"Goodbye Old Man" is the title of this illustration by Fortunio Matania, a Great War period artist and illustrator. Sometime ago, on PF and the Great War forum I mentioned that I might work on this. I put it aside, but never forgot it.

A curious thing happened at the Chicago MMSI. A couple guys that I'd never met before noticed my name tag and the Three Tommies in my display and introduced themselves (approximately) like this. "Oh yeah, Dan Morton, Hi! You're the World War 1 guy that is going to do that dying horse thing. Great!" Then they both took a quick look at the Tommies and went on, "Say - when are you going to do that horse thing?"

So...I found a good 120mm Verlinden horse from an OOP Napoleonic kit. I cut the saddle and harness off and such like. Worked on the horse filling and changing the pose, doing prelim groundwork and put an armature for the British artilleryman together. Just getting started, but your opinions, as always would be valued! I've never converted a horse - so that part is all new to me and I'll welcome all the help I can get. I've put the big fella in about the right pose on the groundwork. As always, I don't feel the need to exactly copy the horse's position and pose of its limbs from the Matania illustration. I'm after the same 'effect', but not a copy. I would like the horse to look exhausted and like the artilleryman has just pulled the harness off him. So there should be streaks in his coat and indentations showing where the harness laid, of course. Sound right? The artilleryman should be cradling the horse's head to his chest, so I'll work on that. Other than that...any suggestions would be welcome!

For these photos the artilleryman figure is just stuck on with photo mount. I want to finish the horse and about two-thirds of the ground work before I do anything more with the figure.

All the best,
Dan

What a vignette it would be!!!!! The natural interaction and the feel of the so near sad split between horse and man is already there

Waiting for more Dan.........

Ray

hi Dan
another little beauty, and another time good start
i like everytime the way you work with these unusual subjects

Seb.

Good work Dan,
I like it.
Hope to see him finished very soon.

Marc

Many thanks Ray, Seb and Marc!

All the best,
Dan

Hi DAN Good Start ........
Saluti MAB

Dan,
I'm really glad to see you start this one. I truly look forward to it's completion as the original illustration is one that I can both appreciate and sympathize with on a personal level. If anyone can pull it off, you can. Good luck with this as already its looking good.

If you think you might need some reference photos of horses, let me know and the next time I'm out at the barn I'll grab some shots of ours.

Are you going to pull his ears back like in the original illo or keep them cocked forward?

Maurizio - Many thanks for your kind encouragement!

Mike - Many thanks!! Your encouragement means a lot!

Hey, I'll take all the help I can get! I've removed the ears and will lay them back as in the illustration. I have no idea what that means when a horse does that, but in the illustration maybe it conveys pain (?).

Here's what I actually need help on tho'. When the horse is laying down like that, what happens to the muscles of the belly and thigh and front legs? I've gone back and started putting in muscle indentations where I think they should be, but would like to see a couple good photos to work from.

All the best,
Dan

Superb subject Dan! A very poignant piece. This would make a great boxed diorama, (with foreshortening) with the shouting comrade, collapsing farm buildings and falling shells. Excellent!- one tiny thing though, - isn't calling the diorama 120mm pandering to 'the painters'. Surely there is no such thing as a '120mm horse' There's a 1/15th horse, or a 1/16th horse, but nowt in the middle?

OK - Jonathan - you got me! It's 1/16th scale. Hadn't considered the boxed diorama, but it's not a bad idea. I'll let you tackle that one. Thanks for the encouragement!

All the best,
Dan

Dan,..
this is a wonderful subject and its good that you started it after you have rolled it around in your mind for some time, its a subject that one must have ones mind straight on where they are going,..I will follow your progress with great interest....

Phil...

Hey Dan,

Great to see you went ahead with this! Its also nice to see your mannequin, it looks good so far. Take your time in fleshing it out and try to get it as anatomically correct as you can, it will help the rest of the sculpt. I know its kind of tedious and boring to flesh an armature out, but if its done right it pays off in the end.

As for the ears, I would leave them up. When a horse has his ears up he is paying attention, and I think it would be a nice subtle feature to show the connection between the animal and the man.

When a horse has his ears back like in the picture he is probably hurting, if he had his ears flat 'down his neck' so to speak he would be very unhappy, more like an aggressive state.

Good start my friend,I like the vignette already!
christos

GREAT START, Dan !

Hi Dan !
That's an AWESOME start to the project, my friend ! Work and other family commitments have prevented me from visiting the "planet" for the past few months, but I have been "lurking" now and then. I'll definitely be keeping a close watch on this project from now on, since it's finally taken-off. WELL DONE, my friend ! Cheers !
Kenneth .

Phil, Anders, Chris & Kenneth - Many thanks for your kind encouragement! Anders, unfortunately your advice came a bit too late. The "ears up" were from the kit and (wanting to be somewhat faithful to the Matania illustration) late yesterday I removed them and re-sculpted the ears lying back. I have to sand them a bit but they look much the same as the kit ears just back. Nonetheless thanks for the advice on horse behavior. What I'd really like to have is the appearance of the horse belly, thigh and shoulder muscles when it is lying down. I've guessed what these look like and done the best I can so far. I don't believe that healthy horses normally lay down much so if you can't post a photo of that, it's OK. I think I'll have a look online. Today I plan to add the horse mane and tail.

All the best,
Dan

Dan
you are to be congratulated on what promises to be a most evocative piece.One observation if it's goodbye old man, to put it delicately certain additions need to be made between the horse's back legs

I'm so glad you've started this Dan! I'll check my horse books and such for any useful pics.

Wendy

Dan, very good start, this has the making of a great vignette.
Thanks for sharing and kooking forward to your next step.

Cheers
Roc

Peter - Many thanks for your comment. This Verlinden kit horse and none of the others I've bought had that much...uh...detail.

All the best,
Dan

Wendy and Roc: Many thanks!! Wendy - I particularly need photos of the thigh, belly and shoulder musculature. I've added mane and tail hair and smoothed everything. Also added the indents where the harness would have been.

All the best,
Dan