All looks very good Martin.......To quote the words of Gregory Peck in the movie " The Guns of Navarone"....."You're in it now; ... Up to your neck".

Wayne

58. Day January 23, 2023


The shirt cuffs got their final oil painting...:



Pure white was only used where most of the light falls; I painted the cuff of the left arm much darker than the other - because it is in full shadow under the right elbow...:






Cheers

Fritz Kersten, Deutsche Uniformen, in "Zeitschrift für Heereskunde", 1979.







You can only get this series with a lot of luck (and even more money) on very specialized markets for old books.

The original black and white photo is included in:

https://www.historische-uniformen.d...ze=130&cHash=c459591d5b0e865401106e0c714b8bcc


Cheers

There's still a dark green streak coming - but first when the white is dry.


Cheers

59. Day, January 25, 2023


Actually I wanted to paint the hands of Wilhelm the Loudmouth today - it occurred to me that I have totally neglected one aspect so far:

Rings!

Herr Kaiser wore rings on both hands - sometimes up to five ones!



Normally there were only three!



On the little finger of his right hand he wore his wedding ring, which we have to imagine differently than today, namely something like this...:



There was also a gold signet ring worn on the ring finger.

We can only speculate as to exactly what the signet ring looked like - however, impressions on seals that were made with it have survived, it had a square plate, something like this Russian counterpart...:






Since both rings were buried with him, one would have to open Wilhelm's sarcophagus to get accurate photos, but the Hohenzollerns would certainly not allow that!

Speaking of "buried"...:

Wilhelm II died in exile on June 4, 1941 at Huis Doorn, Netherlands...:



He was buried in the green uniform of the Guard Jaegers...





... hung with his most important medals and with the pauldrons of a field marshal of the "old army"...:





Earlier, on June 17, 1941, he had found an opportunity to send Hitler an enthusiastic congratulatory telegram on the occasion of the victory over France!

"Under the profound impression of France's laying down of arms, I congratulate you and the entire German Wehrmacht on the tremendous victory bestowed by God with the words of Kaiser Wilhelm the Great in 1870: 'What a turn by God's providence'. The chorale of sounds in all German hearts Leuthen, intoned by the victors of Leuthen, the soldiers of the Great King: 'Now thank God, everyone'"

Previously, the "Führer" had honored the ex-monarch in his own way:

When the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940, the Wehrmacht had to put up a guard of honor for the emperor in exile in Doorn on Hitler's personal orders...:



After the death of the Kaiser, prominent Nazi figures attended the Kaiser's funeral in droves:

Hitler's official representative was the "Reichskommissar" Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart (hanged by the Allies on October 16, 1946 in Nuremberg) - and in the following photo we can see, among others, Army Commander-in-Chief Werner von Brauchitsch and the head of the German military intelligence service "Abwehr", Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, (far left, hanged by the Nazis on April 9, 1945 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp for his membership in the June 20 conspiracy).



As the highest-ranking surviving representative of the "old army", the aged Field Marshal August von Mackensen (died in 1948, who had started his higher career as the Kaiser's adjutant and had been ennobled by Wilhelm in 1899) attended the funeral...:



Incidentally, as far as their anti-Semitism dripping with hate is concerned, Wilhelm II and Hitler were brothers in spirit!

Thus Wilhelm II wrote in In a letter to an American friend Poultney Bigelow on August 15, 1927:

“The Hebrew race is my arch-enemy at home as well as abroad; are what they are and always have been: liars and masterminds of riots, revolution and subversion, spreading meanness with the help of their poisoned, caustic, satirical spirit. Once the world awakens, they must be meted out as they deserve.”

In the same year he also wrote to Bigelow:

"The press, the Jews and mosquitoes are a plague that humanity must rid itself of one way or another - I think the best thing would be gas."

But while Wilhelm - as almost always - remained a mere mouth hero, the Nazis set about realizing these fantasies with bloody efficiency...

In August 2015, the sarcophagus with the mortal remains of the ex-Kaiser was transferred to Potsdam - with military honors by the Bundeswehr - and in view of the above quotes one wonders: Why???





But back to the question of the Emperor's rings.

After superficial research I can fortunately neglect the right hand because the fingers on the bust are not visible.

It's different with his left hand, where you can see the fingers.

This research is really tricky because the left hand is always somehow covered or hidden in almost all photos of the emperor!

The best photo of his left hand is this one, disguised as an Austro-Hungarian field marshal...:



The photo was colored later, like so many others, so it is highly uncertain whether the ring visible there was really golden!

One thing is certain: the piece of jewelery was not exactly small...:



After much deliberation, I decided to put a ring on Wilhelm's finger that demonstrably belonged to him - it is a coat of arms ring of the House of Hohenzollern, which at least fits in size...:



There it is now...:



So much for today.


Cheers

Very nice attention to detail In the model aircraft world that's what we call "detailing for god". Very few people will see it or even notice it, but you and he/she/it/they know it's there.......

That's it!


Cheers

60. Day, January 25, 2023


Hands uderpainted with acryls...







... and ring primed...:






Cheers

61. Day, January 27, 2023


Today is the first hand - the clearly visible right one! - Painted with oil paints.

There are two "cliffs" to avoid:

Firstly, the back of the hand is modeled almost without contours...



So the tendons and muscles have to be imitated with a brush!

Second "cliff":

The coloring must correspond to Mr. Kaiser's facial skin!

So the same colors and mixtures are used as for the head...



...and also the head is within reach for comparison purposes during painting...:



Et voilà...:






Cheers

62. Day, January 28, 2023


The left hand - like the cuff, it is completely in the shadow - and therefore much darker than the other...:








Cheers

63. Day, January 30, 2023


Last detail:

The ring is painted...:





You won't see much of it later - but I know it's there!

Cheers

Quite a lesson of History (apart from your modelling skills!).