26. Day, November 29, 2022


The back of the "Kitel" is painted - you can still see the acrylic underpainting on the collar and sleeves...:







With the color I came pretty close to the original...:



Cheers

I'm thinking you're up to the task......I like the progress.........

Wayne

27. and 28. Day, November 30 and Dezember 1, 2022


Next step - the collar.

Easier to write than to paint - because I really wanted to show two details:

The stand-up collar of these "Kitel" jackets was unlined...



... and must have scratched quite a bit!

Therefore, under the kitel a white shirt with a stand-up collar was worn; this shirt collar often peeked out of the top of the uniform jacket...:





I painted the visible part of the shirt collar with this...:



The second detail is the clearly visible seam in the middle of the kitel collar, which was intended for stiffening...:



Das alles hat seine Zeit gebraucht - nun sieht Wilhelm so aus...:











Cheers

29. Day, Dezember 3, 2022


The first sleeve...










Cheers

30. Day, December 6, 2022


The slowest painter in the world slowly works his way around the figure...:








Sorry for the gloss...

Cheers

Looks good Martin.......Freedom to speak freely, Sir.....too many pics in the process...keep up the good work.......

Wayne

31. Day, Dezember 8, 2020


Second sleeve done too!










I think the color matched the original pretty much...:



So much for today.

Cheers

32. Day, Dezember 9, 2022


A small but important correction:

The collar turned out to be much too green for me - you can see it particularly well in the following photo from yesterday...:



Those are things that can spoil one's entire enjoyment of a character later, at least for me, because then I only look at the spot which failed.
(One or the other of you will also know this feeling!)

So I painted the collar again - and now everything fits together...:






Cheers

33. Day, Dezember12, 2020


We come to the first detail of the bust - the saber strap!

First, let's take a closer look:

Here we have the template...



... and here again the regular parade uniform...:



Wilhelm's uniform tailors and props masters paid close attention - everything is as it should be!

Herr Kaiser carries an officer's saber M 1881 - and surprisingly a very simple model, namely this one...:



With its well-known splendor, this is actually surprising, because there were really exquisite pieces, since officers mostly had their sidearms made - and decorated - privately...:





Incidentally, these sabers were much more than just a weapon for the Russian officer! Rather, they were their badge of status!

The saber was worn all the time and everywhere, even at office work! I have the diary of a British officer who worked as a liaison with the Russian General Staff in Saint Petersburg during the First World War.

And the man complains more than once in his notes that his Russian colleagues did not take off their sabers even when drawing maps and doing other desk work - and he and his foreign colleagues also felt compelled to work with their sabers out of politeness, although the things constantly getting in the way and constantly interfering with work.

There are also a number of records - in Solzhenyzin's "March Seventeen" ("The Red Wheel" cycle), for example - that after the outbreak of the revolution, when the people began to take to the streets, officers (who were regarded as essential bearers of the hated Tsarist regime!) disarm, who, although they pulled out their pistols without resistance, preferred to be killed than to give up their sabers!

In the original photo we also see that William the Conqueror wears his saber "in the Russian way", i.e. upside down from our western point of view...:



However, this "Russian species" is by no means Russian, but originally comes from the Caucasus, where the members of the mountain tribes carried their sabers like this...:



Russians and Cossacks, who served in the Caucasus in the 18th and 19th centuries, copied this from their opponents and quickly realized that it was much more comfortable to ride with a saber with a saber scrambled in this way - and this style gradually spread of carrying a saber like that in Russia.

As Tsar Aleksandr III. had his army's uniforms "Russified" - which meant a complete departure from the previously imitated Western models - the sowing behavior became mandatory "in the Russian way"...:



On my bust of Wilhelm the Conqueror, however, you can only see part of the saber strap that was worn over the right shoulder...:



It all comes down to the right color!

And although I would have preferred a nice leather brown for optical reasons, I still have to follow the template and paint the strap ocher as it was in reality!



The color is correct - here we have another saber strap owned by Tsar Aleksandr III. ...



... and here is a rather worn original...:



Guard troops had - of course! - to offer something better, the parade harness was still covered with gold or silver embroidery...:



Since the "Vyborg" regiment was a line regiment, only ocher can be used for the belt!

So today I made the underpainting with a 50:50 mix of these colors...:



This is very close to the original...










So much for today!


Cheers

34. Day, Dezember 14, 2022


The strap is painted - with this...:



What's still missing is a thin outline on the bottom (shadow) side and a few corrections where I went over the edge...:










Cheers