ghamilt1
PlanetFigure Supporter
One of my city's local papers is running an excellent series on the Great War, and I read a really interesting article last week on two Canadian pipers. One of them was Piper Richardson who won a VC in October of 1916 during the battle of the Somme. Here is an exert from his story:
This is how the Dictionary of Canadian Biography describes what happened next:
“At this critical point with the company commander killed, casualties mounting and morale and momentum almost gone, Richardson volunteered to pipe again.
“‘Wull I gie them wund (wind)?’ he asked the company sergeant-major, who consented,
“For some 10 minutes, fully exposed he strode up and down outside the wire playing his pipes with the greatest coolness. The effect was instantaneous. Inspired by his splendid example the obstacle was overcome and the position captured.”
It wasn’t quite that tidy. Richardson’s incredible bravery galvanized the Canadian Scottish into ripping down the wire with bare hands and then came retribution as their bombing parties — Richardson included — got in among the trenches.
The battalion’s second-in-command that morning, Major Cyrus Peck, who would also win a VC, saw Richardson in front of the wire and described it as “one of the great deeds of the war.”
“The conditions were those of indescribable peril and terror. The lad’s whole soul was bound up in the glory of piping.”
Later, Richardson was detailed to bring back a wounded soldier and some prisoners but returned to retrieve his pipes which he had left behind near the German trenches despite being warned it was dangerous to do so.
He was never seen again.
I thought this story would make a great figure if only somebody would sculpt it. Then I remembered I have Romeo's Waterloo Piper in 75 mm collecting dust in the display cabinet. So I thought to myself; "self, why don't you try a conversion?" And so begins a journey which I will share with you all.
Here is the original from an old picture
I began by stripping all of the old paint and carefully deconstructing the parts. Then I had to file away all of the 1815 uniform detail. These first pictures show the figure at that stage.
This is how the Dictionary of Canadian Biography describes what happened next:
“At this critical point with the company commander killed, casualties mounting and morale and momentum almost gone, Richardson volunteered to pipe again.
“‘Wull I gie them wund (wind)?’ he asked the company sergeant-major, who consented,
“For some 10 minutes, fully exposed he strode up and down outside the wire playing his pipes with the greatest coolness. The effect was instantaneous. Inspired by his splendid example the obstacle was overcome and the position captured.”
It wasn’t quite that tidy. Richardson’s incredible bravery galvanized the Canadian Scottish into ripping down the wire with bare hands and then came retribution as their bombing parties — Richardson included — got in among the trenches.
The battalion’s second-in-command that morning, Major Cyrus Peck, who would also win a VC, saw Richardson in front of the wire and described it as “one of the great deeds of the war.”
“The conditions were those of indescribable peril and terror. The lad’s whole soul was bound up in the glory of piping.”
Later, Richardson was detailed to bring back a wounded soldier and some prisoners but returned to retrieve his pipes which he had left behind near the German trenches despite being warned it was dangerous to do so.
He was never seen again.
I thought this story would make a great figure if only somebody would sculpt it. Then I remembered I have Romeo's Waterloo Piper in 75 mm collecting dust in the display cabinet. So I thought to myself; "self, why don't you try a conversion?" And so begins a journey which I will share with you all.
Here is the original from an old picture
I began by stripping all of the old paint and carefully deconstructing the parts. Then I had to file away all of the 1815 uniform detail. These first pictures show the figure at that stage.
