Firstly I love the fact that this was released in recognition of the 70th Anniversary of Valkyrie so well done Nuts Planet!
They have nailed Tom Cruise in the role.
I still have reservations re. the portrait of the real Stauffenberg but it's growing on me the more I look at it. As Mike said earlier, every extant picture of Claus (and there aren't that many - maybe 30 or so) looks a bit different so this is a very difficult portrait sculpt to pull off. They have a bit of rumpling in the uniform, which is good because Stauffenberg was known to be unkempt. I don't think the collar piping is right for July 20 but that is an easy fix. The uniform insignia shows Oberst rank and a wound badge in gold, so it's a July 1944 depiction. I would have preferred the eye patch to have been included but I guess it's easier to add than remove. Depends if you believe Claus wore a patch or glass eye when he tried to kill Hitler.
Now for the rivet counting comments - on history, not the model (sorry but this is my particular interest area). The film Valkyrie shows Cruise's Stauffenberg at Wolfsschanze not wearing the patch, instead sporting his glass eye. This is supported by the fact that the last picture of Stauffenberg with Hitler on July 15 (the aborted first attempt) is a profile shot from his right side that does not "seem" to show an eye patch strap and probably would if it was worn that day. If he wore his glass eye on July 15, there is a strong likelihood he wore it July 20. His son recalls Stauffenberg asking him to "go and fetch my eyesight" when he was to meet important people. But Walter Warlimont, who was in the hut and who was wounded by the bomb, says Stauffenberg wore the patch on July 20 in the briefing hut. His memory may have been flawed when he made this statement 20 years later. Getting blown up probably didn't help either. Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, who died last year and was the last survivor of the plot, told a friend of mine that Stauffenberg wore the patch in Berlin after returning from Wolf's Lair on the 20th. The world authority on Stauffenberg and the bomb plot, Professor Peter Hoffmann of McGill University in Montreal acted as unpaid historical consultant to the Cruise film (he volunteered because he didn't wanted them to screw up the history and the producers actually listened to him!). So if Hoffmann told them to use a glass eye rather than patch during the assassination attempt, that's pretty safe.
Conclusion - the depiction is OK for Stauffenberg at Wolfsschanze from the time of his arrival at the Lagebaracke, where he removed his hat (never retrieved) to the time he got to his aircraft and presumably removed the glass in favour of the patch. He definitely wore the patch at the Bendlerstrasse during the coup attempt and when he was shot that night. For what that is worth.
I will be doing mine with a patch added.
The statement "Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland" translates to "Long live sacredGermany!" This is generally accepted as Stauffenberg's last cry as he was hit, although some think he yelled "secret" rather than "sacred," being a reference to a mystical cult-like group Stauffenberg and his brothers belonged to centred around the poet Stephan George.
Again well done Nuts Planet!
Colin
