Welcome to my next little project. This one involves Dave Cox's father-in-law, Mr. Edward V. Ball, who fought in both WWI and WW2. As a 16 y.o. he was in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1918 and throughout WW2, he was a cameraman in the RAF and continuing into 1948.

Anybody know what a carte visite is? For those who don't, it was a small post card size photo taken by a portrait photographer. Many times they were actually printed on post cards so that you could mail them to your loved ones far away. Carte visite were popular from the turn of the century until about the 1930s and mostly in Europe. This is a German carte visite from the First War and this is the pose I'm going to try to emulate.



I thought it would be interesting to try to sculpt Mr. Ball as if he had a carte visite done in the same studio - one in 1918 and another in 1948. Dave was able to supply a few photos.




Royal Horse Artillery Uniform


RAF Service Dress Uniform


And here's where we are now...





Dave will be supplying a doll house table and a matt backdrop to simulate the photo studio scene for each figure and, of course, he will be painting both.

Comments, as always, very welcome! If you see anything wrong in the poses, please tell me now! Next weekend, I plan to set the poses in putty.

All the best,
Dan

Hi Dan, good to see them started mate. The diorama parts should be with you this week, and hopefully the mailman doesn't practice his quarterback skills with the parcel.
The faces on these two definitely have the right look about them, so that's a good start. I already have the tables btw - they are identical and measure 53mm high if that's any help fixing the poses.
The two figures in the pics appear to be slightly different heights, but then not only do we shrink as we age, but the boots would probably have thicker soles/heels than the shoes worn with the RAF uniform so not a problem mate.

Great idea Dan, looking forward to seeing how this one comes together.

Roger.

Thanks Roger - it presents some interesting little challenges and the uniforms should be cool to do. Fun!

Thanks Dave - The slight differences in height were by design and for the reasons you mentioned. Since yours truly has lost one full inch off my original 6'2", it's a difference I'm sadly aware of. The photos accentuate the difference because none of the slots into which the figures were pegged are directly adjacent, so makes it difficult and misleading. 53mm in height - great - I needed that figure because I plan (hope) to place the right hand on the table top palm down. How difficult would it be to ship one table to me? They can't weigh much. Probably that would be best.

All the best,
Dan

The tables don't weigh much, but would be a pig to pack - fragile isn't the word for it. I'm happy for you to work to the dimension I've given. If that's wrong so are my calipers!