Bandages and Baguettes, The Care and Feeding of the Great War Soldier

[Vermin_King]

An internet search on 'American Civil War paper soldiers' and 'American Civil War war games' turned up a few items, but not many

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Well, it’s time to wrap up this series of Great War dioramas, and for the final model I’m presenting the most complex and interesting of the lot. Titled, “Gefangenenlager,” or, “Detention Camp,” this early-war soldier set was published by Joseph Scholz of Mainz, Germany. The model is made up of 42 individual soldiers seen wearing the uniforms of their various nations. Along with the six German guards, who for the most part are standing outside the enclosure, there are soldiers from France, North Africa, England, Scotland, India, Belgium, Russia, and Senegal. And included in most of their captions is an added word describing their service; Infantry, Artillery, Dragoon, Alpine Fighter, Constable, Rifleman, Lancer, Cossack, and more. The only German seen inside the wire is the cook found at the upper left of the diorama, spooning out chow while wearing his sword at this side.

The model’s four, original sheets each measure approximately 42cm X 33cm, or about 16 ½ X 13 inches. If used, they would have produced a much larger model than the one I’ve built using my usual 8 ½” X 11” cardstock. My smaller figures average about 2 5/8” tall and they are standing on a flat, rectangular base that measures 16” X 12”. As I needed a strong, deep base so the embedded fence posts would stand straight against the pull of the black carpet thread, I made it out of ½” plywood and covered it with mat board.

As you can see, what makes this diorama so distinct from the previous offerings are the colorful prisoner’s uniforms. From the Scotsman’s kilts to the French Dragoon’s spurs, the size, shape and color of the various uniforms is remarkable. Also worth noting is the fact that the faces of the men are so faithful to their national origin. Cossacks look like Cossacks, Belgians look like Belgians. The amount of research and effort that went into accurately rendering each prisoner’s attire and visage is a testament to the artist’s commitment to this project.

It’s interesting to note what a small part camouflage played in the design of these early-war uniforms. In a machine-gun war, it would be a deadly decision to wear red onto the battlefield, yet we see a lot of red worn by the prisoners. This is an indication of how early this model was produced, thought to be 1915. As the war progressed, 19th century ideas of glory and grandeur fell by the wayside and effective camouflage was eventually employed by every combatant that truly cared about the well-being of their soldiers. It remains so to this day.

The model is an interesting piece of German propaganda in that is shows the conquerors and the conquered peacefully occupying the same space. Even though only a handful of German guards are present, things are quiet and orderly in the stockade. In fact, the guards are so certain of their complete subjugation of the enemy that they have allowed the prisoners to wield some rather dangerous tools. Numerous shovels, a pick ax, hatchet, hammer and a knife are all seen inside the enclosure.

Throughout history, every prisoner of war has their own, personal story to tell. Some are treated respectfully, while others are abused. Some are fed regularly, while others are cruelly starved. But the common experience of these stalwart men and women is grinding boredom, fear for their families back home and not knowing if they will be returned to a victorious or defeated nation. For a detailed account of German POW camps of the Great War, the following article will have more to say on the matter than I can relay here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_...war_in_Germany

As devotees of our singular hobby, we are forever impressed by the wide variety of paper models available to us. New subjects are released every day, adding to the long history of our pastime. While I appreciate the modern models with their fine line, color and fit, I’m still drawn to the hand-drawn models of the past. I hope you’ll find some time to build one, or some, of the many old models freely available on the internet. If you’re looking to take a satisfying trip into the past, building a one hundred year old paper model is one way to get there.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Seascape]

Thanks for a great series of posts. Really enjoyed this thread.

Fred

[Vermin_King]

Always appreciate your builds and insight. Kinda sad to see this series wrapped up

[SCEtoAUX]

It has been a great adventure you have taken us on. Thanks for the info and models of WWI.

[MichaelS]

I am as grateful to you for this thread as I am sorry to see it come to a close. The expression "All good things must end" has always seemed strange to me. Why do the good things have to end while the bad things, ie wars have to go on forever?

A big share of the reason is that mankind always forgets the past. Your post has made the importance of NEVER forgetting abundantly clear.

Once again, Thank You form the bottom of my heart. I just know that I will return to this thread many times because a single read does not do it justice. Like a great novel it gets better and better.

I have given the little nurse dolls to a friend who has 7 daughters. She told me the other day that they are working on them. I told her that I would really love pictures to post here as attribute to you TD.

MS

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And a quick thank you to Padraig, Seascape, VK, SCEtoAUX, MichaelS and all the others who read and commented on my Great War thread.

And MichaelS, your friend has seven daughters? Yikes! I hope they enjoy the paper nurses and I'm sure we'd all love to see them posted in this thread.

Thanks again, all.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[altomentis]

Thank you so much, especially for all the photographs. I love all the vintage hand drawn models and I especially love seeing them built. It is amazing how impressive some of the relatively simple models are.

The scene you created for the last model is wonderful. I am always impressed by your skills in building and photographing your models. How on earth do you cut those tiny tiny parts?

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hi, altomentis, and thanks for your kind comments.

As to your question about cutting out the small parts, here are a few thoughts. Throughout this entire thread, there were a number of soldiers who had bayonets at the ends of their rifles, and these weapons proved to be the most difficult to cut out. For strength, each soldier is made up of two layers of 110lb. cardstock, and when I tried to cut out a bayonet with two heavy cuts, the laminated card would separate at the glue joint, ruining the part. It is best to first make a "close cut" about 1/16" or 1/8" around the bayonet. This allows the blade of the hobby knife to push the waist cardstock away from the bayonet, making for an easier cut. To make the final cuts on the bayonet, a few light strokes are better than one heavy stroke. It takes more time, but it gives a cleaner final cut.

Now to strengthen the bayonet. After applying the color to cover the white edges, I pick up a small drop of glue either on my fingertip or on a toothpick and rub it along the colored edges of the bayonet. The glue may bead up, but I just take my clean thumb and finger and pull along the length of the bayonet to spread the glue evenly along the length of the weapon. It's surprising how much strength this adds to the narrow paper part.

Those are just a few techniques I use to separate the small paper parts from their white paper surround.

Thanks for you question, and I hope these ideas will be of some use to you.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[MichaelS]

As always Thank you sir.