lazyschnauzer

Leigh - I'm not exactly sure what that tunic is, but I worked from a set of 3 views of a Royal Scots Greys 1914 uniform published in Armes Militaria, a French militaria magazine, several years ago. This is one of the photos. I may have gotten the tunic a little longer than I should have, but I don't think it's off by much. Thanks for your comment! All the best, Dan

Gorgeous Napoleonics! Very well done! All the best, Dan

Chris, Sandro, Kev and Brian - Cheers! Thanks very much! All the best, Dan

In one of the halls of the Imperial War Museum, Gilbert Rogers famous painting, The Dead Stretcher Bearer hangs. This vignette is based on that painting. It is in 120mm scale. Kreston Peckham, a well known master painter, recently completed painting it for me. As always, he did a phenomenal job! Hope you like it. All the best, Dan

Many thanks Joe! All the best, Dan

Fourth and last.

Third installment...

Second installment.

When I received this vignette back from Roger Newsome, I was overwhelmed by the subtlety, color choices and shading. I think it is the best thing he's ever done. I hope you agree. Because of the size limit, I'll put together several posts to show you all the pics. All the best, Dan

Many thanks! All the best, Dan

And the last...

More photos...

More photos...

I've just completed this one today after months and months of detail work. It's not based on an illustration or photo. I wanted the cavalryman to look like he's just seen something that might be the enemy off in the distance. He's just grabbed his rifle and whirled round, squinting and ready to take aim, feet a little down in the stirrups, raised on one haunch a bit and leaning a little. Head from Michael Roberts, One hand from The Lost Battalion, Boots from Jaguar, Canteen from Model Cellar, horse from Dragon, French double boiler lying in the grass from Model Cellar. Uniform markings are for a Sergeant of the Royal Scots Greys in France, 1914. ? M1902 service dress tunic and trousers in khaki serge ? M1905 service dress cap, badge shows the Eagle of the French 45th Line captured at Waterloo ? Rolled mackintosh cape in front of the saddle and rolled khaki greatcoat in back of the saddle ? Khaki putties wound bottom to top and blackened 'ammunition boots', with spurs ? M1902 Haversack ? Cavalry water bottle ? Cavalry mess tin ? SMLE rifle, M1908 leather rifle bucket ? 90 round M1903 leather bandoleer, five pouches in front, four in back ? M1908 sword and metal scabbard in leather cover ? Universal Pattern (UP) saddle ? Wood horse picketing peg and rope, collapsible canvas horse bucket, both strapped to the sword More photos in subsequent posts! This will be painted by Rod Allison from New Zealand. Rod has been painting for years and garned many awards, painting hundreds of museum quality figures. I can't wait to see what he does with the dapple grey horse! All the best, Dan

Chris - Many thanks!!! Your encouragement is most appreciated. Lots left to do! All the best, Dan

Yes, I read much the same thing. My painter, who will be the Rod Allison, is eager to do a dapple grey. That would definitely look much better than some attempt to paint a horse camouflaged with creosote. Absolutely right incidentally - creosote would be a bad idea for painting a horse. I've also read they used boot black - far less of a problem, but still not a great idea! At present, I'm engaged in re-working the figure a bit. I have some folks on the Great War Forum who believe the haversack and water bottle should be on the horse, not the figure. So - I may move them there. Not sure yet. I'll muddle through. All the best, Dan

Laurence - Well-planned and very nice craftsmanship! Should make an attractive addition to a wargame! All the best, Dan

Nicely done! What a small scale! I don't think your shading is off at all. Curious about something. Is the model to be used for wargaming? If not, why give it such a small base? This is not meant as criticism in any way - I'm just curious. All the best, Dan

And the last one... All the best, Dan

Next pics...

This will be a mounted figure in 120mm or 1/15th scale. Head from Michael Roberts, One hand from The Lost Battalion, Boots from Jaguar, Canteen from Model Cellar. All of these kit pieces were modified. The horse is from Dragon and will require quite a bit of modification. I wanted to finish the cavalryman first. Uniform markings are for a Sergeant of the Royal Scots Greys in France, 1914. His equipment includes: ? M1902 service dress tunic and cavalry breeches in khaki serge ? M1905 service dress cap, badge shows the Eagle of the French 45th Line captured at Waterloo ? Khaki putties wound bottom to top and blackened ?ammunition boots?, with spurs (no spurs yet!) ? M1903 (I think!) haversack ? Leather strapped canteen ? Cavalry mess tin ? Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) MK III 0.303 caliber rifle ? 90 round M1903 leather bandoleer ? M1908 sword and holder (not yet!) ? Universal pattern saddle (eventually!) The horse will be equipped with a leather rifle wallet, bit and snaffle, reins, bridle, two large leather holster type hold-alls, blanket, wooden horse peg and rope, & canvas horse water bucket As you can tell, this is WIP and very rough. A large piece of pink Super Sculpey is holding him in the sitting position I want temporarily. I need to thoroughly clean the figure and equipment and do some detailing on the equipment. Initially I had thought to have the cavalryman aiming his rifle, but changed my mind when I was fiddling with the arms and rifle alignment. I liked this pre-firing pose better. He's squinting into the distance at something which might be a target. Hope you like it! All the best, Dan This will take several posts to show you all six pictures.

Many thanks Jim and Laurence! Jim - Try it again. This is my third year sculpting stuff in this manner - a few resin and metal parts but mostly MS. Before that, I had built and painted kits - starting with model cars in junior high, armor in high school, armor after college, etc., etc. My fascination with the Great War got me started with Steve Warrillow's excellent metal figure kits in 80mm. Excellent sculptor and figure maker and a very good scale. I started by modifying some of them. The last one was a combination of three of his figures, all heavily modified, a Scottish Lewis Gun team resting and smoking in a trench. I suggest that you start small. Do a tree. Do a hat. Do a small kit bag. Do a haversack. Don't start with a helmet - they're devilishly difficult. Look simple, but aren't!!. Also don't start with a weapon conversion - also tricky. Use Gary Dombroski's excellent sculpting SBS on Planetfigure.com to get started. There are others, both on Planetfigure.com and www.timelinesforum.com and elsewhere. If I can help, let me know. ps - This is what the 3 Tommies and the Shoveller started out looking like. I changed the Shoveller's head later. All the best, Dan

Cheers Jim! Thanks very much! All the best, Dan

Cheers Jim! Thanks for the kind comment! The head and helmet, boots and shovel come from D J Parkins - everything else is Magicsculpt, mixes of MS and Pro-Create or (for the putties) thin paper map tape. The hands started off being resin but had to be re-done extensively to fit the shovel. Lots of man hours but a labor of love. All the best, Dan

And the last one. All the best, Dan