These two figures are based on illustrations done by Mike Chappell in Osprey MAA406, The British Army in WWI -The Eastern Fronts.

The Lewis gunner is completed and the stretcher-bearer needs about six buckles, fingers on one hand and some cleaning. A couple words about the pose of the Lewis gunner. Obviously, he's been shot and is falling over backwards dropping both the Lewis and his bag of ammo. Those of you with really good eyes should be able to pick out a small hole in the left of his chest and a slightly larger one coming out his back. But, what I really wanted to talk about is the pose. As you can see the figure is attached to the base by one foot only. There is a fairly strong and thick armature rod going up into the attached foot and leg, but - and here's the thing - it's enough, but only just. Because the attached leg itself is slightly bent, I couldn't use the whole leg for armature attachment. So I bent the armature a bit. Never again. I had no trouble with the balance of the piece. The base is large and dense enough to support it. But I had a heckuva lot of trouble with the fact that the leg flexes! Consequently pressing in folds and details was a real pain. I'm never doing a pose like this one again! AAGH!

The stretcher-bearer caused no such problems. Really the only problems I had were self-induced. I just made him too fat initially and had to go back, remove putty and re-do.

The figures are both 1/16th scale done in Magic Sculpt and Pro-create. I tried Pro-create by itself on these and was pretty frustrated by some of the results. It's just a bit too sticky all by itself - at least for me. BUT - I've found I really like a Pro-create / MS mix about 1/3rd Pro-create with 2/3rds MS for straps, details, hands, etc. It's stickiness becomes a nice resilience and flexibility when combined with MS. I used the mix to do the topi and back sun-shades for example. Those would have been impossible (for me at least) with straight MS. Cool, huh? The sun-shades were used by British troops in the desert and were made of thin cotton and muslin cross stitched, hence the X pattern.

The Lewis gunner is a commission and the stretcher-bearer is intended as a gift for a physician. These will be painted by fellow PF member, Roger Newsome. I should finish next weekend and post them to him. I look forward to seeing some color on both!

Comments and constructive critique - as always - very welcome!

All the best,
Dan

Something different.
Unique posses

Very creative. Excellently done. Nice job.

I really like the creativity of the poses, particularly the fellow who is falling. Reminds me of the famous scene in the movie Gallipoli.

Nice!

Kyle

Thanks fellas!

Thanks Vergilius and Kyle!

All the best,
Dan

Great action with the poor chap that is getting shot there Dan! Interesting subjects. Cool stuff!

Jay H.
OKC

GREAT JOB on the 2 sculpts, Dan !!!! KUDOS APLENTY my friend !!! Your 2 " customers " should be well-pleased with them. Cheers !
Kenneth.

Thanks Kenneth and Jay!

All the best,

Dan

Good looking figures my friend,looking forward for a new project!
best regards
christos

Great Job, Dan. Above all the lewis gunner. It is a very special pose and very difficult to sculpt, but it looks great.

Ulrich

Hi Dan,

very nice figures again, I like the 'fresh blood' - not by word - what your topics and poses represent.
Hope to see them painted soon!

Denes

Really amazing sculpture,

Thanks for sharing Dan.

marc

Denes, Chris, Ulrich, and Marc - Many thanks fellas! Next up is a two figure vignette of French Fusilier Marins for Marc! Finally, huh, Marc?

All the best,
Dan

Nice work my friend.youre advancing your sculpting results alot each time . Bravo

Hi DAN
Good sculptures..... appeals to me more that with the wounded soldier... Salutes MAB

Hi Dan
Great models full of movement. The ability to scratch build must be great as it gives you freedom to choose any subject you want. I hope to get there one day.
Pete

Costas, Maurizio and Peter - Many thanks for your kind comments!

All the best,
Dan

Just a quick correction. On the Great War Forum, one of the members corrected a misunderstanding I had of which battalion of the Hampshires was actually at Kut. It wasn't the 2nd battalion. They went to France. The 1st of the 4th of the Hampshire Regiment went to Kut as part of the 6th Indian division (the Poona division) and was captured in 1915.

All the best,
Dan

I missed this Dan.
Great work.

Marc