Completed US 11th Cavalry, 1916

[Dan Morton]

This is mostly finished altho I see a few places that still need some steel wool and smoothing.

I started this one almost 3 years ago and then it languished and I went on to something else, etc. Anyway I picked it up a couple of months back and have been working on it steadily and got a lot done over the Christmas holidays.

An NCO of the 11th Cavalry somewhere in Mexico, 1916. Due to the extreme heat, the sergeant is not wearing the service coat, rather just the tan cotton shirt and white undershirt with the collar open, sleeves rolled and the shirt unbuttoned. Imagine lots of sweat stains and a well-lathered horse.

I've applied white primer to this figure because I used several different colors of putty and without the primer it looks too wierd for words. As I said this one was started 3 years ago and I was trying black MS and green MS and other things...

The horse and some parts come from various kits as usual.

Hope you like it.

All the best,
Dan

 

[mil-mart]

Dan very nicely done, his posture sitting in the saddle looks very natural not always an easy thing to achieve IMHO. Looking forward to seeing it painted.

Cheers Ken

 

[captfue]

Fantastic piece,can't wait to see it painted. It must be this era, I did a 1/24th figure from the 1916 invasion of Mexico It took about three to four years to do also.

 

[Dan Morton]

Cheers Ken and Anthony! Ken - I had no end of problems making the figure in the seat look right. Not being a horseman myself is a handicap. I have three other cavalrymen on the bench right now and I'm puzzling thru the "seating" process.

I've had some help from various PF members in the past with the US cavalryman sitting properly. Not sure I've followed their advice as closely as I should have, but...

Although never planned as a commission, I think this will be painted by Roger Newsome and is going to a collector in NYC. The deal is not quite final. If it happens, I'm sure Roger will post some photos on PF.

The other cavalrymen on the bench are an Austrian Ulan, a French Chasseur au Cheval and a German Uhlan, all to be done in 1914 uniforms.

All the best,
Dan

 

[billyturnip]

Although there's an extra dimension involved than I'm used to these days I'll give it my best shot.

Roger.

 

[chippy]

Can I ask what scale this is in , it looks about 120mm . This has to be my favourite piece for a long time , the rider and horse look so natural together . It's a shame there isn't very much about US Cavalry from this period being produced by manufactures .
chippy

 

[Dan Morton]

Cheers Gordon! Glad you liked it! Yes - the scale is 1/16th. The cavalryman would work out to be about 6 feet 2 inches, I think.

All the best,
Dan

 

[Richie]

Hi Dan,
Very nice subject, I can see the dust and sweat already on the horse and rider as you mentioned, could be a character from "The Professionals". I really like the pose on the horse, I could do with a one like this for a project - who makes this one?
cheers
Richie

 

[Dan Morton]

Richie - Ummm...me. It's a one off. The horse is from a kit, the head, the rifle butt, the Montana hat, but everything else...

Glad you liked it!

This figure didn't start off to be a commission, but turned into one. It is sold. Roger Newsome is going to paint it.

Want me to build one for you? I have three more cavalryman on the bench - an Austrian Ulan, a German Uhlan and a French Chasseur aux Cheval. All in 1/16th scale and all in about the same stage. I'm scuffling with making the figure look right on all of them. I think I have two done, but one of them still bothers me. I may re-do part of one leg of one mounted figure this weekend.

If I do another US cavalryman, (or any other mounted figure for that matter!) I think I'd maybe use a different horse. One with at least three hooves on the ground. The one I used had two hooves on the ground and that caused mayhem. Had I known it was going to be that unsteady, I would have drilled out two legs and put in a thick strong metal wire. Hindsight...

Makes me have some serious respect for those who've sculpted the 'airborne' horses or the brace of three horses with only one of them attached. Wow! Much harder than it looks!

All the best,
Dan