lazyschnauzer Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leigh kitchen Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 The dead German is based on a well known photograph showing the remains laying outside a dug out? I can't remember more details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Johnson Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 It's also from an old Army song, which goes along the lines of:If you want to find the ColonelI know where he isI know where he isHe'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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leigh kitchen Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 (edited) 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.htmMight as well post the lyricsIf You Want to Find the Sergeant MajorIf 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-majorI know where he is, I know where he is.If you want to find the sergeant-majorI 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-outsI'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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leigh kitchen Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IMHF Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 (edited) Creepy: I like it, it was very much hell during the Great War.......nightmarishSSG Luna, Lorenzo Edited March 1, 2008 by IMHF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted March 1, 2008 Author Share Posted March 1, 2008 SSgt Luna,Many thanks for your kind comments! You're right - it's creepy! All the best,Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinpon590 Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 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,lazyschnauzerHello !I have a little observation : I think taht the head of dead man had to fall... How can she stay on ?Greetings !Jean-Baptiste Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted March 1, 2008 Author Share Posted March 1, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IMHF Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 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,DanArtistic 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 youLorenzo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 Lorenzo, Thanks so much for going back and looking at the oldies but goodies. All the best,Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IMHF Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Jr. Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 This is one of the best modeling of WWI I've seen!Congratulations for such nice job!Douglas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe campbell Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hello !I have a little observation : I think taht the head of dead man had to fall... How can she stay on ?Greetings !Jean-Baptisteit would eventually fall off, but the supportingligaments and cartilage has not degraded enough at this point to break.give it another few weeks... it will.joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyschnauzer Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 Quite right, Joe. Artistic license...All the best,Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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