Part II:


No, it's the third badge - this one...:



This is the insignia of the most traditional Prussian military unit, namely the 1st Foot Guards Regiment!

The parents of the young prince had considered it a suitable "good" upbringing to put their twelve-year-old disabled boys into this regiment as soldiers, into which he was "formed a man".

It must have been hell for Wilhelm! The only child of our husbands and - this was the Emperor's order - not preferred if possible.

According to most historians and psychologists, this "upbringing" - along with the suppressed trauma of his disability - is the main reason why Willhelm II became the man he was!

At the age of 14, Crown Prince Wilhelm was then promoted to lieutenant of this regiment...





By the way, Wilhelm II promptly repeated the mistake of his parents with his own sons...:



He also later preferred to wear the uniform of the 1st Guard Regiment on foot...:





From 1917 he switched to walking around constantly in the "field gray" version of this guard uniform - here in early 1918 in Kassel in conversation with the short-lived Ukrainian hetman (by German grace!) Pawel Skoropadski...:



Perhaps he also wore it because Field Marshal Paul von Beneckendorff und Hindenburg, who was very popular with the German population and who had also received his "first touch" in this regiment, wore the same uniform...:



The last photo of Wilhelm II in this guard uniform was taken a few days before his death...:



The uniform can be viewed today in the "German Historical Museum" at Berlin...:



Result of the research:

The crown and wreath of the badge must be gold, the monogram silver! Et voilà...:








Cheers

I thought I was obsessive about detail and research, but you take it to another level Great work all round, your efforts will be rewarded with an excellent (and accurate) final result I am sure.

50. Day, January 9, 2023


Before I paint the last remaining badge that Wilhelm II pinned on the photo, I decided to give him another one!

It's not visible in the picture, but it SHOULD actually be visible:

Namely the regimental insignia of the "85th Infantry Regiment, Vyborg of His Imperial-Royal Majesty the German King of Prussia Wilhelm II."

And it looked like this...:



The year "1700" indicates the founding year of the regiment during the Northern War.

Led by a colonel Ivan Kuloma, the regiment was originally formed from residents of the city of Velikiye Novgorod.
During the Battle of Narwa (9/20/30 November 1700) the unit was almost completely wiped out, as it was the regiment that had to face the general attack of the Swedes first.



This medal also reminded of this in the time of Nicholas II - on the reverse side you can read the name "Iwan Kuloma" (Иван Кулома)...:


I promise: We'll talk more about the history of the regiment!

So knead...:



And that's it - after I threw the first two attempts against the wall cursing...:




Cheers

51. Day, January 10, 2023


Today I primed the self-made regimental badge...:



Then came the exciting moment - namely to get the little marvel off the backing paper without breaking it...



... and also be attach to the figure without breaking. Quite against my habit (actually I ALWAYS break something!) I made it this time!





Cheers

It was in reality a bit smaller, I'll try again...

And no - there are no pictures...


Cheers

52. Day, January 11, 2023


Without any words...:





Cheers

Very good information. However, the Kaiser and von Hindenburg are wearing feldgrau uniforms from different regiments. Wilhelm was the Chef of the 1. Garde-Regt zu Fuss and v. Hindenburg was general a' la suite for the 3. Garde-Regt zu Fuss. Aside from the different cyphers on the shoulder boards, the color of the backing of the litzen on the collar tabs and the piping for the shoulder boards would be white for 1GRzF and yellow for 3GRzF.

Dave

54. and 55. Day, January 16/17, 2023



Not that you think I've stopped working on William the Conqueror - I just wasn't happy with the regimental badge at all!

So I invested two more days into this darn badge, this time doing it in mixed media:

The cross itself is made from "Fimo", the small diagonal "rays" are made from 0.5mm solder and the tiny crowns on the outer ends of the cross are made from "Milliput".

So - now I'm satisfied!



One badge is still missing, then Wilhelm's heroic chest is complete...


Cheers

Impressive work and great attention to detail!

56. Day, January 19, 2023


The last badge I still have to paint is the "Royal Prussian Court Hunting Badge" - for those who "stretched" at least 50 stags - i. H. shot down - had to have!

This one here...:



Here is a photo that shows the thing better than on our template...:



Like almost all of his crowned contemporaries, Wilhelm II was an enthusiastic hunter - after all, this sport was considered to be a particularly male sport!

Once a year, Majesty invited to the "Court Hunt", which took place at different locations in the German Empire.

These "court hunts" were a social event of the first order, the guest list was published...







... and those who were invited were regarded in the eyes of the public as "in the highest favour"...



... and whoever was absent, his star was about to sink.

Because of his disability, Willhelm could neither load nor repeat a rifle - let alone hold it with two hands - so special shooting ranges with rifle rests were built for him on the spot, from which the Kaiser shot one-armed, and behind him stood a ministering spirit, who handed him a new ready-to-fire rifle after each shot.





In the case of photos intended for publication, the rifle rest was of course carefully hidden...:



There had been court hunts at the Prussians even before Wilhelm's reign, but the Kaiser formalized these previously quite informal outings considerably.

Without exception, all participants had to compete in a special hunting uniform introduced by him!





In addition, Wilhelm turned the "Prussian Court Hunting Badge", before its time nothing more than a memento, into a real order with four classes!

The fourth grade was bronze colored from now on...



... the third silver, the second silver/gold...



...and the first gold.

Which class was awarded depended on the number of participations of the honoree.

And Wilhelm wouldn't have been Wilhelm if he hadn't decreed that participants in the hunt could only obtain this badge if they had killed at least 50 trophy-worthy stags (so-called ten, twelve or fourteen points)!

During the court hunts, of course, there was no hunting around the clock, but in an "unconstrained" circle (i.e. without women, but with a lot of alcohol and "cultivated gentlemen's jokes" also large or small politics were made.

HOW this policy was made can be illustrated by the following example:

When the British Navy put the highly innovative battleship HMS "Dreadnought" into service in 1906, a ship with uniform, centrally controlled large-calibre guns instead of the usual hodgepodge of a large number of guns and calibers, the ships not only of the Imperial Navy suddenly looked quite old the end!

The head of the Reich Navy Office, State Secretary Alfred Tirpitz...



... responded with an unprecedentedly expensive upgrade program.

But since he had to win the majority of the Reichstag to approve the necessary sums of millions, Tirpitz made use of a finely orchestrated influence - bought! - Newspaper articles, direct influence on important members of parliament (including bribery!) and public demonstrations by members of the "German Fleet Association", which he himself had called into the work.

When the matter was about to be brought to the desired conclusion, the Emperor himself, so to speak, kicked his heels at the admiral!

Wilhelm II had come to the conclusion that he and he alone had devised the corresponding counter-weapon for the "Dreadnought" - the so-called "torpedo battleship", a capital ship armed only with super-heavy torpedo tubes!

The Kaiser personally drew the designs for his "torpedo battleship"...







... and sent one of his notorious wing adjutants to the Reichsmarineamt - with the order to build this ship immediately!

Tirpitz and his staff were appalled!

The Kaiser's solo effort not only endangered their carefully planned rearmament program, but the experts, after a brief examination of the Imperial designs, also came to the conclusion that his "torpedo battleship" would neither be able to swim nor fight.

In the Reichsmarineamt the thing was given the internal name "Homunculus" (i.e. an artificially created non-survivable human being).

Despite all attempts by the Imperial Navy Office to talk him out of this nonsense, directly or indirectly, the Kaiser stubbornly stuck to his opinion - and insisted on building the "Homunculus".

So Tirpitz sighed and tried to get an invitation to the court hunt, got one, had the right hunter's uniform measured - and traveled to Rominten, where it took place.

How the admiral managed to talk the emperor out of his "Homunculus" idea is unfortunately not known. The fact is, however, that Tirpitz sent a telegram from Rominten to his office in Berlin, which had the following content:

"Deer and Homunculus dead!"

THIS is how politics was done in Germany back then...

And yet another - albeit much more serious - incident is directly related to the court hunts of the emperor:

One of his favorite hunting buddies was the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz-Ferdinand, who was there almost every time...:



Wilhelm and Franz-Ferdinand were made of similar wood and also ticked the same way - Wilhelm II described the Archduke as a good personal friend!

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Kaiser reacted so emotionally after the assassination of Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and caused his government to issue the infamous "blank cheque" to the Austrians...:



This "blank check" promised the Austro-Hungarian Empire full military backing from the German Empire, regardless of what Austria-Hungary might do against Serbia - although Berlin knew very well that a war with Serbia would also mean war with its protecting power Russia and its ally France would mean - and Great Britain would most likely also be one of Germany's opponents.

The German "blank check" is THE key document for the outbreak of the First World War - once this declaration was in the world, the outbreak of war could no longer be prevented...

But back to Wilhelm's court hunting badge:

Here it is now...:





And with that, the Imperial hero chest is complete.

Cheers

57. Day, January 20, 2023


Today I only underpainted the cuffs of the shirt with acryls - unfortunately there was not enough time for more...:




Cheers