War along the Nile: This 1885 oil on canvas painting by the British war artist Godfrey Douglas Giles (1857-1941), was the inspiration for my British officer. The painting depicts the moment when the broken British Second Brigade square had reformed and was advancing to recover the abandoned guns of the Naval Brigade.
The artist's own eye-witness account of the incident that he depicted stated: “Almost at the same moment a fresh body of the enemy were seen issuing from a broad, deep, rocky ravine, in which they had been lying concealed, this time in even denser numbers than before. Our troops met the onslaught with the utmost steadiness. “
This scratch-built and customised project was another challenging project but again, very satisfying to realise. I again have to accord my thanks and gratitude to Tony Barton; for his advice and being a source of 1/6 19th century gear and weapons.
The officer in the Giles painting appears to be wearing a white buff sword belt, which by 1884 would be very old-fashioned seeing that Sam Brownes were normal officer wear. Arriving from the Indian contingent, he like his men, carries his blanket roll over his shoulder and has a OR helmet with cover. He has bluish-black puttees for riding duties.
All leather work were scratch-built, based on Pierre Turner’s fine reference book “Soldiers' Accoutrements of the British Army 1750-1900”. The resin foreign service helmet, chin-chain, locket buckle clasp, Beaumont Adams revolver, sword hilt, scabbard and Italian pattern water bottle were by Tony Barton and were duly painted with acrylic paints.
The BGT tunic was recut and modified and recreated with arm sleeve cuffs, while the pants were resewn, cut and painted, as were the repainted BGT blanket. Puttees were scratch-built. Like the other rank figure, I would have loved to have use IJA ankle boots, sadly they weren’t available.
Reminiscing: Thought I’ll share some Headsculpt modifications and repaint techniques. This was figure was another ‘War along the Nile’ WIP, where I was trying out a different painting technique. After sculpting the headsculpt to the neck and leaving overnight to dry, I repainted the headsculpt with a basic acrylic undercoat. Layers of paint mixed with medium - in effect, more like tints - were slowly applied to achieve a ‘mottled’ sunburnt skin effect. Shadow details were then subtly added. I had thoughts of repainting the eyes but eventually left them as they were. I hope you enjoyed the process.
