Hi Guys ,
It always nice to meet new people in the hobby and whilst at Figureworld I met up with a sculptor called Steve Leadley, he asked me to look at and review a couple of busts he had produced .
Before we go any further lets have a little bit of background information on Steve:
Since childhood, Steve has had a passionate interest in military subjects and has built up a sizeable collection of figures, vehicles and aircraft, as kits, or as scratchbuilts projects.
Steve has been a professional modeller for many years, working within the ceramics industry, namely for Spode and Royal Doulton , and he currently teaches Design and Technology at The Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy in Stoke on Trent.
After joining Meir Model Club over two years ago, with his son, Christian, his interest in figure modelling has been rekindled and he has recently produced two limited edition sculpts.
The first sculpt depicts T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during the First World War.
Before we go any further though lets have a bit of background about the subject , a man of mystery and military genius in my opinion.
T. E. Lawrence became famous after the First World War because of the remarkable role he had played while serving as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. When the war ended, an American journalist, Lowell Thomas, toured Britain and the Empire giving an outstandingly successful slide-show about Lawrence’s achievements. The romantic story of Lawrence's campaigns in Arabia and Allenby's in the Holy Land appealed strongly to a British public sated with horrific accounts of trench warfare on the Western Front. From this beginning grew the legend of 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Thereafter, the facts of Lawrence's war-adventures were often obscured by myth. Even today, his reputation is a favourite target for popular controversialists. Nevertheless, when the secret British archives of the Middle East campaigns were finally released in the 1960s and '70s, they showed that Lawrence's service with the Arabs had been no less remarkable than the legend.
Lawrence himself had little wish to be remembered as a war hero: he could hardly bear to think about his wartime role. His enduring ambition was to be a writer. He once confessed his hope that, "in the distant future, if the distant future deigns to consider my insignificance, I shall be appraised rather as a man of letters than a man of action."*
His literary reputation rests on a body of writing which is almost entirely autobiographical. It includes at least 6,000 letters written between 1906 and his death in 1935, and two autobiographical books. The first, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is an account of his service with the Arab Revolt. The second, The Mint, is centred on his experiences as an anonymous recruit in the ranks of the RAF. It was there, to the astonishment and distress of many contemporaries, that he chose to spend his life after 1922.
The circumstances of Lawrence's death are well known. On the morning of 13 May 1935, he left his Dorset cottage, climbed onto his motorcycle and drove to the local post office to dispatch a parcel and send a telegram. A short time afterwards, a neighbour listening to the motorcycle making its return journey suddenly heard the engine race - and then stop. Lawrence had come upon two errand boys riding their bikes in a dip in the road. Swerving to avoid them, he had clipped the wheel of one of the bikes and had been thrown onto the road, sustaining serious head injuries.
The mourners at Lawrence's funeral in Dorset, including General Wavell, Winston Churchill and Siegfried Sassoon, attested to his extraordinary appeal across the military, political and artistic spectrums.
To sum up a man respected by all that met him , a military genius , a man of simple pleasures in short a legend.
He has been epitomised in a classic film starring Peter O'toole , a look at Lawrence's life , his relationships with both the British Military and the Arabs .
Continued in next post:
Nap
It always nice to meet new people in the hobby and whilst at Figureworld I met up with a sculptor called Steve Leadley, he asked me to look at and review a couple of busts he had produced .
Before we go any further lets have a little bit of background information on Steve:
Since childhood, Steve has had a passionate interest in military subjects and has built up a sizeable collection of figures, vehicles and aircraft, as kits, or as scratchbuilts projects.
Steve has been a professional modeller for many years, working within the ceramics industry, namely for Spode and Royal Doulton , and he currently teaches Design and Technology at The Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy in Stoke on Trent.
After joining Meir Model Club over two years ago, with his son, Christian, his interest in figure modelling has been rekindled and he has recently produced two limited edition sculpts.
The first sculpt depicts T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during the First World War.
Before we go any further though lets have a bit of background about the subject , a man of mystery and military genius in my opinion.
T. E. Lawrence became famous after the First World War because of the remarkable role he had played while serving as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. When the war ended, an American journalist, Lowell Thomas, toured Britain and the Empire giving an outstandingly successful slide-show about Lawrence’s achievements. The romantic story of Lawrence's campaigns in Arabia and Allenby's in the Holy Land appealed strongly to a British public sated with horrific accounts of trench warfare on the Western Front. From this beginning grew the legend of 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Thereafter, the facts of Lawrence's war-adventures were often obscured by myth. Even today, his reputation is a favourite target for popular controversialists. Nevertheless, when the secret British archives of the Middle East campaigns were finally released in the 1960s and '70s, they showed that Lawrence's service with the Arabs had been no less remarkable than the legend.
Lawrence himself had little wish to be remembered as a war hero: he could hardly bear to think about his wartime role. His enduring ambition was to be a writer. He once confessed his hope that, "in the distant future, if the distant future deigns to consider my insignificance, I shall be appraised rather as a man of letters than a man of action."*
His literary reputation rests on a body of writing which is almost entirely autobiographical. It includes at least 6,000 letters written between 1906 and his death in 1935, and two autobiographical books. The first, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is an account of his service with the Arab Revolt. The second, The Mint, is centred on his experiences as an anonymous recruit in the ranks of the RAF. It was there, to the astonishment and distress of many contemporaries, that he chose to spend his life after 1922.
The circumstances of Lawrence's death are well known. On the morning of 13 May 1935, he left his Dorset cottage, climbed onto his motorcycle and drove to the local post office to dispatch a parcel and send a telegram. A short time afterwards, a neighbour listening to the motorcycle making its return journey suddenly heard the engine race - and then stop. Lawrence had come upon two errand boys riding their bikes in a dip in the road. Swerving to avoid them, he had clipped the wheel of one of the bikes and had been thrown onto the road, sustaining serious head injuries.
The mourners at Lawrence's funeral in Dorset, including General Wavell, Winston Churchill and Siegfried Sassoon, attested to his extraordinary appeal across the military, political and artistic spectrums.
To sum up a man respected by all that met him , a military genius , a man of simple pleasures in short a legend.
He has been epitomised in a classic film starring Peter O'toole , a look at Lawrence's life , his relationships with both the British Military and the Arabs .
Continued in next post:
Nap
