Behind the Scenes of New Beginnings

This story would never have happened if it wasn't for a series of unfortunate events, starting with the damage to Baron's Faceup, and then the awful repaint by Iplehouse.  It would be months before I would be able to get another artist to paint him again, and I came to realize that my Baron would never look the same again, and got the idea to do a story explaining why he'd end up looking different. I decided that Baron was going to be injured in an attack, and after he eventually recovered, and his bandages came off, he would look different. So I got out my pastels and water colour pencil crayons and tried to make the awful Iplehouse faceup look more like his original makeup. And I added lots of 'cuts and bruises'. ​

the Attack

The very first photos to be shot were of Baron lying wounded in the snow after the attack...

I used red paint for the 'blood' in the snow, but there would have been way more blood after such a battle scene, and there was no way I was going to risk staining the dolls or their clothes, so all the rest - bloody hands, hair, and armour - was added afterwards in Photoshop.

Then I added his bandages, and took photos for when he'd eventually return home. I needed an exterior that could pass for the outside of his castle, and thought of using the brick fireplace.  I added the styrofoam arches, and I had a believable castle exterior...

Then I took the photos while sitting down on a bench, with the two knights at my eye level...

Riding in a Blizzard

I needed photos of Rex and Baron riding home in the snow, and thought doing it in an actual blizzard a few weeks later, might be worth the effort. But it was snowing so crazy hard that Jan had to hold an umbrella just to protect my camera lens....

But there's nothing like some real falling snow to add that extra touch of realism....

Saying Good-bye

I realized that I needed to start the story with photos of Baron leaving on his annual winter patrol, but he still had his 'attack' faceup. I wasn't going to wipe it off since there was no way I'd be able to reproduce it again afterwards. 

So I photographed all the scenes with him either from the back, or from above, and always with the left side of his face showing since it had the least 'scars'.

Owen & Kyle

I also needed some photos of Kyle and Owen heading out in the snow, so took them to one of my favourite nearby spots...

Lawrence's Office

Several scenes took place in Lawrence's office, which was set up on the dining room table...

I had just finished shooting the scene where Winston delivers the bad news....

Then that same day, after taking photos of Owen and Kyle in the snow, I needed to put them somewhere so their boots could dry off, so laid them on the edge of the table. Then it hit me just how funny the scene looked, so I had to take a photo....