Well the cat is out of the bag. Paul at the Model Cellar has announced these figures that have been on my "to do" list for nearly half my life. The subject is a pair of German "fliegertruppen", the crew of a two-seater observation aircraft. These fellows were acknowledged as teams that worked closely together to get the kind of photos of battle fields and such that would be useful to the war effort.

They were known colloquially as "Franz und Emil", apparently a prewar (WWI) vaudeville team. Many years ago when I worked for Testor Corp. I started acquiring photos and info for these figures always with the intent that i would someday sculpt them.

Twenty or so years later, Tamiya were having their annual model shows here in California. The main requirement for this show was that all entries had to begin as Tamiya model kits. The top rewards were free trips to visit Tamiya in Japan!

It occurred to me that I could easily do these figures with their bulky clothing as "conversions" from Tamiya 1/16th scale plastic figures. So that is what I did. Somewhere underneath all that sculpted clothing are a Tamiya tank commander and Luftwaffe pilot figures. Buried would be the right term. There really is nothing left to show their origins. I simply used the Tamiya kits as convenient armatures on which to sculpt my figures.

Well, Tamiya-con is gone and the figures were never completed for that show. But thanks to Paul at the Model Cellar, I did finally finish the figures. The final piece of the puzzle was when Wingnut Wings issued their German observation plane kits with nice photos of the hand-held cameras used by such crewmen. I enjoyed scratchbuilding this piece of equipment....



Cheers!!

Mike

Superb work, great subjects beautifully handled

Awesome work Mike!

I love these two Mike, great depictions of an unusual subject

I would have liked to have seen a fresh head for the figure wearing the heavy boots though.

Einion

I wouldn't envy the guy in the over-sized Dr Dentons trying to get into a WWI aircarft....even harder to get out in a hurry. But they certainly capture the smell of the period. No surprises there given your other fliers.

Colin

Top shelf, center, next to Rosengrant's SGT Rock.

alex wence

Very glad you took them off the list and finished them. Outstanding!

All the best,
Dan

I don't have the $$$$ to keep up with all of your commercial releases of late, take a break man!

... straight to the top of my list of "things to purchase" !

First class looking duo Mike, and enjoyed the background info too !!

Joe

Rosengrant did a SGT Rock ? When.......Where??!!!

Joe

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/sgt-rock.56596/#post-573372

Got it, thanks!

Joe

Thanks one and all! This pair really were a labor of love. It is always nice when you can put one of these long standing projects behind you. But it ain't over yet - now i will have to paint them up!

What is wrong with the head I picked? I thought it was one of the better ones in my scrap box - sculpted way back in the Kirin days.....

Absolutely nothing wrong!!! I remember when this head was passed to customers as a free give away at the Kirin stand at Folkestone. It is great to have him back. Maybe you can add the other heads from those days as replacements (to make even the pickiest Planeteers happy) so everybody can install the head of his choice?
Cheers, Martin

Great, great sculptwork. Fantastic!

Daniel & Katka

Hi Mike

I got these at the weekend, cracking stuff mate. Please can you give me some idea as to whet the materials for the flight suits are, as I have not see this type of over trouser before, I can see the heavy cotton flight suit on the guy on the left, but are the over trousers made from the same material and would they have been about the same colour. The guy on the right is also wearing the same trouser, but the Jacket/Overalls again are a bit different from what I have seen before. Obviously the heavy boots are the leather ones

I have to say they are very impressive figures, and I tip my hat to you for the engineering on the way the camera is fitted to the hand, too cool.

No conversion for these one they are too cool a subject to do anything......

It would be interesting to see if there would be 120mm interchangeable heads in the future............. just for a different look

Dave

OH !!! Anozer great Sculpture ! Impressive subject ! Nice Nice ! Always, fine Kréation
Thanks!