Spasm

Tony, thank you and yes they were the last. (even with a cup of cement). Other than the dozen or so I still have stashed away in the garage. 60 odd quid these days is a fairly good price for one of those and the paint job wouldn't be too bad to sort out. Gotta admit I like the relic look as well so I'm thinking about making some smaller scale ones.

Just to complete (someone may have an interest). The very difficult cold cast brass one is done.

Done the moulds (which wasn't simple as I needed to figure out how they were going to be ultimately poured as the rifle and helmet do not have a flat base and are quite detailed). And have done the first couple of casts. The cast needs some good plastic primer before painting (fixative or other forms of primer don't really do the job - that's the usual stuff I have hanging around). But not bad for a first go at something this detailed.

Sculpture of an SMLE and covered helmet propped in a couple of sandbags. It stands just about 11 inches high. Just have to figure out how to mould and cold cast bronze now.

I cut a piece off before binning. I wish the sooner would arrive, it's becoming very frustrating. Maybe go back to some sculpture for a while

I have this little set of pictures, cert etc that all came together. Apparently the citation was issued when Heinrich was attached to 2 Sicherungsdivision under Befehishaber der Sicherrung West, which was based at Souverain-Moulin, Boulogne in 1941. The citation is signed by Kapitan zur See Max Freymadi. (That's what I was told when I got them). Here's Heinrich's portrait photo: Here's a couple of small pictures that came with the group: A press photo, with the reverse: A small photo of the crew all together, along with the rear where everyone has been named: And the citation for his Minesweeper badge I also have the cap tally, chest eagle, Donald duck eagle cap badge and the Minesweeper Badge. I have no idea what ship he may have been on although I did find this chart of his division. Also I did a painting of the group (sorry not really on topic but they all sort of sit together)

Maybe didn't hold up as well as I thought. I've killed it.......oh well, move on.

Thanks Gents. Chris - yes, a new difficult level. Not as difficult as the hard levels on Warface but still have to take it slow to figure out what comes next. Mike - I expect they had very big and sharp knives. Good job I'm now trying out these new ones working on canvas. I'm giving it some stick and it's holding up pretty well. Maybe get a few under my belt and I can get on with the more difficult, and bigger, pieces I'd like to do. This one is 1000mm by 450mm but I'd like to double that.

"Quintili Vare, legiones redde!" (Quintillus Varus, give me back my legions) shouted Emperor Augustus when he heard that 3 Roman Legions and their eagles had been lost. Legions XVII, XVIII and XIX - totalling something like 20,000 - were almost completely wiped out by an alliance of Germanic Tribes in the Teutoberg Forest. The commander of the Legions committed suicide rather than be captured (as torture and an ugly death would have been his only future in the hands of the Germans) was deceived by a Germanic Roman cavalry officer in his ranks (Arminius) who plotted with the tribes and led the Romans into a constructed ambush. Some 30,000 tribesmen almost certainly joined by several thousand deserting Germanic ranks of the Legions. Arminius slaughtered a great number of the XIX Legion as a prelim to the battle when he rode up with his cavalry on his unsuspecting allies while they were constructing a road. Two of the Legion eagles were recaptured by invasions across the Rhine in 15-16AD and the third eagle in 42AD. It was at this time that the battle site was located again by the Romans with the dead given a decent burial. It was reported that a handful of slaves were released in a later raid who were captured in the original battle some 40 years earlier. The location of the battle site was only fairly recently discovered by an off duty British Officer with an interest in Roman history. He poured over maps and set out with his trusty metal detector. The site now has a museum with the original battlefield laid out as it would have been in 9AD. Here's the painting I've been working on over the last few weeks to commemorate the Legions push to get back over the Rhine before winter set in. There's still a lot of work to do before it's finished. I'm having real problems trying to get it to look like I want it but I suppose that's how you get better, do the stuff you can't do.

Well worth a look at Don's artwork. His studio/home is both an amazing gallery and excellent military collection. Not too much US Civil War hereabouts so would be great to see some of that as well.

I expect moulding is a lot easier now than in the 17th century. But good that you are still using those old techniques, which are probably needed on the bigger items. I remember when you posted that pipe stove door. I thought it was a strange item to buy but now I see why you have it. Some nice EKs there, even one that has been de-nazified. Don't tell me you made these.

Your advice worked very well, brushed on a thin layer into all the crevasses and dips. Waited with crossed fingers and all came out very nicely, thank you. No need to shake the table, unless I get on to mammoth stuff like yours, as the thin layer works just fine. (And they are selling before I've had a chance to cast them - which is nice).

Impressively large pieces but I don't have a forklift handy so I'll stick to the smaller pieces I think. It would be good to see some progress pictures. I found it difficult to decide on what materials to use for mould making and casting. There seems to be a lot out there, all saying that theirs was the best available. I didn't really want to have a lot of trouble de-casting so I went with a silicon that doesn't seem to stick too much to anything. It takes 24hrs to go off but I think worth the wait rather than ruining the sculpture or mould. It is quite expensive though. Here's the next sculpture - about 180mm (7") high - that's going into the mould box and getting the silicon poured over it. I'm going to try to brush the silicon onto the details as I start pouring so hopefully minimising those weenie air bubbles that hang onto them. Fingers crossed that I don't bugger it all up otherwise that'll be 5 days of sculpting out of the window. No stress...

They are very nice, one a bit on the rude side and probably best to display in the man cave. Some are very large pieces and must use a fair bit of material to both mould and cast. Are some of them concrete? or are you using a material to fill and then painting. It would be good to see the process in action with some stages pictures. Do you do the sculpting as well as casting from original items? it all looks pretty interesting. I'm impressed, although your brickwork could do with some pointing

Thanks Gents, thanks. Hopefully they are inspirational, they certainly have been for me. I've jumped in and even ordered more resin mould type stuff. Go to your local art dealers and jump in. It's really not that expensive, no matter what you are interested in, have a go. There's always Mr.Google, Mr. Youtube and even me to ask for help. But I've found that getting older automatically unleashes a want to get to the 'devil in the detail' no matter how long it takes. Just have a look at Peter's uniforms or Brian's furniture or even Chris's trench in his garden.

Well worth the effort to display them in this fashion. They have some substance now and take up the space they deserve. Right good choice of pictures as well. Nice one.

Thank you Peter. I thinks it's about getting stuck in and having a go, and realising that it's not going to be done in an hour or so. These took two or three days each after a couple of massive failures and me balling up lumps of clay that took hours to form into ugly ducklings instead of proud eagles. Same as those uniforms you do, invest the time to learn something new. You never know when someone may need an eagle sculpted (as long as it isn't an emergency).

The completed shadow frame with eagle and EKIIs, looks pretty good but still to get onto the wall

Hmmm.......I wouldn't, not a good portrait IMO. And WW2 at that. Surely, there's something more fitting somewhere as they did like the posing photos in WW1. Given the Rommel photo above, someone has to have a nice one.........

Cold casted a few more to try out the mix. The aluminium powder will give off a gas if mixed too thickly (just as in cement when going for water proofing) and gives an Aero bar density. About a quarter of one half of the mix seems to be about right (that'll be an eighth then). So, I have a few miniature eagles now: And here's the prototype all ready for the display (I might do another concentrating on trying to keep the flat surfaces flat) but it looks sort of beat up, which is fine as it's only 5 inches wide:

Thanks Mike, maybe not a medal but how about one of the French Eagles captured at Waterloo, or maybe a Roman Eagle from the lost Ninth Legion? Just the thing to fill that gap in your collection until a real one comes along.

Here's the biggest pictures I can find, maybe others have better higher quality ones....

Thanks Chris And here's the SS Eagle alongside an EKII with a bit of patina added. I can feel skulls, crossed machine guns, stick grenades and badge type things coming on.

This one is an SS eagle with a wingspan of about 170mm, again not too clumsy. Rather than just paint them and use, I thought I'd have a go at moulding them (as the moulding stuff was next to the clay in the art shop). Here's the moulds complete with the pesky little air bubbles: having done a bit of research with Mr Google I added aluminium powder to the resin when casting. Here's the SS before any cleaning up: And here's the miniature train eagle after some cleaning up and some polishing. Also a picture alongside an EKII. Not bad for a first try but I need to get those flat surfaces better. And I have a fair bit of modelling clay left.

I don't really collect much any more but I can't seem to resist a nice looking Iron Cross or two. I still wander around military shows when I can and also trade the odd bit for my artwork. I've had a shadow frame sitting in the loft for a bit and as I've a few WW2 EKs hanging around I thought it was about time to get them displayed rather than hiding in the back of drawers along with those other few bits and bobs. So here was the plan, find the frame in the loft (Jeez, there's a lot of stuff up there) give it a clean, find out that I'd used it for something else previously and had to cut a new back for it: Find and arrange the Iron Crosses artistically (wow, found an EKI as well lurking in a drawer): Ok, looks pretty nice but there's that gap under the EKI. I needed something to fill it. I've a few various breast and cap eagles but..........aha, I remember having lokked around a show a few months ago I saw some awards mounted alongside what looked like a small train eagle. I'll get one of those I thinks. No chance, can I find one on Mr Google? No. Can I find anything similar? No. So, whatever, I'll make one. There's some very talented people on here making their own small figures, tanks, ships etc. I'll therefore have a go at making my own. Thinking back to school days playing around with clay, how hard can it be? I tried the air drying clay from the local art dealers - rubbish, it just broke up once dried. I tried carving the next one with the oven hardened clay - it was gonna take weeks. So, I sculpted one out of the modelling, sculpting clay available at the art store: With a wingspan of 145mm it turned out ok. So I did another: