family, my family,
Miguel Rojo (my childhood friend),
Miguel Cuadros, my dear Stefano and
Fabio Nunnario, Juan Carlos Avila
(gallego deluxe) and Manuel Moya.
From my heart,
Pepe.
¿Por Que
Merece la
Pena Nuestro
Hobby?
El Taller
Galeria Jose
Fco.
Gallardo
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