On the Wire 1915

[lazyschnauzer]

Didn't mention it in the first post, but all my stuff is "one-offs". No resin copies. This one sold to a collector after the recent MMSI in Chicago. Painted beautifully by Kreston Peckham.

The origin of this one is based on two sources. The first is Sting's song "Children's Crusade". Part of the lyrics -

"The children of England would never be slaves;

Trapped on the wire and dying in waves:"

The second is a trench story or myth and you need to know a little British army history to fully understand it.

A young subaltern of Kitchener's army is sitting in a dugout with a much older pre-war professional soldier, a corporal and a Yorkshireman. The subaltern is bemoaning the lack of rifle shooting skill shown by his recently trained Kitchener's army platoon. The corporal has his back to the officer working on his field equipment and quips back, "Orr - could me platoon shoot befar the war, sir. Wonderful shots they was, just wonderful!" The subaltern, without thinking, asks, "Well then, corp, where are they now when I need 'em, eh? Where are those fine rifleman of yours?" The corporal turns to the subaltern, purple with rage, "I'll tell thee whar they are, shall I? Aye, I'll tell thee, son!" And with his eyes filling with tears, he points towards No Man's Land, "I'll tell thee - they're out there! Out there hanging on the bloody wire!"

All the best,

lazyschnauzer

Edited November 23, 2006 by lazyschnauzer

[leigh kitchen]

The dead German is based on a well known photograph showing the remains laying outside a dug out? I can't remember more details.

[Michael Johnson]

It's also from an old Army song, which goes along the lines of:

If you want to find the Colonel

I know where he is

I know where he is

He's lying in the deep dugout.

and goes down the ranks until "the old battalion" is "hanging on the cruel barbed wire".

I first heard it from my childhood friend's father, a Second War veteran.

[leigh kitchen]

Yes, it's the one that springs straight to mind when the subject of WWI squaddies hanging on the wire crops up - here's a link to audio of it:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/post1919.htm

Might as well post the lyrics

If You Want to Find the Sergeant Major

If you want to find the sergeant,

I know where he is, I know where he is.

If you want to find the sergeant,

I know where he is,

He's lying on the canteen floor,

I've seen him, I've seen him,

Lying on the canteen floor,

I've seen him,

Lying on the canteen floor.

If you want to find the quarter-bloke,

I know where he is, I know where he is.

If you want to find the quarter-bloke,

I know where he is,

He's miles and miles behind the line,

I've seen him, I've seen him,

Miles and miles behind the line,

I've seen him,

Miles and miles and miles behind the line.

If you want to find the sergeant-major

I know where he is, I know where he is.

If you want to find the sergeant-major

I know where he is,

He's boozing up the private's rum.

I've seen him, I've seen him,

Boozing up the private's rum.

I've seen him,

Boozing up the private's rum.

If you want to find the CO,

I know where he is, I know where he is.

If you want to find the CO,

I know where he is,

He's down in the deep dug-outs.

I've seen him, I've seen him,

Down in the deep dug-outs

I've seen him,

Down in the deep dug-outs.

If you want to find the old battalion,

I know where they are, I know where they are.

If you want to find the old battalion,

I know where they are,

They're hanging on the old barbed wire.

I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em,

Hanging on the old barbed wire,

I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em,

Hanging on the old barbed wire.

Edited February 26, 2008 by leigh kitchen

[lazyschnauzer]

Leigh - Yes, the dead German is based a classic Great War photograph widely published. It could have been a separate figure vignette all by itself. Who knows - maybe it should have been. I put the two figures together and they seemed to work.

Michael and Leigh - Thanks for posting the song. I have had bits of it quoted to me before, but not all of it. Great stuff! And, of course, almost literally true. Whole British companies and darn near whole battalions were caught on wire and machine-gunned. On wire that was supposed to have been blasted to bits before the infantry attacked. In 1915 the wire was intact for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of severe shortages of high explosive gun ammunition. And the young men of a whole generation paid the bill.

All the best,

Dan

[leigh kitchen]

The figures work well together - have you ever considered composing a vignette of the incident described by Robert Graves in "Goodbye To All That":

"Mametz Wood was full of dead of the Prussian Guards Reserve, big men, and of Royal Welch and South Wales Borderers of the new-army battalions, little men. There was not a single tree in the wood unbroken. I got my greatcoats and came away as quickly as I could, climbing over the wreckage of green branches. Going and coming, by the only possible route, I had to pass by the corpse of a German with his back propped against a tree. He had a green face, spectacles, close shaven hair; black blood was dripping from the nose and beard. He had been there for some days and was bloated and stinking. There had been bayonet fighting in the wood. There was a man of the South Wales Borderers and one of the Lehr regiment who had succeeded in bayoneting each other simultaneously. A survivor of the fighting told me later that he had seen a young soldier of the Fourteenth Royal Welch bayoneting a German in parade-ground style, automatically exclaiming as he had been taught: "In, out, on guard." He said that it was the oddest thing he had heard in France."

Edited February 27, 2008 by leigh kitchen

[lazyschnauzer]

Leigh - That would be a cracker for certain! Frankly, I have way too many other pieces either underway or in planning to consider another. Not all my stuff is this dire of course (far from it!), but I do not flinch from showing such detail - after all it's reality. I took a lot of stick from some modellers about On the Wire. They felt it was beyond the bounds, etc., not part of the hobby, just unnecessarily gruesome, etc., etc. And the rhetoric would get a bit red sometimes. Theirs not mine. I always thought that with pieces like this if I didn't get reactions like that I wasn't doing my job.

I'm not the only one who's done such pieces - Bob Tavis in Texas has regularly shaken the tree altho in a much different way. Here's a link to his works on Planetfigure.com. http://www.planetfigure.com/blogs/avbench.php?name=2066 And he's gotten some of the same reactions. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Bob's work.

All the best,

Dan

[Guest IMHF]

Creepy:

I like it, it was very much hell during the Great War.......nightmarish

SSG Luna, Lorenzo

Edited March 1, 2008 by IMHF

[lazyschnauzer]

SSgt Luna,

Many thanks for your kind comments! You're right - it's creepy!

All the best,

Dan

[pinpon590]

Didn't mention it in the first post, but all my stuff is "one-offs". No resin copies. This one sold to a collector after the recent MMSI in Chicago. Painted beautifully by Kreston Peckham.

The origin of this one is based on two sources. The first is Sting's song "Children's Crusade". Part of the lyrics -

"The children of England would never be slaves;

Trapped on the wire and dying in waves:"

The second is a trench story or myth and you need to know a little British army history to fully understand it.

A young subaltern of Kitchener's army is sitting in a dugout with a much older pre-war professional soldier, a corporal and a Yorkshireman. The subaltern is bemoaning the lack of rifle shooting skill shown by his recently trained Kitchener's army platoon. The corporal has his back to the officer working on his field equipment and quips back, "Orr - could me platoon shoot befar the war, sir. Wonderful shots they was, just wonderful!" The subaltern, without thinking, asks, "Well then, corp, where are they now when I need 'em, eh? Where are those fine rifleman of yours?" The corporal turns to the subaltern, purple with rage, "I'll tell thee whar they are, shall I? Aye, I'll tell thee, son!" And with his eyes filling with tears, he points towards No Man's Land, "I'll tell thee - they're out there! Out there hanging on the bloody wire!"

All the best,

lazyschnauzer

Hello !

I have a little observation : I think taht the head of dead man had to fall... How can she stay on ?

Greetings !

Jean-Baptiste

[lazyschnauzer]

Jean-Baptiste: Well observed and thanks for your comment! I walk a tightrope between artistic license and historical accuracy with a lot of my pieces. I try to stay on the side of "what could have and would have happened", in other words, realism, but I admit to being tempted with the issue of the skull on that particular figure.

This vignette was built in 2004 and 2005 and it was one of my first. I've learned 3 or 4 things in the years since and would probably re-pose this a little bit if I were re-building it - which so far I have no intention of doing and would only be tempted to do so if a collector wanted to commission it. I would also have spent much more time on both uniforms. Even tho they are both meant to be rotting away, some details should have been included which were omitted.

All the best,

Dan

[Guest IMHF]

Jean-Baptiste: Well observed and thanks for your comment! I walk a tightrope between artistic license and historical accuracy with a lot of my pieces. I try to stay on the side of "what could have and would have happened", in other words, realism, but I admit to being tempted with the issue of the skull on that particular figure.

This vignette was built in 2004 and 2005 and it was one of my first. I've learned 3 or 4 things in the years since and would probably re-pose this a little bit if I were re-building it - which so far I have no intention of doing and would only be tempted to do so if a collector wanted to commission it. I would also have spent much more time on both uniforms. Even tho they are both meant to be rotting away, some details should have been included which were omitted.

All the best,

Dan

Artistic is awesome, I would love to see one of Saddam in uniform wearing his medals and his sword.

I would pay big bucks for that one.

Thank you

Lorenzo

[lazyschnauzer]

Lorenzo, Thanks so much for going back and looking at the oldies but goodies.

All the best,

Dan

[Guest IMHF]

Looks like the guy got hit by artty, flew onto the wire and rotted. Now the rats on the battlefield come to eat him.

Lorenzo

Edited August 11, 2008 by IMHF

[Douglas Jr.]

This is one of the best modeling of WWI I've seen!

Congratulations for such nice job!

Douglas

[joe campbell]

Hello !

I have a little observation : I think taht the head of dead man had to fall... How can she stay on ?

Greetings !

Jean-Baptiste

it would eventually fall off, but the supporting

ligaments and cartilage has not degraded enough

at this point to break.

give it another few weeks... it will.

joe

[lazyschnauzer]

Quite right, Joe. Artistic license...

All the best,

Dan