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| Gentlemen, we never fire first; fire yourselves! |
I am
sure many of you share my impression of mid-18th Century European battles playing out as initially very
structured, ceremonial, parade-like ceremonies that rapidly devolved into bloody
mayhem and chaos. The archetypal example
of this is the exchange at Fontenoy between an officer of the Gardes Françaises
, and Lord Charles Hai, a captain
in the English Guards who cried, "Gentlemen of the French Guards, fire!" - with
the Comte d'Auteroche, then lieutenant of Grenadiers, replying, "Gentlemen, we
never fire first; fire yourselves."
Bloody mayhem ensued.
As I build an army of 40mm Prince August French –
primarily from the timeless sculpts of the great Holger Eriksson – I was missing “that”
figure. The figure of the French
officer doffing his tricorne to the enemy, while issueing some ridiculously pompous,
vain, honorable or valiant statement prior to receiving a ball to the head. I determined to do the unthinkable – modify one
of Mr. Eriksson’s elegant semi-rounds to achieve the effect. A figure form the PA artillery crew set
became the object of my simple modifications.
Pictured is the result.
I have home-cast eight of these figures, of which I will have 3-4 in my army and distribute
the rest to friends with an interest. As
I have yet to paint a Gardes Françaises
battalion, I painted the first new casting
as a more generic French company grade officer.
Hope you like him.
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| L to Right - new casting, modified artillerist, original Eriksson artillerists |
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| The great sculptor and figure maker - Holger Eriksson |
Splendid work, Joe! Adds a certain something to the 'French' army.
ReplyDeleteThanks David!
ReplyDeleteOh I do like your conversion ! as a collector and caster of Prince August I am always on the lookout for new ideas ! may have to pinch your idea !very good indeed !
ReplyDeleteThanks Moss, pinch away! Love to see your results. I may do other conversions and post at a later date.
ReplyDelete