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Completed Custers last stand

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by Jazz, May 11, 2011.

  1. Jazz A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Last year was my 50th birthday and my wife gave me a choice of present, a guitar, a banjo, or a model. I must admit I was really tempted by the banjo as I have always wanted to learn to play one, but I shall leave that for my 60th because I chose the model.

    I have always wanted to portray Custers last stand and had this vision of Custer on his horse riding head on towards a Native American who was hell bent on killing him.

    Then I saw Andrea's excellent 54mm mounted series which had just what I was looking for. They are not cheap and the whole thing came to over £100 but they are worth it.

    As you can see I laid out the whole two kits before priming and made a base out of scrap wood and some putty filler. I tried painting Custer himself in oils but this looked far too shiny so I opted for Humbrol matt enamel colour blue number 104 for his uniform, using this base mix with black for shadows and mixing the base colour with a lighter grey for the highlights. Custer comes with a choice of carrying either the standard of the 7th Cavalry or a sabre. I initially used the standard but in my opinion this takes up too much room and hides a lot of the Custer figure so I later opted for the sabre which shows off Custer better. I used all oils for Custers horse utilising my favourite method of first painting in mid brown acrylics then covering in a darker oil and wiping off the excess oil leaving the lighter colour showing on the highlights. The Native Americans horse was painted in acrylics, with some oils used for shading the white.

    I hope you like the result which I know is not strictly how Custer met his end. The uniform is from the Civil War rather than the Indian Wars, but I used a lot of artistic licence with this project and I look forward to hearing your comments.

    Attached Files:

    dArtagnan, Whitney and gordy like this.
  2. pinsel Active Member

    Country:
    Germany
    hello as far as i know the 7 th cavalry did not wear sabres at their last engagement.those weapons where cratered and stored.why no idea.if Custer did wear his sabre i do not know.
    would be interesting to know why they where taken away their sabres.
    cheers
  3. JasonB Moderator

    Country:
    United-States
    The 7th didn't carry sabers(as was the case with most soldiers on the plains, especially later on in the conflict) because they were considered noisy, heavy and of little use, since the opportunity to use them in close combat was rare. The pistol was the preferred close combat weapon. Ironically, if they had been carrying the sabers, the Reno portion of the fight might have turned out a bit differently, since many of his troops were ridden down and killed at close range. Many had fired all their pistol rounds and had no chance to reload, and their carbines with essentially useless as anything but a club when on horseback. So they were easily ridden down and killed, many by warclubs and tomahawks.
  4. JasonB Moderator

    Country:
    United-States
    I think thats some very nice work.
    Honestly though, I think I would display them separately, because of the differences you noted historically. Custer is presented as he would have appeared in the Civil War, perhaps at Gettysburg, where he led the Michigan cavalry on several charges into brutal fights with JEB Stuarts cavalry on the 3rd day of the fight, while Picketts charge was occurring a mile or two away.
    Cheers
    Jason
  5. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    You did a great job John.
    As a amateur gitarplayer you could choose the guitar. Then sneaking in the figure after a visit to Euro.;)
    But indeed, you can always ask the banjo for the 60. The fingermovement will go less at that time, but making music is just great fun as is painting figures.

    Marc
  6. gordy Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Looking good John (y)
  7. Guy A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Beautiful painting John. Sorry to say tho, there were not any Apaches at Custer's Last Stand.
  8. pinsel Active Member

    Country:
    Germany
    interesting
    i remebering on an documentation there was an mention that the crated sabres with the logo of the 7 th cavalry where kept in an depot for years as an memento to the fallen cavalry troopers.
    maybe its not true.
    but surely an sbare at close bay is always welcome when you have no shots left.
    cheers
  9. Meehan34 A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    This is a pretty cool scene. Since I know nothing about the historical accuracy, and the fact you said that you weren't going for historical accuracy, I love it.
  10. rheath Active Member

    Country:
    South-Africa
    Nice so far m8 - love the way the horses came out.:D
  11. petermh Active Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    as you say there's a lot of artistic licence in the scene civil war era custer v apache, perhaps a little conversion work would have improvd the idea, but what the heck. the figures are beautifully painted, i particularly like the indian's horse
  12. John Bowery A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    I also like the horses and you have done a fine job.
    Cheers
    John
  13. mil-mart A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    John, OK it's not historically correct, it's a great scene great painting and a very nice vignette for the showcase. ( and much better than a Banjo ):)(y) Congrats

    Cheers Ken
  14. Jazz A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Thanks for all your comments guys. I know it is not historically correct and I am not one of those people who make sure every buckle is accurate for the period. I do it for the fun and to create something that I hope looks good on the showcase. I do believe though that a bit more work is required with this one and I shall be doing a bit of tweaking.
    Meehan34 likes this.
  15. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    The horses are very well done John, it'll look very impressive once finished.
    Carl.
  16. Mark S Guest

    "I am not one of those people who make sure every buckle is accurate for the period."

    The pieces you've done are beautifully painted and put together but really placing Apache peoples in that situation is way beyond checking buckles and I might suggest those people would probably find that being compared with buckles or other fashion trends of the times may be offensive.
    The work is a great idea but I feel when it comes to indigenous peoples we really are obliged to get it right...that's my own opinion.
  17. Babelfish A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Sigh ........... :(

    They'd probably be more offended by well-meaning (but patronising) WASPs taking it upon themselves to be "offended" on their behalf - and I speak from experience, having been around many what you might call "minority peoples" (and indeed married to one for six years.).

    This is a modelling forum. So let's leave "political correctness" aside and concentrate on that. I think most folks understand that John's 'buckles' comment was simply a catch-all statement regarding his approach to the hobby in general, rather than to this project in particular (in much the same way that armour modellers say "I'm not a rivet-counter"). But I guess there's always one ....

    As for the mounted figures - great stuff John! The horses in particular are very nice. But as others have said, purely from a historical point of view (rather than out of any concern about "offending" any native Americans who may happen to be on the forum) I'd have kept them separate. Artictic license is fine, but having Civil War era G.A. Custer mixing it with an Apache in an 1876 setting is probably stretching it a bit (along the lines of the anachronistic tanks and occasionally uniforms that populate so many 1960s movies set in WWII). Still, there's some very nice work with a paintbrush goin' on there.

    - Steve
  18. Mark S Guest

    "They'd probably be more offended by well-meaning (but patronising) WASPs taking it upon themselves to be "offended" on their behalf"
    Not as much I'd say as patronising WASPS that claim to speak on there behalf.

    "This is a modelling forum. "
    Sure is and it was a model I was commenting on,and where does it state in the great book of laws to live by that we have to keep political correctness out of discussions about modelling? I must have missed that one.
  19. Babelfish A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Same thing Mark, and that's what I said - albeit using slightly different wordage. But you're getting the idea - glad to see the penny's dropped.

    You can bring anything you like into discussions about modelling. Whether it's relevant, appropriate or makes the slightest bit of sense at all is another matter entirely.

    Cheers

    - Steve
  20. Jazz A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Oh dear, what have I started? Come on guys. Its only a model. If I'd have known this would cause so much fuss I would have kept the model out of the way in the attic. Lets get things firmly into perspective. Firstly, I wanted Custer facing an oncoming Native American who was in the right pose to look dangerous to him. Secondly, I needed a mounted kit in 54mm. There are not too many of these around, and despite Andrea having some (including Sioux) the pose of them were just not right. I dont do scratchbuilding or conversions so I simply picked the Native American figure whose pose looked right. I'll be honest with you. I did not give it any thought whether it was Sioux or Apache. I have seen all these Native American kits banded together in diaramas over here. I certainly did not intend to offend anyone, least of all the Native American people who I have a lot of respect for.

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