16. Day, November 16, 2022

Yesterday I didn't come to paint - but today again!

The red and blue-green parts of the hat are done - and luckily today I managed to photograph the head so that the real coloring can be seen...:
















Cheers

17. Day, November 18, 2022


The cap screen is still missing!

These things were available in high gloss (varnished)...



... as well as matte...:



Wilhelm the Great is clearly wearing the shiny version in the template photo...



... nice for me, because I want to paint really "hard" glossy reflections.

Except the photo is front/side lit and I'm painting Herr Kaiser with a (supposed) light source above him.

After studying a number of photos of peaked caps under a light source from above, with these colors I...



... got started.

And this is what came out:

















Now the head is going into the closet - and next week we will continue with the torso.

Cheers

Corrected! Thx for the tipp!!!!




Cheers

19. Day, November 21, 2022


I'll continue with the torso from today!

First of all, a few sprues have to be removed on the "invisible" side...:



Then the hole for the aluminum rod is drilled, on which Wilhelm the Fickle will later stand...:



And finally a small "operation" follows...:

But first some history about it:

Wilhelm II did a lot to appear in public as a "real guy" and loved exaggerated "powerfulness" in every form...:



The following painting was made especially for the decoration of the German embassy in Paris in 1899 and served no other purpose than to intimidate the French, so it was used to decorate the embassy's ballroom...:



Well, it served its purpose. When a French general saw this painting at an embassy reception, he spontaneously said to his companions: "Ce tableau-là, c'est la guerre." (= This painting there means war.")

The reality looked completely different - namely far more depressing!

In truth, Wilhelm II was a deeply insecure person who suffered from a disability throughout his life that he always tried to hide.

Problems arose when he was born, and he had to be brought into the world with a so-called "forceps birth".

The director of the maternity home in the Charité hospital at Berlin, Eduard Arnold Martin...



... who had been called for help made a critical mistake and the baby's left arm was damaged beyond repair.

As a result, the arm remained short and almost completely paralyzed, as did the left hand, which was also clearly smaller than the right one!

Wilhelm's mother, Empress Victoria...



... due to her son's disability it was impossible to develop a positive emotional relationship with him, the boy grew up without motherly love.

Throughout his life, Wilhelm tried to hide this handicap.

When he appeared in civilian clothes (rarely enough!), his suits had discreetly raised pockets so that he could hide his lame hand in one of these pockets.







In uniform he got used to "hooking" his lame hand on the saber hilt - to hide his handicap...:



Wilhelm's disability also had - logically! - effects on his sense of balance, allowing him to only ride horses specially trained for him!

If such a horse was not available, as in 1910 at the funeral of British King Edward VII in London, discreet auxiliary instruments were attached to the saddle so that the emperor could ride the horse.

Here it is an almost invisible bracket on the saddle to which the reins are attached and on which the paralyzed hand rests...:



Things almost went wrong once!

During the first Moroccan crisis, Wilhelm visited the Sultan in Tangier at the request of the German Chancellor.

In order to honor the Emperor (of whose handicap they knew nothing!) the Moroccans equipped him with a white, semi-wild Arabian stallion, with which Wilhelm had to ride through a raging crowd...:



Afterwards the Kaiser wrote to Chancellor Bernhard Heinrich Martin Karl von Bülow...



... an angry letter, complaining that this visit to Tangier, which had only taken place on Bülow's initiative, had almost cost him his life because of his lame arm!

Of course, the propaganda postcard that was distributed afterwards showed the power-hungry emperor again...:



In our original photo, Wilhelm II carefully put himself in the mail - to hide his disability here too...:



He hides the crippled left arm under the healthy right - and the picture is taken from an angle where both arms look about the same length.

Eduardo too (like many others before him) let himself be fooled by the charade when sculpting - both arms of the bust are depicted as the same size.

I can't change anything about that, but there MUST be a correction!

The thumb of the left hand can be seen on the bust...:



It was impossible for the emperor to carry out such a movement! He could only open or close his left hand with the help of his right!

So the thumb has to go - if you want to make the bust even remotely correct.

Here is a section from the original photo - there is no thumb to be seen either...:



So today I carefully carved the thumb away with a scalpel!



The flap of the breast pocket and part of the emperor's "monkey swing" now have to be restored.

I'll continue with that tomorrow.


Cheers

20. Day, November 22, 2022


Repair work after thumb removal...:







Here an original of a preserved uniform of the Kaiser...:



Cheers

21. Day, November 23, 2022


While the "Milliput" is allowed to harden for another day, I turn to the base - a souvenir from Kulmbach...:



On top...



... and on the side that I chose as the front...



... I drill - each in the middle! - two holes.

In the small hole on the front I glue a brass plaque with Wilhelm's monogram...


... which has still been found in the endless expanses of my junk box.

It fits perfectly to the bust!

In the larger hole on the top I glue the aluminum pin - previously cut to size...:



So much for today.

Cheers

22. Day, November 24, 2022


Today I glued the torso to the base...:



Wilhelm the wimp won't be standing on it from the front, but at the exact angle from which he was photographed...:









That has something to do with how I want to present the bust at the end.

By the way, the head is only put on to determine this angle...


Cheers

Coming along nicely, Martin!

23. Day, November 25, 2022


The base is carefully packed...



... Wilhelm is scraped off no less carefully - and then primed...:



You can only really see how "sharp" the modeling is now!




Cheers

24. Day, November 26, 2022


We now come to the uniform jacket that Wilhelm is wearing!

This jacket, called "Kitel" in Russian, was one of the innovations introduced during the reformation of the Russian army.

Issued to the troops in 1907, this garment was surprisingly modern...:



It came without any superfluous frills! Compare this uniform to the clothes officers of other states wore in 1907!

The "Kitel" was worn with the parade uniform...




... as well as the service uniform...



Officers wore the golden "monkey swing"...:



An even more simplified "kitel" was used for field service - the breast pockets were only attached in this version, the buttons were no longer gold and the buttons of the breast pocket were no longer hidden from 1914 onwards.

A matching Furashka cap was worn with it...:



There was a summer version of the "Kitel" made of light but durable fabric...





... and a winter version made of thicker, warmer material...:





Guard formations wore thin colored piping on collars, breast pockets, and cuffs in various combinations.

Here is a picture of Nicholas II wearing the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment service uniform, whose insignia were dark green piping on the breast pockets (as well as the cap) and white on the cuffs...:



Here an original lieutenant jacket of the same unit, which has been preserved...:



For the line regiments, on the other hand, the "Kitel" were completely undecorated...:



The 85th "Vyborg" regiment, to which Honorary Colonel Wilhelm II had been appointed, was a line formation, a so-called "high-numbered regiment".

In this respect, Wilhelm II is wearing the simple "Kitel" version of the line troops in the photo - the rank insignia does NOT correspond to the Russian regulations (Herr Kaiser let his imagination run wild!) and also not the "monkey swing, which is not Russian...:



We'll talk more about these details later!

Today I underlined Wilhelm's "Kitel" with acrylic - this color...



... is like made for it!









Now it will continue step by step with oil paints...


Cheers

25. Day, November 28, 2022


While I was lucky yesterday and was able to use a nice matching acrylic shade, today things are much more difficult with oil paints.

The color of the "Kitel" contains the following colors...:



To see what's possible, I painted part of the back - the oil painting can be seen on the right of the still unpainted strap, the acrylic underpainting on the left...:







In reality, the light/shadow contrasts are much stronger than they appear in the pictures. The color still shines quite a bit and unfortunately the lamp lights up quite a bit.

Cheers