French Foreign Legion Kettledrummer (1 Viewer)

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As I was in a fast and furious mode, and not wanting to miss a beat, I came across this forlorn legionnaire figure. This was made many years ago and I rather liked the uniform which has unfortunately yellowed with age. I have decided to refurbish the piece.

 

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[Napoleon1er]

Can't wait to see the refurbished figure! I love the current one...

 

[theBaron]

...and not wanting to miss a beat...

Nice pun, Vic, for this drummer kick you're on right now

This and the others are all great pieces!

Prost!
Brad

 

[blaster]

Hello Brad and Nap,

Hey, you gotta move with the beat. King Louie...

Upon critical examination of the piece, this is more than a refurbishment. There are anatomical errors and also uniform details which I think should be corrected.

I started on the legs. The right leg was longer than the left leg. To get at the legs, I had to remove the kettledrums. These were prised off. The boots were also removed. Then I carved away the trousers. At this stage, I also decided to add fetlocks to the horse's feet with my fancy pyrogravure.

 

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The boots were refitted with new stirrups and reins and fitted back into place, making sure that they aligned correctly on both sides.

 

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The trousers were resculpted to represent johdpurs. I carved away the green fringes on the horse forehead and breast bands. Looking at the yellowing mess on the tunic and hands, I decided to redo the sticky plastic cross straps as well. The arms were removed to clean up the tunic. You can see that the upper torso is taken from an old Verlinden resin figure. I also resculpted part of the saddle cloth to align both sides.

 

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Then I noted that the upper torso was misaligned slightly to the right side as in the first pic. Hence the upper torso was sawn off and re-aligned with a pin drilled to hold the parts together. Putty was then added to fill in the gaps. The green fringes were resculpted and thin wire strips were added on top of the fringes. The forelock was replaced.

At this stage, my references suggest that the saddlecloth was a more substantial affair. So I decided to add the rest of it cut from thin copper sheet and epoxied firmly in place. The smoothening out was done with aves epoxy putty.

 

[theBaron]

Great progress, Vic!

Prost!
Brad

 

[blaster]

Thanks Brad.

I removed the throat plume for now as I wanted to rebuild the head harness. The sash and body was fully resculpted and the belts were attached. The breast insignia was added. I am now working on the arms to change the pose slightly. The kettledrum banners are also being resculpted partially.

 

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Quite a bit of progress here. I finalised the arms and reattached them to the body with wire inserts. I created a more open pose to display the breast insignia. The gloves were made more extensive and I am resculpting the epaulettes. Holes were predrilled into the horse to attach the kettledrums. Also decided to redo the kettledrum banners in copper sheet.

 

[blaster]

This is one of my references for the project. It shows either of two kettledrummers mounted on a white or grey horse. This is very similar to an illustration on Windrow/Chappell/s Osprey's book on the FFL. However, the caption in the book states that the white uniformed timbalier was mounted on a black horse. I saw a couple of illustrations on the web where this was clearly seen.

 

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All my references show kettledrums without tuning keys. I understand that these timbals were tuned. Historically, tuning was done with tuning keys but more recent innovations allow for an enclosed mechanism where the whole drum was tuned by tightening the hoop on the rim of the drum. These modern kettledrums had visible knobs just below the rim, presumably hidden by the kettledrum banners. Hence I decided to replace the kettledrums and sling with new parts. The picture shows the new sling added to the pommel of the saddle.

 

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As can be seen, the new kettledrums were given pegs to represent the tuning keys just under the drum rims. These pegs, although not visible in my illustrations, are there to create "geometric panels" when I press the banners against the kettledrums. I used super glue to initially hold the banners in place but this is not a permanent solution. So I upended each kettledrum and dribbled epoxy resin into the recess areas between the banners and the drumshells (epoxy glue can be seen glistening in the photo). This creates a very strong structure for each drum banner.

I further sculpted the face and added more putty to the legs and started to undercoat the horse in matt black.

 

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Continuing to paint the main colours and insignia. Potentially a very colourful piece.

 

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I added straight bits to the horse's mouth, added details and straps for the bridle and throat plume. Then I added the reins and buckles. This is very fiddly work. The drumsticks were glued to the hands.

 

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Started to paint the figure and horse in oils. The banners have been completed. I sprinkled some gravel onto the base.

 

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Completed most of the painting on the figure and horse, barring some details to be finalised. I left a small area of unpainted plastic on both the drums and the drumpads. I added plastic glue to these areas and pressed the drums against the pads. The kettledrums are now firmly fixed to the figure.

I'll leave the figures and all other work at this stage for a week as I will be off on a driving holiday. No figures, just books.

Rgds Victor

 

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I managed to download more pics before I scoot off for my holidays.

Painted the groundwork.

 

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I've taken some better pics against a black background.