The Irish Legion are slowly taking shape, so to hurry them on a bit I decided to press on and paint their commander, Colonel William Lawless.
Lawless was a professor of anatomy in Dublin and prominent Untited Irishmen. Forced to flee to France following the failure of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, he quickly came to the notice of Napoleon and gained a captaincy in the newly forming Irish Legion. He was a brave and capable officer and was appointed to command the regiment in 1813. After serving with credit at the Battle of Bautzen, poor Lawless lost a leg during the action at Lowenberg. The whole regiment was effectively destroyed just a few days later after it was trapped and cut to pieces by artillery fire. Lawless survived the wars but he died in Paris in 1824 at the comparatively young age of 52.
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He towers a bit over his tiny wee DK soldiers, but I'm quite chuffed with him nonetheless.
Have a great weekend everyone
WM
He’s a real doozie, I think it’s subdued bicorne which really sets off his simple but elegant uniform.
ReplyDeleteYou say early demise, but Napoleon died three years before him and one year younger without having had a leg blown off along the way. I think you may have been misled by Joaquin Phoenix into thinking Napoleon was leading cavalry charges as mature man - he was only 45 at Waterloo, younger than Joaquin who portrayed his entire career while 48/49?
I know what your saying. Life expectancy was not all that flash in the early nineteenth century. By the time Lawless was my age he'd been dead for five years!
DeleteGosh a comment actually worked from my iPad for a change.
DeleteWhat I was getting at, was how prematurely ageing a military career was in those days, and how young Napoleon was: 23 at Toulon, 26 for his brilliant first campaign in Italy, First Consul at 30, and Emperor at 34. We are so conditioned by portraits of him from around and after Waterloo that we sometimes lose sight of what a youthful prodigy he was.
Rather different to today's gerontocracy, wasn't it. William Pitt was only 47 when he died.
DeleteNice conversion. Always have a great deal of respect for people who can use a soldering iron - never got the hang of it myself!
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier than it sounds Rob. I practiced on a lot on scrap figures to get the hang of it. A good tip I picked up recently is to firmly secure the two things you're trying to join with masking tape before applying any heat.
DeleteI embed the two bits I'm soldering together in Blu Tac to hold them in the correct orientation.
DeleteI do that too from time to time. I also do most of this on the top of my rail iron, which acts as a heat sink.
DeleteLawless is simply a stunning conversion and paint job Matthew. He's an all-round stunner! You really must give a more full explanation of his leg transplant. Were you able to save the original and simply re-attach it at a more desirable angle or did some other hapless figure donate a leg? Your paintwork is equally masterful, with the variegation in the green giving the uniform tremendous depth. Even the horse looks like he is ready to step out of my computer screen. Don't be surprised if you start to see some amateurish imitations starting to show up on the Miniature Minions site...
ReplyDeleteI had to change his leg because there's a limit to how far one can bend a metal limb. One of the DK19s donated the leg, which seemed reasonable as his head had already gone to the drummer. The hardest part of this figure was the coat tails, which had to be gently seperated and then bent upwards. The final effect reminds me of the old Airfix French mounted officer somehow.
DeleteOh wow, I hadn't thought about having to make the coat-tails fit the horse. Even more impressive!
DeleteA lovely looking figure Matthew…
ReplyDeleteI am still in awe of your soldering skills…
I suspect I would just have a puddle of lead if I attempted this kind of work.
All the best. Aly
I took this up because I have an irrational fear that anything I try to glue will eventually dry out and fall to peices!
DeleteVERY impressive conversion!
ReplyDeleteThank you Matt. It’s always quite high stakes as I really do not have an inexhaustible supply of replacements if it all goes pear shaped. This makes it all the more satisfying when I get away with it.
DeleteAnother very clever conversion expertly executed!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ian. Lawless isn't flawless, I'm sad to say. Looking at the last photo again I can see that I've completely cocked up his pocket piping. This is what advancing senility looks like.
DeleteI have a rational fear that your irrational fear of glue may turn out to be all too rational. I still am not ready to entrust my fingers and my figures to a soldering iron, though. This chap is magnificent, and I claim to have noticed and admired the cut of his tails.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anon. I've never been very good with glues and putties and whatnot. Soldering is a doddle by comparison.
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