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51st HD Sergeant, April 1917


John

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I've never really been a figure modeller but there's an anniversary coming up that I feel I need to commemorate in the best way I can, and that's with a figure.


April 1917 is the centenary of my Grandpa Walker's wounding in the Battle of Arras. I'm not sure exactly which date it happened but the 1/7 Argylls were involved in fighting at a location known as the "Chemical Works" from the early hours of 23rd April and we know Grandpa didn't get that far before he was hit. We also know from his discharge book that he was evacuated from France on April 28th, so that seems about right.

 

I bought the Tamiya WW1 British soldiers from Hobbycraft a while back. I'm only planning to use one, the advancing soldier, on a plain base. I'm not aiming to recreate the final scene of Blackadder 4, just something simple. I'll finish him a a 51st HD Sergeant.

 

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I found this little unglazed ceramic plaque which will do fine as a stand for my soldier. I also managed to get it home without breaking it, which was an achievement. An aerosol coat of gloss black enamel will be the first order of business for it.

 

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Basic construction and a couple of coats of Humbrol 36 Pastel Green as an undercoat:

 

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followed by a mix of Revell 86 and 16 for the khaki and Humbrol 94 for the webbing:

 

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I also bought some Fields of Glory Models barbed wire for the base, but the I think the stanchions are a bit out of scale. The actual barbed wire looks quite convincing:

 

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Grandpa's army discharge book showing that he was evacuated from France on April 28th 1917:

 

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John

 

 

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A fitting tribute John I love to see WW1 covered in modelling terms it's great to see a resurgence in the period due to the many

anniversaries we are living through I see your grandfather was discharged five day's before my Gt Uncle was killed in Belgium.

a note of caution though most Scottish regiments wore the kilt or a khaki apron even in the winter especially the Highland

regiment's,the Chemical work's were on the right of Vimy ridge so a couple of Km's from the Canadian memorial will be

 the spot he was wounded.I was lucky to visit in 2001.

DSCN4932_zps7jfvs0tz.jpg

 

Edited by stevej60
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Thanks for the kind comments.

 

Steve, concerning the kilt you are of course correct that even as late as 1917 many Highland Regiments were still - incredible as it seems - going into battle with the kilt and apron combination. I remember my Grandfather talking about this, and about how the mud dried into the heavy woolen cloth and pulled the hairs out of the soldier's legs. However he did at least suggest that by the time he was wounded standard battledress was being issued. It's a bit of a judgement call, but he certainly never explicitly said he was still wearing his kilt in combat by the time of Arras, although some undoubtedly were.

 

John

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If I'm approximately correct in my dates, it's 100 years ago either yesterday or today that Grandpa was wounded.

 

An exploding artillery shell sent shrapnel into his right thigh and left hand, shattering part of his thigh bone and blowing him into a shell hole. He managed to get his field dressing on to his leg wound and, eventually, he was rescued by stretcher bearers. He was sent to a clearing station and then a military hospital, where his wounds were operated on.

 

On April 28th he was evacuated from France to St Andrew's military hospital in Dollis Hill, London. He stayed there for 6 months of therapy and recuperation. One of the excercises he was given to build up his wounded hand was to embroider his regimental badge:

 

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His initials and the date are in the bottom corner.

 

He was discharged from the army on 1st November 1917 and sent home:

 

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He attended the local hospital in Falkirk to have his wounds dressed and was one of the early patients at Erskine Hospital where he was fitted for boots with a special buit-up sole on the right. However Grandpa was never one to sit around and by the summer of 1918 he was back at work with Falkirk Iron Company making, among other things, artillery shells! He's second from the left here:

 

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His wounded hand is behind his back, as it often would be in photos, and you can make out his built up boot sole. 

 

Grandpa and me, 1962:

 

51stHD15_zpsgfxlkcnq.jpg

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Superb photos John,what these men lived through in those years we can only imagine.You are quite correct common sense prevailed

in the latter war years and the kilt gave way to standard dress,while on the visit that took in Vimy ridge I also visited Tyne Cot cemetery

near Ypres with over 11,000 graves the largest CWGC cemetery in the world which is a place you can never forget it was a beautiful

sunny day and we sat enjoying the peace and quiet broken suddenly by a group of pipers marching straight up the central pathway,

let's just say the hairs ON the hairs on the back of my neck stood up!

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Following with great interest John, a marvellous tribute to your grandfather.

 

In fact, you've given me an idea for a similar tribute to my own grandfather, who was wounded in action on 3rd July 1915 during a gas attack at the Yser Canal, near Ypres. He was eventually discharged in January 1916, 4 days before he was officially old enough to enlist! He was in the Somerset Light Infantry.

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Having thought about a base for my figure a bit more, I decided the little ceramic plaque was going to be a bit too small for what I wanted to do. I had a few MDF bases at work that had been bought for a project that didn't happen, so one of them has been pressed into service:

 

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It's about 6x4 inches.

 

I also bought a pack of resin "craters" at Carronade 2017 yesterday:

 

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and I've been playing about with a couple of these on the base. The bottoms of the castings need sanded down a bit but there's potential here:

 

51stHD19_zpsayy3ruaz.jpg

 

John

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Continuing with my own little shell-blasted fragment of the Western Front, the edges of the wooden base were masked off the working surface was scored with a craft knife to give it a bit of tooth. 4 of the resin craters were selected and superglued in position and the whole thing was given a primer coat of Humbrol 93 enamel, simply because I had it handy The bits between the craters were then given a few uneven coats of PVA glue to define the ground surface:

 

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To texture the ground I used a mixture of Woodland Scenics Ballast Fine Buff Crushed Rock, PVA glue and brown craft acrylic paint to create a textured paste that was liberally stippled on with a stiff paintbrush:

 

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The inadvisability of keeping the crushed rock in an old coffee tin has been pointed out to me by my nearest and dearest!

 

Finally for now, the resin craters were given a couple of coats of craft acrylic to begin to tie them into the groundwork:

 

51stHD24_zpswkdiprxh.jpg

 

More soon.

 

John

 

 

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13 minutes ago, clive_t said:

Nice work. I have a mental image of you hurriedly sticking that label on the tin in response to a rather unfortunate 'error' :D

 

Aye...

 

J

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  • 1 month later...

The holidays have finally arrived and I have a bit of time to do more work on this figure.

 

I've been concentrating on the base and I'm fairly happy with it so far. The mix of resin craters, white glue, model railway ballast and acrylic paint has given me the effect I was hoping for:

 

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The whole thing was given a coat of 35 enamel matt varnish from a spray can to even it up. 3 of the craters will have water in them, and have been given a light base coat of 168 Hemp to cover the wood finish of the base.

 

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The masking was removed and the edges were given a couple of coats of Humbrol Gloss Clear. The next step is to furnish the base with the detritus of war, particularly barbed wire stanchions and lengths of broken wire. I bought a roll of 0.8mm copper wire from the jewellery dept at Hobbycraft to make the stanchions, which I think will be a bit more in scale than the ones in the Fields of Glory set.

 

John

 

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Time to get some water into the shell holes.

 

The ingredients are Micro Kristal Kleer, Humbrol acrylic Clear and the brown acrylic paint that's the basis of the groundwork. A mix of Krystal Kleer and a small amount of paint is laid into each shell hole with a cocktail stick and allowed to level out:

 

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Once everything is smooth and dry, a thin coat of Clear provides the "wetness":

 

51stHD28_zpsaymqv800.jpg

 

I'm reasonably happy with the effect.

 

John

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Thanks.

 

I spent a bit of relaxing time today making barbed wire stanchions from 0.8mm copper wire. I varied the lengths as I wanted them on a shell-blasted battlefield, rather than just out of the depot:

 

51stHD29_zpsntwihbfv.jpg

 

I've superglued a few into holes drilled in the terrain and they look OK, certainly good enough for what I need:

 

51stHD30_zpsnd8rwslz.jpg

 

John

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A bit more progress on the base. The barbed wire stanchions were painted 56 Aluminium then washed with 33 Matt Black and 160 German Camouflage Red Brown. They've really vanished into the background quite effectively. I've also started adding bits and pieces of abandoned kit, just a helmet and pack so far but I'll add more. My son has given me a sprue from the ICM British Infantry set which has useful bits and pieces on it that can be pressed into service.

 

The helmet was painted 158 Interior Green and the pack 94 Brown Yellow, before getting a couple of thinned washes of 173 Track Colour which toned them down nicely.

 

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John

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Work is progressing on the soldier:

 

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His battledress is essentially several thin coats of Revell 86 Olive Brown, which seems to sit nicely between green and brown and fits at least my interpretation of the typical WW1 uniform. Puttees are Humbrol 120 Light Green, which has dried to a slightly satin finish but will be matted and dirties quite a bit as work progresses. The 1908 webbing was too yellow to my eye so has been repainted in a 50/50 mic of Humbrol 120 and Revell 16 Sandy Yellow, which delivers a nice faded khaki shade. Boots and bayonet scabard are Humbrol 160 German Camouflage Red Brown and the haft of the entrenching tool is Revell 16. The water bottle seems to have a grey cover so it was painted Humbrol 87 Steel Grey with the surrounding webbing in the 120/16 mix.  

 

Quite a bit still to do but coming along nicely.

 

John

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