Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars Yeomanry (1 Viewer)

[blaster]

Hi All,

I decided to carry on with this piece, armed with new info on how modern kettledrums are constructed. There are no individual tuning keys, hence the Historex kettledrums are not suitable. There appear to be 8 pegs visible on the QOOH kettledrums each. I obtained contemporary kettledrums castings from Giles Brown Dorset soldiers for this.

I decided to improve on the castings, adding putty and sanding smooth the upper surface. A thin wash of white paint shows up any surface imperfections. I also worked on improving the roundness of the kettledrums. Not much to see so far.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

This is the illustration on which I am basing my kettledrums on.

Rgds Victor

 

[johnnybach]

Your pics reminded me to have a look at my "Drum Horse" file ( where I save any I find whilst poking about).

This one may be too recent for you to use - but thought you might like it anyway. It's the Queens Own Hussars - not dated - but a nice pic anyway. Regards - jb

 

[blaster]

Hi JB,

thanks for that. I love the cheetahskin shabraque. When I was initially deciding which kettledrummer to do, it was a toss up between going for a cheetah skin shabraque or a portly kettledrummer. The portly guy won. As you can see, my other Ethiopian figure has a lionskin shabraque.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

The kettledrum banners being modelled. Banners were cut from thin copper sheets, curved around the kettledrums and then the fringes were modelled directly onto the copper. Finicky work.

Rgds Victor

 

[Martin Tabony]

Hi JB,

thanks for that. I love the cheetahskin shabraque. When I was initially deciding which kettledrummer to do, it was a toss up between going for a cheetah skin shabraque or a portly kettledrummer. The portly guy won. As you can see, my other Ethiopian figure has a lionskin shabraque.

Rgds Victor

Leopard skin, Cheetahs a bit to fast!^&grin

Martin

 

[Napoleon1er]

Blaster- the only thing that surpasses your attention to detail and accuracy is your patience to carry it out!
Great work,
Sandor :salute::

 

[johnnybach]

Leopard skin, Cheetahs a bit to fast!^&grin

Martin

Join a Bounty hunt with Michael Caine - he uses a machine gun! (or so he said - once) jb

 

[blaster]

Hello Martin, Sandor and JB,

For some reason, I always refer to the spotted shabraque as a cheetahskin. Once when I tried to order from Historex spares, there was some confusion until they pointed out that in the catalog, this was referred to as a pantherskin. I take it that general military parlance uses leopardskin.

In the Italian Job, Michael Caine was hunting tigers. Nobody watches NatGeo channel anymore?....

Actually I find that the repeated corrections give me a lot of practice in eventually sculpting decent shapes. I just wish that there was sufficent and decent illustrations in the first place.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

Painted the banners, front and back. Sculpted some details on the kettledrums. I made my own simple tools to press out the details.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

Detailed the kettledrums and affixed the banners. I found two suitable tuning keys from a plastic kit and will add them later.
Will start painting these next.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

I found this figure lurking around and decided to start working on him again. Note the tuning keys added to the kettledrums. I improved on the left hand and am now looking for other things to do, including locating the saddle and horse.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

I located the horse in my stash. After a long critical look at it, I decided that the neck was too long and I trimmed it by a few mm. The snout was also trimmed. I also had fun with my pyrogravure and added fetlocks to the horse.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

As I am now winding down on my Louis XIV drummer figure, I've decided to focus some energy on finishing off a mounted figure - this figure. Two mental obstacles for me were the kettledrum banners and the saddle.

Over the weekend, I've started to paint the banners. I've started on the lettering in the scrolls. This was surprisingly quite easy to do. This was the result after a couple of attempts and will need further refinements. I will adjust the rest of the heraldic elements later during the week.

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

I've just noticed that there are two cypher/monogram and designs from various sources for the banners. The first cypher is most prevalent and is very clear on the web, but my source for the second cypher is not so clear. Is there a clearer image for the second type of cypher?

Rgds Victor


Type 1


Type 2

 

[johnnybach]

Hi Victor.

The differences that you mention in design of drum banners and cap badges - are date specific. The most obvious difference is in the design of the crown element. This is commonly called A Kings Crown - and a Queens Crown variant. The Cigarette card shows the Kings Crown - and the photographs show a Queens version (one of which clearly states it was taken in 1904 - but the unit is still using the 1896 drum banner.

Queen Victoria died in 1901 - and was succeeded by King Edward VII - until his death in 1910 - when he was in turn succeeded by George V. Clearly, the cigarette card was produced AFTER Victoria died - and therefore shows the Kings Crown version for both Drum Banner and cap Badge. Whilst the change was taking place - the banners and badges were also often modified ( such as monograms etcetera showing the different initials of the Monarch) The photograph - bottom right - shows your version - which again is post-1901 - but the QOOH are still (economically) using the older drum banner.

In my opinion, it's always better to choose a date - find a photo - and go with that - as you have done. So your guy is circa 1904 - but still using the 1896 banner.

Incidentally - when I first joined The Royal Signals in 1961 - there were still some guys in our unit wearing the Kings Crown on their cap-badges, whilst I was issued with a Queens Crown version. The reason that we all didn't have Queens Crowns was simply economy. You only changed them when they were worn out or broken. I'm guessing that this was the reason that the QOOH kept using the older drum banner after Victoria had died.

Hope that helps.

 

[trooper]

Funny you should say that JB, I enlisted in the RAF in 1957 and we were kitted out with WW2 uniforms and badges. the shytehawk on the shoulders was printed on a black canvas patch and buttons and badges bore the King's crown. I have often thought if some future historian was studying a photo of me he would date it to WW2 purely by virtue of these anomolies. The two big hangers at Cardington, which were built to house the R100 and R101 and are still standing, were jam packed from floor to ceiling with bales of uniforms and webbing left over from the war. The army was armed with FN SLRs, GPLMGs, Sterling MPs and Browning pistols. We had No4 SMLEs, Brens, Stens and Smith and Wesson 38s. Happy days, though. Trooper

 

[johnnybach]

Funny you should say that JB, I enlisted in the RAF in 1957 and we were kitted out with WW2 uniforms and badges. the shytehawk on the shoulders was printed on a black canvas patch and buttons and badges bore the King's crown. I have often thought if some future historian was studying a photo of me he would date it to WW2 purely by virtue of these anomolies. The two big hangers at Cardington, which were built to house the R100 and R101 and are still standing, were jam packed from floor to ceiling with bales of uniforms and webbing left over from the war. The army was armed with FN SLRs, GPLMGs, Sterling MPs and Browning pistols. We had No4 SMLEs, Brens, Stens and Smith and Wesson 38s. Happy days, though. Trooper

Yes - but you had Brylcream!! Also - nice food and even nicer places to eat it - with walls and ceilings and other exotic stuff!! We lived (mostly) in various fields around Europe ( and some more exotic parts - that are still on the Official Secrets list!!){eek3}

Even though we had SLR's - we also retained some No.4 SMLE's in the armoury - which we used to do square-bashing with, (again, frugality was the name of the game here - as the QM didn't want us to wear out the new weapons!! (sigh!:rolleyes2). I think he had a saying "If it's new - you can't have it!"

I actually used to prefer using the SMLE on the range, as it had far more accurate sights than the SLR. Lovely weapon that old smooth bolt action - SMLE. Happy Days indeed. jb

 

[blaster]

Hello JB,

Thanks for clearing up the mystery for me! It makes sense as the banners still look in magnificent condition in 1904.
As to the banter on how pictures are dated, I thought it was the girth measurement (and I don't mean the horse...)

Rgds Victor

 

[blaster]

I worked more on the horse, shortening the neck and changing the ears (because I broke them) and have actually progressed to painting it. Decided that a plain white horse is rather boring and decided to add some markings, dappling etc. Separately, I am resculpting the saddle seat.

Rgds Victor