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Translation : Daniel Serrano
My
name is Luis Miguel Esteban
Laguardia, i was born in Zaragoza in
the 27th
June 1964. Although I feel from
Zaragoza, I had to leave my home
because of my job, concretely to
Galicia. That was 20 years ago. Now
I live
in La Corunna with my wife Ana and
my daughter Paula.
I'm
very lucky having a job where I only
work at mornings and that gives me
enough spare time for my hobbies
such as reading, conversation and,
of
course, miniatures.
I
think I was 10 or 12 years old when
I got a little box of plastic
soldiers from
Airfix. The wargames I played with
my friends and lately painting them
where the beginning of this hobby
for me.
When
I was 14 I found a shop called Kits
in my hometown, the only one who
had kits and miniatures. I remember
I used to spend hours and hours
looking its showcase and shelves
full of miniatures. Enrique, the
shop's owner,
encouraged me to paint 54mm figures.
I started with german
soldiers from Soldat, Airfix
multiposes, napoleonics from Eko/Almirall,
the first
Andrea kits, the hard to find
Historex figures... and in a self-taught way,
using Humbrol ennamels, I started to
get into this amazing world.
At
the end of the 70's i joined the
Agrupación de Miniaturistas
Militares de
España an association from
Barcelona. Every three months I
recieved a
bulletin that was like an open
window to see what other spanish
modelers where
doing because there was no any other
magazine in Spain. On that time
I got in contact with the Agrupación
Artística Aragonesa, an
association that organized a little
show at christmas time. On that show
I knew
some friends that I still conserve
althoug the time and distance like Angel
Salcedo (the eternal president of
the association), Luis Sorando (a world-known
vexicologist and uniformologist), or
Ricardo Ahis (Miniaturas Nimix).
I
didn't do anything on the 80's
decade because of studying, girls,
friends...
although I usually bought painted
figures, that was the beginning of
my
miniatures collection, other way of
living this miniature world.
At
the 90's, married and living in La
Corunna, I took again the hobby. In
10 years
the world of figuresa had changed
amazingly: there were books and
specialized magacines, there were a
lot of spanish brands, international shows,
people painted with acrylics and
there where more shops with kits and
figures. I had to start from the
beginning, but this time with the
help of
magazines, books and pictures.
On
1993, with four friends, we founded
the Centro Cultural Escala. I was the
President of the association for 5
years and it helped to know a lot of
people, other associations, national
and international shows and helped
to
discover more miniaturists from
Galicia.
Shows,
bulletins and conmemorative figures
and then the International Show
of Escala are the legacy of "Escala"
to the miniature scene of our
country.
For
me, being the president of the
association, I knew and was known by
a lot
of other miniaturists but also it
took me a lot of time and I couldn't paint
as much as I wanted.
On
1998 I participated in the Army
Awards where I got a "Commended" award.
At the award giving ceremony I met
again with my friend Ricardo Ahis
who asked me to meet people as Jesús
Gamarra, Mario Ocaña or Luis Gómez
Platón. The next year I left
"Escala" and won the first award at
the Army
Awards.
That's when I started to paint more,
going to Folkestone and knowing Juan
Carlos Ávila Ribadas, my true friend.
And tripping, joining shows and
talking with the masters, that's how
I started to be more known winning more
awards.
Nowadays I feel proud of having so
much friends because of this
wonderful
hobby. For me, that's the most
important thing. I try to became
better every
figure I start. I like to take new
challanges to avoid monotony, and
that's why lately I'm starting to
sculpt and transform my own figures
and I try
to use new technics and painting
tools.
With
the experiencie I've been earning
with my age I've been asked to judge
in national shows and, although I
still participating in shows, I also like
to organize shows, write articles
for the specialized press, teach and
collaborate with commercial brands
and associations trying to show the
people our hobby.
Another side of my hobby is
collecting figures. Nowadays I have
1000
figures more or less: old toys,
Vicente Julia's miniatures, Ramón
Labayen and
Fermín Galarreta's conmemorative
figures for different associations
and
figures from a lot of people,
including well-known artists (I use
to
interchange figures with them on
shows).
I
would like to say thank you to Chema
Baque (my childhood friend),
Manolo Picatoste (my buddy), Bill
Horan (my best source of inspiration),
Ricardo Ahís (who helped me to start
again in the hobby), Jesús Gamarra (the
best contemporary spanish
miniaturist), Juan Carlos Ávila (my
grand
master and better person), Toño
Dafonte, Luis Ontañón, Enrique
Rubio,
Bernado Díez, Alfonso Prado, Enrique
Pumar y Ramón de Llano ("los alegres
turlurones"), Rodrigo Hernandez
Chacón, Gianfranco Speranza y Pepe
Gallardo (painters I try to imitate),
Raúl García Latorre (the most
complete one),
Luis Gómez Platón and many other
friends to name...
Technics, tools and preferences
As I said I started using Humbrol
ennamels, then I started with
Vallejo
Acrylics. Now I use both (even oils).
I think it's good to use every tool there
is to reach what we want. Talking
about putties, I usually use
Milliput and
Magic Sculp (mixed) and Duro for
hair, cors... Also, I use always
Winsor &
Newton serie 7 brushes.
I've
painted figures from 15mm to 90mm
including busts but I prefer to paint
54's because of the size, market,
handling...
Talking about manufacturers I'm a
big fan of Poste Militaire, Pegaso,
Elite and
Metal Modeles. My favourite
historical period would be the XIX
century and
some things from XVIII.
The
Future of the hobby
In a world full of TV shows,
computers and consoles, it's hard to
attract kids to
the hobby and the lack of a great
education in therms like History, an
important base for our hobby with
the books, we can only count with
films and
fantasy like a source of inspiration
for young people...
We
have to thank initiatives like
warhammer and wargames becouse those kids
are potentials to the historical
miniatures.
Although it's a minority hobby,
there's no doubt that nowadays it's
easier than
20 years ago to start painting
military miniatures. There are more shops,
specialized press, associations and
manufacturers... there's better
communication, Internet has become a
handful tool to meet people, ask
questions, show your work and even
teach online! But the future of our dear
hobby depends of the contributions
of each miniaturist.
Luis Esteban.
Álbum
Gallery
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