WIP Oberst i.G. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

[Colin_Fraser]

A new project - I am working on one of my two Chicago purchases - Nuts Planets' bust of von Stauffenberg on July 20, 1944. This is a minor conversion and painting project.

Now that I hold the model in my hands, I am happier with the accuracy of Stauffenberg's portrait, although I think it shows him younger than he was in '44. The spare head of Tom Cruise in the role from "Valkyrie" is awesome but will likely be relegated to a painting practice piece.

I added an eye patch and strap to the CvS head. As I didn't want to resculpt his hair, I weaved the strap for the eye patch into the sculpted hair. I also used Magic Sculpt to smooth out the inaccurate collar piping. CvS would have worn this with his dress tunic (as depicted in Cruise's visit to Berchtesgaden in the film) but not with the undress jacket worn at Wolfschanze on July 20.

I have a lot of research material on Stauffenberg so if anyone is interested I can post background info as I go.

Colin

 

[captnenglish]

Thanks for the post.

 

[Ray Welshman]

Looking good so far Colin.

Cheers

Ray

 

[Gaudin]

The patch looks ace, well done. Have you decided not to use the hat? It may sit nicely to add character.

I still cant believe people thought this bust was another picture of Tom Cruise version .....

 

[Colin_Fraser]

The next thing I need to sort is whether or not to add to Stauffenberg's medals cast onto the bust - The Iron Cross and Wound Badge in Gold. Stauffenberg was also awarded the German Cross in Gold (aka "Hitler's Fried Egg") and he would have worn it on his lower part of his right breast pocket. He also had the right to a reasonably impressive medal bar showing his Iron Cross, long service awards and two foreign decorations. The question is whether or not he wore them on July 20. I asked Ewald von Kleist but he could not recall.

These extra awards are not worn in the film Valkyrie. Normally I would not quote a Hollywood film as a historical uniform source but Valkyrie had a very eminent historical consultant - Professor Peter Hoffmann on McGill University in Montreal. Professor Hoffmann is the expert, being the author of "The History of the German Resistance," "Stauffenberg: A Family History," "Hitler's Personal Security," and books on Carl Goerdeler, Stauffenberg's friend Major Joachim Kuhn and an upcoming bio of Henning von Tresckow. He told me he approached the producers and offered his unpaid services to enure that they got things as accurate as possible. Uncharacteristically for Hollywood, they actually listened to him with the result that Valkyrie is likely one of, if not the most accurate historical pictures ever made. The casting, uniforms, sets and dialogue are all spot on. Many of the lines in the film are quotes or paraphrases of actual conversations. For the most part, the actors actually look like their historical alter egos.

I looked at a book of colour photos of officers and staff at work in Wolfschanze and the bulk of the officers only wear major medals like the Iron Cross, Kinght's Cross, Pour le Merite, Wound and Assault badges. I did not see any German Crosses in wear and medal bars were infrequent. That makes sense to me as Wolfschanze was an operational, working military headquarters, not a ceremonial site. The July 15 photo of Stauffenberg shown above partially shows his right breast pocket and no hint of the German Cross is seen.

Based on this I decided to omit Stauffenberg's bar and German Cross. If anyone (e.g. Nap ) wants to add the bar, it would look like this -

From left to right -
Decorations and awards

• 31 May 1940 – Iron Cross, Ist Class
• Two long service awards - Heer
• 25 October 1941 – Royal Bulgarian Order of Bravery, IVth Class
• 11 December 1942 – Finnish Liberty Cross, IIIrd Class
• 20 April 1943 – Italian-German Remembrance Medal

 

[billyturnip]

Looking good Colin and I really appreciate you taking the time to include all the background information, very interesting.

Roger.

 

[T-34/85]

Excellent post Colin. I've been sitting on the fence whether or not to get this bust but your post has convinced me. Would it be permissible to use your corrections as an SBS? I would like to attempt the eye patch addition and maybe even the extra medals.

Tom

 

[Colin_Fraser]

No problem. Glad to help

Colin

 

[ChaosCossack]

Look forward to the progress on this one. As usual, your research is OCD in-depth... well done and very informative.
The bust looks great... he was a really handsome cat.

Carry on my wayward son

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Excellent post Colin. I've been sitting on the fence whether or not to get this bust but your post has convinced me. Would it be permissible to use your corrections as an SBS? I would like to attempt the eye patch addition and maybe even the extra medals.

Tom

Tom - my eye patch was a blob of magic sculpt set in the socket and smoothed convex with a wet brush. The edging resulted from using a chisel shaped clay shaper and twisting it. Again a wet brush was used to smooth the result. The patch on the Cruise head is a good guide. The strap was magic sculpt rolled thin, flattened and applied to the forehead and hair keeping in mind where it could disappear partially under the hair. The ends were feathered into the hair with a wet brush. Any uneveness can be trimmed after drying.

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Look forward to the progress on this one. As usual, your research is OCD in-depth... well done and very informative.
The bust looks great... he was a really handsome cat.

Carry on my wayward son

Colin

Colin as you know I have an obssessive interest in July 20 and the resistance movement. It predates Valkyrie. No point having all this useless info if one can't share it with ones' mates

Colin

 

[tiberius57]

Your favorite subject! The German resistance. Absolutely fascinating subject. Lovely presentation. Can't wait to see how it develops. As many details as possible, pleeeeease!
Cheers mate,
Zeno

 

[arj]

Your ‘simple’ changes are amending this sculpt from excellent to outstanding.
Well done
Andrew

 

[Colin_Fraser]

So the next issue is the accuracy of the tunic. The first bridge to cross is colour.

Peter Hoffmann notes in his bio that "Stauffenberg, wearing his white summer uniform jacket, fired his Belgian army pistol at Olbricht's section head, Lieutenant Colonel (GS) Pridun, and himself took a bullet in his left shoulder."

So what are the odds that Stauffenberg wore his white jacket on July 20 (seen being worn by Tom Cruise earlier in Valkyrie as he hands out wound badges)? Unlikely in my view.

- Stauffenberg was a sloppy dresser and the snappy white jacket would be out of character;
- the white jacket was intended for "walking out dress, for mess functions, at civil gatherings and for sports events"...it doesn't make sense that it would have been worn in duty at HQ and he certainly had no time to change on returning to Berlin to find the coup stalled
- the July 15 photo referenced above shows Stauffenberg in a light field grey tunic, cut short (as do other photos) - why would he have worn the white tunic at the same place 5 days later?
- I asked Ewald von Kleist and he recalled Stauffenberg in field grey in the Bendlerblock on July 20
- Hoffmann was the historical consultant to Valkyrie and a light field grey tunic was used for July 20, presumably on his advice
- no personal memoirs of July 20 reference the white summer uniform and it would have stood out

So no white jacket.

The model is well sculpted to show a standard Heer tunic with lots of wrinkles, looking rumpled. If this is intentional it is brilliantly done as it is consistent with Stauffenberg's sloppy presentation. This characteristic is recalled by several diarists who served with him.

The epaulettes for a General Staff Oberst are clear - dull silver thread on a ground of carmine (raspberry sherbet colour). Two gilt pips are used to indicate rank.

The collar patches are less clear. I have seen both carmine backed patches and green backed. I will be putting Stauffenberg in the carmine backed patches contrary to those seen in Valkyrie and in Nuts' box art, despite the fact that the dark green is supported by the film's excellent research as well as an official 1945 US Army guide to German insignia. Arguing in favour of carmine is the fact that to my eye, the 1942 B&W photo of Stauffenberg with Mertz shown below seems to show a lighter colour of collar tab backing than the dark green of the collar itself. Also, a complete surviving uniform of executed staff colonel von Roenne includes carmine tabs with the undress jacket (photos attached from Andre Huesken's site). Finally, the carmine tabs are more colourful. In the end either solution is fine as Stauffenberg didn't give a damn about dress regs. There is no reasonable way to tell unless someone finds the uniform he was shot in.....last seen in a box in the basement of the Bendlerblock in 1945.

Photos below show Stauffenberg with Hitler and von Quirnheim respectively; in both photos he wears the short skirted and lighter coloured tunic. Other attached photos show the epaulettes, collar patches and the US insignia guide.

Oberst i.G. Alexis Baron von Roenne's uniform below:

 

[Gaudin]

I think, Colin, you have just demonstrated a phenomenon called "Reverse rivet counting" or "Advanced riveting"

I'd love to see some one to try and raise an argument after this.

 

[Nap]

Colin,

One word on your research ..BRILLIANT ...really looking forward to seeng this come alive in your skilled hands

Like your idea's for the setting ...perhaps the plaque on a wall

Thanks to sharing

Nap

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Thanks gents...as you can tell, Stauffenberg is special to me and I can't get at my paint for another week, so I compensate by researching his rivets. I go through these sorts of weird thought processes with most projects. I just rarely document them. But I admit this one is a little overboard.

Nap - I am trying to figure how to do the plaque as an apparition rather than as a direct copy. That may be beyond my skills....ideas welcome.

You may wonder why I was asking Ewald von Kleist about uniform detail - I did a bust and two figures of Stauffenberg about 15 years ago when I was starting sculpting and wanted to be obsessive about accuracy.....even so I still made many errors as there was less on the net and my library was shaky. At that time I made contact with Peter Hoffmann, a very generous academic and very much a detail man (check the footnotes in his books....they are fascinating). Through him and another contact, I was able to ask specific questions in writing to Kleist and Claus' widow Nina. She was the one who provided me with the info that her husband had dark brown hair and blue/grey eyes.

Can't wait to start painting.... I really look forward to painting him in my new style with Testors gloss model car paints

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Finally got to my paints. Starting off non-traditional with body before head. I find I always race through the figure after the head is done so this is a self imposed discipline exercise. Still lots to do. The carmine General Staff facing colour is under-painted deep purple.

I bought some scale 75 acrylics in Chicago and didn't realize the necks of the bottles need piercing before use. I thought it was clogged and squeezed with predictable catastrophic results....the whole top came off and 1/2 the paint blasted out. Missed my figure by inches.

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

More progress today. Field grey still needs tidying. Much of the insignia is incomplete. Added pistol wound to the left shoulder that Stauffenberg received from loyalist officers as they took back the Bendlerstrasse late on July 20.

Colin

 

[Nap]

Colin,


Great start mate love what you have done so far with the collar insignia, breast eagle , awards and the wound as well

..this is going to be a really nice piece

Thanks for sharing

Nap