Thursday 24 February 2022

A dialogue with Julian Benassi... plus Manchester Model Fair 1979

 

Following on from the recent post about his 25mm Greeks, I came across this interview in Model Soldier magazine... very late 70's I think; I've put them all away and have now forgotten...





Atlantic plastics were always something I wanted as a child... my dad's boss bought a bunch of WW2 figures for his son whilst in Italy I think and boy, was I ever jealous...


Lastly, a review of  Manchester Model Fair I went back on December 1st, 1979... I can remember going up the escalator to the venue but little of the show itself... amazing how a picture can jog a memory! A pic Joe Shaw sitting at the table in the first pic. He was a master painter and did the Poste Militaire large scale minis I used to drool over at Northern Militaire and other shows back in the day. I chatted to him on the few occasions he came to the GW Manchester shop (where I worked for 2 out of 3 years in the early to mid 80's). Lovely bloke.. he was after the old complete adventurer which was already long oop so I searched mine out and gave it to him. Never saw it painted unfortunately.


Again the images should be high enough resolution to download and peruse at your leisure.

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3 comments:

Rodor said...

It was a very interesting reading: thanks for sharing. We were struck by the fact that Julian (Giuliano?) Benassi was Italian and had studied in Florence; we would be curious to know more about these early years of his education, but we have not found anything on the web.
In the words of the interview, the clear distinction that Julian makes between historical miniatures and fantasy miniatures appears interesting: in his opinion the former have a much greater dignity, because they are a faithful reproduction of historical reality. On the other side, his evaluation of the fantasy miniatures is very negative, since he comes to talk of "soft pornography": does he refer by chance to manufacturers or precise series in production in the Seventies?

David Wood said...

I think he refers to the fact that a lot of fantasy minis even back then tended to portray the female form as naked / semi naked and buxom... a trend that continues though in art of all forms... and, of course, always has.

Marc said...

always liked Benasi's very distinctive style - although never bought any of his figures - the skill necessary for 54mm and above remains beyond me.