32. Day, Januar 15, 2021


The shoulder strap carefully gets a couple of breaks in the "leather" at particularly stressed areas, then I paint on some eyelets, which are underlaid with light colors and thus optically three-dimensional - and finally with ...



... buckle and pin ...:




Cheers

Looking great

32. Day, Januar 16, 2021


Belt aged, buckles and eyelets painted ...:







I only noticed the bluff to the right of the buckle while taking the picture - it has been eliminated.


Cheers

33. Day January 18, 2021


Today the order painting starts!

There are several photos of our friend from different years - and each time he wears the "tinsel" differently - and in a different order.

So the first thing to do is to find a photo in which the order roughly corresponds to that of the bust ...:



The photo, after which the bust is modeled, is unfortunately only available in black and white.



... and on the color version the arm with the flowers hides the lower row of medals ...:



The next step is the research: what is what - and what does it look like?

And finally, the highlight of it all, the painting!

Not quite as quickly realized as hgier wrote, because the ribbons are about as big as the globe on a cent piece - and many of them have the orange-black striped "George ribbon", which is extremely decorative, but really crappy. ..eiden paints.

Since the medals of our hero are usually fastened one above the other like roof shingles (order from outside to inside and from bottom to top), I'll start with the medal on the bottom right.

Here it is - to be recognized by the green stripes! - for an anniversary medal, not a war award!

Namely for the medal, "Fortieth Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945", which was awarded to all war veterans in 1985 ...:



That means: five different colors can be placed on the tiny ribbon, including the damned Georg stripes!

I think I have some more gray hair now ...:




Cheers

Nice work Martin. My late uncle received the 1985 Commemorative Medal. The Soviet Government decided in their gratitude for our WW2 support, they would award this medal to all surviving Arctic Convoy personnel, of which my uncle was one. My pacifist cousin probably flogged it on eBay

Phil

Nothing wrong with a little pacifism these days...my grandfather, great Uncle and father medals all were tossed..after my grandfather shot himself in 1951 unable to cope with civvy street, and later when my great uncle died: his health shattered and unable to really accomplish anything in life..

34. Day, January 19, 2021


Today I finish painting the bottom row!

The second medal our veteran wears there is this one ...:



It commemorates the founding day of the Red Workers' and Peasants Army (Рабоче-крестьянская Красная армия / Rabotschij-krestjanskaja Krasnaja armija / RKKA) on January 28, 1918 of our era and is therefore called "60 years of RKKA".

The third medal in the bottom row is - the green stripe gives it away! - again an award on the occasion of the return of a combat anniversary, in this case "55th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus"...



... which generally includes the recapture of the almost completely destroyed Belarusian capital Minsk by Soviet troops on July 3, 1944 as part of Operation "Bagration" ...



... which led to the complete annihilation of the "Heeresgruppe Mitte" of the Hitler army.

A little later, on July 17, 1944, - their generals ahead ...



... 55,000 prisoners of this extinguished large unit were driven through Moscow - for which the party newspaper "Pravda" wrote: "They wanted to Moscow - they came to Moscow!"



Today a large panorama painting in the style of the panoramas in Waterloo or Borodino commemorates the liberation of Minsk ...:



This is how the bottom row of our hero's medals must look like ...:



And that's how it turned out - although I even afforded myself the "luxury" of painting the yellow stripe of the middle medal, which was barely visible in the original, even if the wafer-thin line is practically no longer visible ...:



So much for today.

Cheers

Neat and tidy Martin! I have visited Minsk. The liberation memorial in the city centre is a masterpiece of sculpture. Every figure, uniform and weapon is depicted exactly, and there are a lot of them!

Phil

35. Day, January 20, 2021


And it goes on with the order brushing!

Today I'll start with the middle row, there are a total of ten medals hanging next to each other.

The first - next to the button placket - is again an anniversary medal, namely the one that was awarded on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory over Hitler Germany ...:




Next to it hangs one that is practically hiding behind two others, which I don't like at all now that I'm painting it!

It concerns the medal "70th Years of the Red Workers and Peasants Army" ...:



There is a mistake in reasoning!

The medal hangs at the same height as the others, but the ribbon is modeled a little lower. That doesn't go together!

So I reworked and remodeled the "birdie" - now it's hanging at the right height, and I can see it too. I like it much better!

The third medal - especially elaborate given the "round" anniversary - is the one awarded to veterans on the 50th anniversary of the victory over Germany ...:


So much for today...:




Cheers

Excellent!

36. Day, January 21, 2021


The first thing I did today was unpack my modeling stuff and rework one of the medals I painted yesterday.

The star on it should also be recognizable as such, I think ...:



Then I repainted the "birdie" - and the one next to it!

This is the medal "50th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War" ...:



There wasn't enough time for more today - I'll get a visit later ...






Cheers

All those medals are not so my thing but I admire your devotion to detail..

Everything looks great so far Martin.....But I fear for your life when it comes to bringing that crying veteran together. But I'm sure you have a vision.

Wayne

Some vision? Yep. Trial and error...