35. Day, December 15, 2022


Saber strap finished!






Cheers

Next will be Pogoni (= Epaulettes).


Cheers

36. Day, December 16, 2022


It continues with the "Pogoni", as the shoulder boards wre called in Russian.But before we start painting, some history:

The official name of the Regiment "Vyborg" was:

"85-y pekhotnij Vyborgskij jego Imperatorskogo Korolevskogo Velichestva Imperatora Germanskogo Korolya Prusskogo Vilgelma II polk" (85-й пехотный Выборгский Его Императорского Королевского Величества Императора Германского Короля Прусского Вильгельма II полк), in English "85th Vyborg Infantry Regiment of His Imperial-Royal Majesty the German King of Prussia Wilhelm II".

Puuuh, quite a nice tapeworm name!

Wilhelm was given it as crown prince - and as honorary colonel at least officially had command over this unit.

Tsar Aleksandr III...



... who "lent" this regiment to Wilhelm did not want to bring himself to give him a "more distinguished" (cavalry) or even a guards regiment, because he could not stand the cheeky rascals, of which a number of documents left behind by the Tsar provide evidence.

Even more pronounced was the antipathy expressed by the Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna...



... against the Hohenzollern: She refused to receive him because, as a born Princess of Denmark, the Prussian-German war of plunder against Denmark in 1864 was still heavy on her stomach!

Here we have Crown Prince Wilhelm - not yet with "It is reached" beard - in Vyborg uniform...:



As long as he was "only" Crown Prince, members of "his" Russian regiment wore this monogram - a simple "W" - on their shoulder boards...


When Wilhelm became Kaiser in 1888, this monogram was changed to "WRII" (Wilhelm II. Rex).

Here is the version for enlisted men...:



Here is the shoulder board of a lieutenant...:



And here's that of a Colonel (the version worn on the coat), it differed in shape from that on the shoulders of the tunic because it was sewn on and not fastened with a button and tab..:





What the whole thing had to look like was of course recorded neatly and bureaucratically...:



Wilhelm should actually wear these Pogoni - but our original photo looks different...:



Unfortunately, we can't check because our hero's uniform hasn't been preserved!

But there is a way through a back door to solve the mystery..:

The next photos - taken on board the imperial yacht "Hohenzollern" - show Wilhelm II in the "big" or gala uniform of the Vyborgians...:







And the epaulettes of this uniform ARE preserved - here they are...:



And they show:

Being "colonel" wasn't enough for him, he even had the crossed marshal's batons of a Prussian field marshal mounted on his monogram!

So his Pogoni look like this - I made this photomontage...:



And this is how I'm going to paint them.

Then, during the war, when the Russian and German empires faced each other as enemies, the magnificent monogram naturally disappeared from the Pogoni of the Vyborgs - and made way for a simple regimental number...:




Cheers

Slow and steady wins the race...............

Wayne

37. Day, December 17, 2022


Today the shoulder boards will be painted!

I initially left out the embellishments (button, monogram and crown) and concentrated on the Pogoni itself.

Reason: Brand new officers' shoulder boards were made of gold fabric and had a "sparkling effect", which I definitely want to have with my Wilhelm...:







That's why I made quite an effort - with these colors...:



First, the schuter pieces were primed with "Andrea" gold, so to speak.

Then I reworked it with gold ink and gradually "brushed" the gold fabric dry.

The third run was then a "wash" with extremely heavily diluted "German Grey".

And finally the two red bars and the red border (red was the color of infantry!).

Lo and behold, the desired "sparkle effect" has set in...:






Cheers

38. Day, December 18, 2022


Today it's the turn of the details on Wilhelm's Pogoni...:



Basically, the procedure is the same as in the first step (cf. day 37) - only that I vary the gold tone...:



However, you have to work even more carefully and with even less and even more diluted paint, otherwise you will inevitably smudge the tiny and beautifully modeled details!

So - here is the pogoni in all its splendor and glory - and I actually managed to get not only the little crown but also the tiny "II"s of the monogram to be seen clearly...:






Cheers

39. Day, December 19, 2022


In our original photo, Wilhelm II is also wearing a lanyard, sometimes also called "Aguilette" or colloquially aptly called "monkey swing"...:



Whoever hand colored the photo colored them yellow - true - and not true!

It is correct that a "monkey swing" belonged to the parade uniform of a Russian officer...:





And it was ocre yellow - here's another original...:



However, Wilhelm II does not wear the Russian model with this uniform, but has - matching his field marshal insignia! - created the Prussian model of a general (or general field marshal), this one...:



This model was more elaborate than the Russian counterpart - and it was not yellow but made of gold thread. Here is such an original from Wilhelm's possession...:



The next photo clears any doubt...:



So I have to paint gold and not ocher yellow - hereby...:



The thin cords of the "monkey swing", which consisted of twisted material, I didn't paint in one piece, but made many thin strokes next to each other, arbitrarily and with varying gold/black mixtures.

This is how the front turned out...:







The back will come tomorrow.


Cheers

Addendum: The one crease under the shoulder piece, where I went over the edge with red, only caught my eye in today's photos.
It has since been corrected.

40. Day, December 20, 2022


First, I realized a friend's advice and created the super shiny effect on the front part of the "monkey swing" with careful washes of extremely diluted black/gold mixture...



... took back a bit...:





That looks much better, less striking!

The "monkey swing" was then painted on the back in the same way...:





One more note about this concoction here...:



This is by far the "goldenest" gold I've ever had on my brush! I can absolutely recommend it!

I use it on my silicone coated disposable pallet paper...:



When working with this, please don't touch the stuff right under your nose on the workbench! The carrier liquid for the gold pigments outgasses something that really makes one stoned!



Be careful!

Cheers

Actually yes. But the thin cord can also be hidden under the thick one in this case, so I didn't scupt it yet...


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41. Day, December , 2022

Te order painting begins!
And I'll start with the most magnificent piece, the neck cross!



There is a special reason for this...:

It is an order of St. John - and a special creation for Wilhelm the Wanna be Great!

The King of Prussia was the official protector of the Order of St. John, including Wilhelm Zwo...:



Wilhelm's predecessors were like that, but they weren't as unspeakably vain as Wilhelm.

They were content with the so-called "Rechtsritterkreuz" (not "Reichsritterkreuz", as it is often misspelled!)...



...while mere mortals receive at most the Cross of the Knights of Honour...



... were able to obtain...:



However, Wilhelm the rooster craved a special neck decoration (he didn't have that many, or to be more precise: none at all!).

So the Protector Cross was designed - especially for him - and a zsepter and a sword were added to the slightly enlarged "Rechtsritterkreuz"...:



Only Wilhelm wore this order - and when the revolution chased him away, this "tradition" ended.





The original can be seen at Huis Doorn.



From the end of 1915 even this neck medal was no longer enough for the emperor and he increasingly began to adorn himself with decorations for bravery.

First there was the EK2, which was pretty much devalued from 1916 because it was loaned out in an almost inflationary manner. Ernst Jünger wrote in his "Steel Thunderstorms" that the only way to avoid being awarded the EK2 was to commit suicide...:



Then Wilhelm also got the EK1 - this award was a bit heavier, whoever got it must have done something special...:



And finally he awarded himself (because only the King of Prussia could do that!) the "Grand Cross of the Iron Cross", which his grandfather had donated in 1870 for deserving commanders of the Franco-Prussian War...:





This Grand Cross was awarded extremely rarely, Hindenburg had one (for "Tannenberg") and a few others...:




In the Second World War there was only one bearer of this Grand Cross - namely Reichsjägermeister Hermann "Meier", who ticked similarly to Wilhelm the Great concerning "blink blink"...:



And as the height of vanity (or audacity), Wilhelm then awarded himself the "Pour le Merite" in 1916 - and that in the highest class, namely with golden oak leaves!





Quite a lot of bravery blink blink for a man who never saw the bute-soaked front otherwise than through a telescope from specially constructed vantage points in the safe rear...:



Well, the generals let him have that childish joy, at least that way he didn't disturb their activities...


**continued next post**

Part II

But Back to the neck Order of my bust...:

William the Magnificent was incredibly proud of this special medal and wore it constantly in the pre-war period!

Not only because of his more than 300 German uniforms - no matter how exotic they may be...



... but also when he posed as a British Field Marshal...





... British Admiral of the Fleet (he had literally begged Queen Victoria to be awarded this rank in a multi-page letter, you can read it in John C. G. Roehl's Wilhelm-biography!) ...



... Knight of the Order of the Garter ...



... Austro-Hungarian General ...







... Danish Admiral ...



... Russian General...



... Italian General ...




... or Spanish General...



... costumed.

As for the painting:

I made the white enameled sections in three passes - with these colors:



The outer parts of each "arm" first with a mixture of "Light Gray" and "Light Flesh", then pure "Light Flesh" and the middle to then white.

The enameled surfaces of the cross were slightly curved - that's what I wanted to show. Unfortunately, with the lamp, the effect is almost completely gone!

The golden parts - border of the cross arms, the four eagles, scepter and sword as well as the attachment were again painted with these colors...



... although this time I made the gloss effect more reserved.

Et voilà...:







Cheers

"Step by Step"...."Slowly I turn"...........I know I've heard that before or was it a brain fart.........either way....Looks very good.........

Wayne

42. Day, December 23, 2022


We come to the second order that Herr Kaiser wears - it's this one...:



It is the so-called "China Medal" in silver, the variant for non-combatants!

Some history about it:

When in 1900 an uprising broke out in China against the colonial powers (who all behaved like the ax in the woods!), which we know as the "Boxer Rebellion", the German envoy Clemens Freiherr von Ketteler...



... had been murdered by a Chinese (whom he had previously hit with his walking stick because he was said to have "looked at him provocatively"), the embassies of the colonial powers in Beijing were besieged and a first attempt at relief with hastily assembled troops under Admiral Seymour had failed , Russia, the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan and Germany sent troops to China.

Wilhelm II, who was trembling with self-righteous anger (as contemporaries describe it), after all "his" ambassador had been killed by a "savage", sent the most soldiers of all, namely a whole army - 15,000 men, the so-called " East Asian Expeditionary Force".

Because Germany had mobilized the largest contingent, Wilhelm suspended the appointment of Field Marshal Count Alfred von Waldersee (the next picture shows him in Expedition Corps uniform)...



... as supreme commander of ALL allied troops.

Waldersee had been Wilhelm II's intimate and chief of the Prussian general staff until he dared to strategically defeat the monarch during the Kaiser maneuvers in 1891, thus showing that the Kaiser really had little idea of military strategy.

Waldersee was immediately dismissed and given the post of Commanding General of the IX. Army Corps was deported to Altona (then a neighboring town of Hamburg, today a part of the metropolis). His successor as chief of staff had become Count von Schlieffen.

Now Wilhelm wanted to make amends for his old intimate.

On July 27, 1900, Wilhelm II gave a speech at the farewell to the first squadron of the "East Asian Expeditionary Force" - the worst of his career ever.

He can be seen on the far left of the grandstand - on the roof of the building behind the soldiers who have lined up you can see journalists...:



At the heart of the Emperor's speech were the following sentences:

"If you come before the enemy, he will be defeated! Pardon will not be given! Prisoners are not taken! Whoever falls into your hands, be yours! Just as a thousand years ago the Huns made a name for themselves under their King Etzel, which still makes them appear powerful in tradition and fairy tales, so may the name of the Germans in China be confirmed by you for 1000 years in a way that it will never be repeated Chinese dare to look askance at a German!”

So that was it, the infamous "Hun Speech".

Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow (in the following picture with a white cap together with Wilhelm II in the car)...



... did everything in his power to suppress the speech and had a "defused" version sent to the press that did not contain the sentences quoted here - but for nothing!

The journalists present wrote down the "Hun speech" word for word - the true text was soon to be read in all German newspapers - and caused a tremendous echo abroad!

Once again, with his big mouth, Wilhelm had confirmed the impression of a warmongering Germany around the world - and the speech was widely taken as proof that the empire was ruled by bellicose, bloodthirsty military men who would not hesitate to commit atrocities.

The following cartoon is from the British newspaper "Punch" ..:



Wilhelm II himself was far too stupid to understand what he had done!

Even days later he was still not aware of any guilt. When he took note of the "defused" version of the speech that the Reich government had tried to launch instead, he immediately complained to the Reich Chancellor - with the words:

"You've crossed out the best parts of myself"!

The German troops, of course, carried out the order of their "supreme warlord"! When "World Marshal" Waldersee arrived in China with his soldiers, the actual uprising had long since collapsed and the besieged embassies were freed - nevertheless, the troops of the German Kaiser drew a wide trail of blood through China during various revenge and retaliatory operations!

All this is almost forgotten today (except for the Chinese, who have a very long memory) - nevertheless, Wilhelm's "Hun Speech" has gone down in history - and fell on the Germans' feet in August 1914 during their attack on neutral Belgium. ..:





After the return of the "East Asian Expeditionary Corps" all of its members were awarded the "China Medal" donated in 1901!

The version for combatants was golden...



... und wer in tatsächliche Gefechte mit Chinesischen Truppen verwickelt gewesen war, durfte sich zusätzlich noch eine Spange mit dem jeweiligen Ortsnamen am Odensband befestigen...:





The second version of this medal was silver - non-combatants were awarded with it...:



The two versions do not differ in terms of design:

The reverse shows the crowned German eagle defeating the Chinese dragon - the reverse shows the well-known Wilhelm monogram under the German imperial crown...:





Although Wilhelm II never set foot in China in his life, he still considered himself entitled to wear the silver medal for non-combatants

And if you consider the political explosive power of his "Hun Speech" once again, then - seen from this negative aspect - he certainly has a claim to it.

I used these colors for the ribbon - painting the many stripes was pure slave labor...



For the medal itself, these ones...:



And this is how it turned out...:







Cheers