1/6th bust sculpt in progress

[Colin_Fraser]

I am sculpting a 1/6th bust of Generlleutnant Paul von Hase, Commandant of Berlin 1940-1944 and a key player in the July 20 1944 bomb plot on Hitler. I'll attach a photo so you can see where I'm going and a blurb that I wrote for my autograph album.

Why von Hase? Because I respect him, I like his bearing in the photo and I like the planes of his face.

I'll try to do a bit of an SBS on this. Elapsed time so far = 1 and 1/2 hours. Started this morning.

Here's the signed pic.

And his medal bar - researched and created as a composite of pix I found on the net:

And finally the blurb for background:

Hoffmann photographic postcard of Generalleutnant Paul von Hase as Commandant of the Berlin Garrison. Signed in person in 1942.

On July 20th, Paul von Hase was actively involved in executing the Valkyrie plan.  He was also heavily involved in the planning and execution role for several other abortive coup attempts, particularly those of 1938 and 1939.  Interestingly, von Hase was aslo the uncle of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

As commander of the Berlin garrison, General von Hase had command authority over all troops stationed in the City of Berlin. Hase was instrumental in making the critical decision to retain Major Remer as the commander of the Grossdeutschland guard battalion.  Hase expected that Remer could be relied upon to blindly obey his superiors – even if they were conspirators.  This turned out to be a tragic miscalculation as Remer’s defection to Goebbels was instrumental in the ultimate miscarriage of the plot.  It is known that von Hase’s Berlin command headquarters was a hive of activity during Valkyrie and the General was possibly too distracted to closely supervise the hour-by-hour activities of Remer.

As the coup unraveled, Paul von Hase was ordered to report to Minister Goebbels and he was arrested at the Minister’s office late in the evening on July 20th.  Included as a defendant in the first of the show trials before the People’s Court, Paul von Hase stood shoulder to shoulder with Generalfeldmarschall von Witzleben, Generaloberst Hoepner, Generalmajor Stieff, Graf von Wartenburg, Oberstleutnant Bernardis, Hauptmann Klausing and Leutnant von Hagen.  This first trial was a two-day ordeal held on August 7th and 8th.  He withstood the bellowing accusations of “Judge” Roland Freisler without flinching.  The outcome was a foregone conclusion - all of the defendants were convicted.   They were taken almost immediately to Plotzensee Prison where they were unceremoniously strung up and hung from piano wire nooses suspended from meat hooks.   

Witnesses to the trial and executions noted that von Hase’s coolness and proud military bearing never failed him right up to the last moment.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

The beginning -

And compared to a DML figure for size:

 

[Colin_Fraser]

And today's work on the eyes, eyebrows, brow and forehead - the chin will be removed as it is squint!

Colin

 

[Roy]

Hi Colin...he makes a good subject I think for sculpting...the very distinctive face, moustache and hairline are great points to refer to..(and those eye-brows..)
That collar insignia should look great as well as the medal bar.
I like your progress so far....I'm very interested to see how you get on, and I will certainly be watching closely.

All the best.

Roy.

 

[gordy]

excellent!

BTW, what a dead ringer for Tom Selleck

 

[garyjd]

Colin, I'm going to enjoy watching this interesting project take shape. I like the mix of subjects that you choose. Did you not also do another General that took part in the bomb plot? I thought I remember you doing both a figure and bust.~Gary

 

[captnenglish]

Originally posted by gordy@Jul 28 2005, 10:01 PM
excellent!

BTW, what a dead ringer for Tom Selleck

I'll be damned you're right.

Colllin: I have long admired the other personalities you've done can't wait to see this one.

 

[Bert Takken]

Hi
I've painted several bustes and now I will paint a self made one, so I have really a lot of questions about it
I'm glad you made it like a SBS
But, in the first pic you show me a raw head. Did you made it just as so, (o man why can't I write in dutch just a raw something and then putting several tiny pieces of the sculpting material on the face? (I know, i should ask this things into the Sculpting Topics

Bert

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Bert:

I started with an egg shaped piece of putty in magic sculpt. Then I flattened the face with the palm of my hand. I always sculpt the face first and then add the back of the head when its done - probably not the best technical approach but whatever works. Once I have the flattened face, I rough in the eye sockets, nose and mouth.

I then cook the head for 15 minutes at 200 degees F.

Next step was to dremel out the eye sockets and to hollow out cheeks. I added eye balls and then proceeded to build up the eye lids and brow area.

My sculpting style is to mix modeling with carving. Modeling is generally done with a Games Workshop tool and rubber tipped colour shapers. All carving is done with Rio Rondo carbide scrapers (THE BEST SCULPTING TOOLS YOU WILL EVER FIND).

BTW - you guys are dead on with the Selleck comment! And the funny thing is that I was watching Magnum P.I. DVD's with my wife last night (I wonder why she liks that show?) while sculpting and didn't pick up on it!.

Yes - the bomb plot is a major interest area for me as these guys were a gutsy bunch who never got a fair shake in history due to the allies' imposition of a collective guilt doctrine on Germany.

I have previously done a ~ 1/6th bust of Claus von Stauffenberg, a 140 mm and a 1/35th figure of same, and a larger bust of Generloberst Ludwig Beck. I'll probably do more - perhaps Canaris next.

I also treated myself to some Alumilite and will have a go at casting this if it turns out OK (just so I can have a few practice heads and a couple of extras for my boys to paint). I've never casted anything before so there may be an appeal for help coming!

Thanks for the interest.

Colin

 

[Bert Takken]

Thanks Colin for your very good explanation, I'll give it a try
Bert

 

[megroot]

So Bert,

You gonna sculpting now ??
I will see some results soon on PF

Marc.

 

[Bert Takken]

Marc
I was intend to give it a try after the Bud from Anders, It should be great to paint an own made buste
I playing with the idea for a medic from Nam. At the moment I read and read all the books I have and searching on the Net, but showing soon....................well I think it will take a real long time to learn working with the sculpting material and tools without damage on table and my life.
But it'sreally something I will try to do, jsut for my own experience
I will start this weekend with playng with Das klei, it's cheap and when it goes wrong, so be it
Bert

 

[frank h]

Hi Colin
Like the way you work...sulpting and carving
following this SBS closely

The face is already developing character
and the background information is a good read

I play around with sculpting still have a lot of
learning to do ...

Thanks for sharing this

Frank

 

[Jacek Spychalski]

Nice work Colin !

All the best!

Jacek

 

[yeo_64]

VERY NICE,Colin,and an interesting subject too !! Looking forward to the development of the piece. Cheers !
Kenneth

 

[Dan Morton]

Colin - What an excellent subject for sculpting! I see what you mean by the planes and angles of his face. And the resemblance to Tom Selleck is pretty close, although just from memory, I think Selleck has stronger cheekbones and a broader chin.

I look forward to seeing this develop!

All the best,
Dan

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Here is yesterday's progress - I roughed in the cheeks and then added the nose. After that, I dremeled out the mouth area and chin and added the lips, chin and moustache in that order. I'm still working on the cheeks, mouth area, jowells etc.
In between each step there was a lot of carbide scraping going on.

I probably worked on this for about 3 hours yesterday.

Colin

2 bad photos of the cheek rough-in:

and three of the rest -this isn't really an SBS but I hope you get the idea:

 

[Roy]

He's looking very impressive colin..
He definately seems to be developing a character now..

very nice piece so far..good luck for the next steps

Roy.

 

[fsdesimone]

Very, very nice Colin. This is shaping up beautifully. Is this the first time you're working in 1/6th?

Francesca

 

[Guy]

He is looking great Colin.........like Roy stated.........is picking up character now.