WIP Critique Garde Nationale Lieutenant of the Paris Commune - 1871

[Otawerks]

Back in the days I had done some Verlinden conversions, but this is my first atempt at a full 120mm sculpt.
The figure is inspired by one of a series of pictures taken the day the Communards pulled down the Vendome column during the events of the "Paris Commune" in 1871.

The Garde Nationale was essentially a Militia, there were two Corps the Mobile and Sedentary (local).
They were poorly trained and equipped, being close to civilian life, family and local social circles, full battalions joined the commune against the government (exiled in Versailles) of Adolphe Thiers who had just surrendered to Bismark's Siege of Paris.

This lieutenant or sous-Lieutenant is wearing what seems to be a National Guard officer's tunic but either he has flipped down his collar or the tunic is a non military issue.
Also he is resting his hands on a model 1821 infantry officer's sabre. I really liked the stance



My first concern was to match the stance and the appearance of thick cloth and non-tailored pants visible in some characters of the picture.
I Also want to match his face, but I'm not there yet ...^^

Using aves apoxie sculpt has its pros & cons ....
On the pros it's totally fumble proof, very solid when set, also the wife wont freak out with epoxy baking.
On the cons if you're not a very gifted sculptor and get it right the first time, then comes a lot of scrapping and sanding..
so for me it's an iterative process with a lot of back and forth

Still some work ahead but comments & critics are welcomed

Ps : The focal of my camera makes the character's head larger than it is

 

[ellie]

Looking good so far. keep it going well done.

Ian

www.elliesminiatures.com

 

[arj]

Like Ian says, looking good so far.
One thing that is immediately noticeable to me is the position of the hands and the length of the coat when compared with the photo. The shortish broad sword (which I presume is just a prop at this stage) tends to emphasise the mismatch.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Otawerks]

Thanks Ian, and yes Andrew it's glaringly noticeable, now that you pointed it out, yet gone totally unnoticed by me ^^. I've been so focused on the battle for the folds & proportions (still ongoing).
That's a very helpful comment, thanks a bunch.
Cheers
Fred

 

[OldTaff]

Your man might have had his tunic made by one of the military tailors as a personal order. It was fashionable to have the turned-down look in velvet, usually very dark blue or black. I think I see a variation of this on the far left of the photo; the officer with the mutton-chop whiskers. Your chap is smoking what looks to be a meerschaum pipe with an amber mouthpiece, also very fashionable at the time. This looks as though it will be a very original figure; looking forward to seeing it done.

Alan

 

[Otawerks]

Hi Alan, thanks for the info, I didn't know the English term for this type of pipes and yes the irregular shape tends to confirm it's probably a crafted meerschaum pipe...
I just search-engined "meerschaum pipe 1870" with incredible results, and although from the 1890's there's a beautiful cuirassier figure Pipe that should please the miniature bust lovers...

a little off topic but not by much...


http://tobaccopipeartistory.blogspot.de

Well I'm not regretting my registration, you guys are really helpful, I felt I was getting bogged down in the minutia of my sculpt, now I feel re-invigorated and taking huge strides to complete it, thanks again!

Ps: here is the Full Picture of the motley crew at place Vendome... Although on the verge of Pulling down the column supporting a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte, it's funny to see the Bonaparte stance of having ones hand tucked in the tunic on the belly is still in vogue with some of the guards.

 

[Dan Morton]

This is a fine idea for a figure and I look forward to you completing it. May I offer some, I assure you, well-intended critique?

Maybe you've already done this, but maybe not. Attached are two Photoshop-ed versions of the just the lieutenant from the large sepia photo above. The first is a larger height 220mm - to be able to see detail, etc. The second is a 115mm height version - I don't know the actual height of your figure, so just guessing. If 115mm is wrong and if you have Photoshop, you can easily adjust the larger height version down to the actual figure height. I wouldn't advise expanding the 115mm figure to fit, because you may lose some resolution.

It looks to me like you have a lot of things right about the present version of the figure. The detail on the top of the kepi, the folds on the trousers, position of the hands - all look great.

One thing that looks wrong to me is the sword is too short. Assuming I'm correct and the photos aren't screwing up perspective (which I acknowledge happens all the time!), the sword being too short inevitably causes the arms to be lower than shown in the photo. Fixing this would be difficult, but not impossible. The second thing is that the waist line may be a little lower than shown in the photo. I could be totally wrong and the best way to verify is use the Photoshop photo matching the actual height of the figure and compare to the figure. If the waist line is a little too low, fixing it would be pretty major unfortunately. Feel free to disagree and/or ignore both of these comments.

All the best,
Dan

 

[Otawerks]

Hi Dan, I was awaiting your input (been following your reviews & posts)....

Yeah, 11,5 is about right, but I skipped the photo conforming part, I was happy with my wire frame pose and started building up, trying to stay within the proportion of this Kirin/jaguar panzer crew figure (here-under).


Somewhere along the build-up I lost a bit of proportions...ended up with too short of a torso.. hacked the figure at the waist line, added a bit, but maybe a 1mm too much.
Your Scaled pictures are very welcomed, thanks.
The 1821 Infantry broad sword is quite a short one only 87cm, my prop is 5,6cm.. somewhere in between 1/16 & 15th scale..
Then again, the hilt part & gen. width were eyeballed and might very well be, out of proportions, I'll have to Photo-Scale it too.

As for the Kepi I made a Hungarian knot wire jig, and ended up using some pc power-cord wire to do the lacing.

and seeing up close with the pics how sloppy my greenstuff detailing looks, I'm wondering if I should go all wire on the kepi's piping

Ps: the Pipe is also a prop/place holder..

Thanks again for all your inputs!

Cheers
Fred

 

[Otawerks]

Well,.. I should have known better than not to use all the tools necessary at my disposal...
Shortcuts & eyeballing won't cut it at all for me.



So, armed with the scaled pictures (tnx Dan), the figure underwent a major surgery procedure, the
belt line moved up a full width, the sword was lengthened by a couple of millimeters and the arms
were cut at the joint to the wire to rest a the desired height. Also the tunic is being lengthened, (still needs a little more, tnx Andrew) .
My figure is a bit taller than the Guard in the Pic. considering his sword, he should be around 1,70m, it's a bit of a balancing act.
Two steps back and what I hope is a good leap forward.
Comments & critiques are still very welcomed
Fred