Il condottiero

[Geektopian]

I was playing with some lighting for a possible new photo set and well... yep, got some pretty awful results. Anyway, I decided to take the best of a bad lot from today's tests and play with it using Picnik (Google's on-line photo manipulation service). The results were, well....



Anyway, the quick back story here is that Team Wyvern, my protagonist group and Claire's apparent employer (She of Clarie's Big World fame) are frequently referred to as "thugs, murders, war criminals and mercenaries" (among the nicer descriptions) by their adversaries. They kind of took it and ran with it, referring to themselves as "condotta" and their commander, Col. Wallace, naturally became "Il condottiere"... until that nice Italian lady corrected them, then it became "Il condottiero"!

Yeah, the beret flash really should have a wyvern instead of a scorpion but I've been lazy and haven't bought the tiny wyvern decals (made for war gaming miniatures) yet. So, let's just pretend, OK?

Maybe when I get a better photo or two (or just go take 'em in the back yard like I always do) I'll post a full bio down in the Dollieh Sanctuaries forum.

[Geektopian]

I really dig that black fleece jacket, BTW. If the real ones weren't so damned expensive, I wouldn't mind owning one myself.

[MitisFeles]

I see, this jacket is terribly cool *_* Sometimes just a little photomanipulation can completely change photos, and this seems perfect to be attached to a biographic file XD What its the base doll? He seems familiar...

P.S. (Correct italian form for the leader of a "condotta" is "condottiero" ^_-)

[Geektopian]

Thanks for the language advice, Dee Dee!

Honestly, the more I studied it, the more uncertain I became. It seems that condottiere is the preferred term in a lot of English language historical text I've read and even the on-line articles I've found suggest that either term is correct. Google translated condottiere as "commander" and condottiero as "leader". Babel Fish proved as useless as ever and Merriam Webster Online provides a definition for condottiere while typing in condottiero gets you directed back to condottiere.

And now I'm more confused than ever! The only thing I can guess (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that condottiere refers to the position (it's the "job title" in other words) while condottiero would refer to the individual (apparently a male) who holds that position.

Anyway, I'll change the "e" to an "o" as per your advice.

[Geektopian]

Oh and the base figure is a GI Joe "super articulated" body with the head from the 2004 Joe vs. Cobra version of Roadblock swapped on to it. Roadblock originally had a less articulated Classic Collection muscle body (just the arms are more muscular) and the dreaded "t-shirt" torso (molded to look like a t-shirt, oddly enough) in a lovely bright orange color. Yep, I think the orange shirt would sort cancel out the effectiveness of any camouflage items you wore!

When I did the swap, he assumed the role of Colonel James D. Wallace, leader of Team Wyvern. Eventually, I fleshed out the background a bit more to include a fictional home country called Aventine (another Italian reference), a whole cast a characters and huge amount snarky or sometimes loving cultural reference.

[MitisFeles]

I searched my Italian dictionary for the sake of exactness, and effectively it gives me both forms. I can say that in current Italian the form "condottiero" is the one normally used: "condottiere" is surely more antiquate (the regular male names singular termination in italian is "o"). Stated this fact, I think you can choose the term that sounds better to your ears XD

Argh! I really hate molded clothes on dolls, especially if they are an ORANGE t-shirt !I fully comprehend the reason for the swap XD
In my opinion, citation are one of the tastier features in fictional story, especially when you invent just to have fun! I usually exploit the rock/metal music world for my citations, following Bastard!!! and JoJo Bizzarre's Adventure examples (even before Brutal Legend came out), but maybe I'll try to use other fonts for my incoming dolls's background...

[Geektopian]

Dee Dee, again, I appreciate the help with the Italian language issue. I'm obviously not a speaker of your language and it helps me immensely to have your input.

As for the GI Joe "T-shirt body", of which there are actually a few variants, my complaint has always been that one of the attractions to larger scale figures as opposed to the various small scale action figures had been the ability to re-dress them. Without separate clothes and other accessories, such dolls are just bigger versions of those pocket sized figures and lose a lot of their appeal to me as a result.

[Trethowan]

He's a cool looking guy. I love the military-themed doll projects.

[MitisFeles]

I'm glad to be helpful ^_- I just hope to not be boring with my punctuation, it's some kind of professional bias given that I'm studying to become an Italian Literature teacher

I see your point Mlatch, I hated like hell my Barbie Ballerina doll that had white legs and sculpted ballerina shoes, what's the sense of a fashion doll that cannot be completely dressed in the way you want? Same story for the ones that have a sculpted bodice or bikini -_-

[JanetT]

The only reason I can see for molded clothes (this is particularly for the Barbie playline stuff) is that a lot of those dolls/figures are marketed for little kids, who tend to otherwise lose tiny accessories like shoes and tights. Or have trouble getting clothes on and off dolls. (mostly on. my observation is that little kids can undress dolls just fine, but putting the clothes back on is sometimes too much to bother with -- which is why so many Barbies spend so much time naked!)

Nice shot! He looks cool. Looking forward to more photos.