It hit me like... thunder on the Danube – a bolt out of the (not so) blue – that I had missed a trick and
that I should have based my Rosenberg conversion not on the Archduke Charles figure from
Pendraken’s Austrian High Command pack (see Post 132) but on the staff officer from the same pack
(see the last post). Why? Because the figure already had overall trousers just as Rosenberg was wearing
in Krafft’s painting (see Post 132). If I could remodel the
figure’s face, turning it so that I could keep the
hat but then sitting fore-and-aft as in the
painting, it would be a simple
conversion. I took my rotary tool to
the staff officer’s sash as before
and to the figure’s face, grinding
them away. I then set to work
with modelling putty, giving
the figure a new face, ears
and hair, right coat tail,
single-breasted coat front and
collar. I fixed the sash and I
gave him what would be a
larger map than the
map/written orders he was
holding. Simple enough.
Johann Krafft’s painting dates
from 1819. Some of the uniforms in
it are just flights of the painter’s
fancy. But I was hoping his depiction
of Charles and his staff was more
accurate. I was tempted to copy the
painting further and give my Rosenberg a high
shirt collar. And his military cross?
Another Rosenberg
My new Rosenberg
needed a mounted
officer figure to
accompany
him on a
command
base. I no
longer
wanted
to use
my
officer
from the
last post
as he was
converted
from the
same figure
as my new
Rosenberg. I
decided to convert a
Pendraken Austrian
Line Infantry officer
(NPA4). I cut off his sword and
sword arm and gave him a new arm as if holding a telescope. I
removed the oak leaves from his hat and added a feather plume and
hat lace. I gave him larger ‘German’ cuffs with open rear seams and
remembered (only just) to add a sword hilt to his empty scabbard.
It was tempting to think that my Austrian 5th Column had been
assigned a commander at last.
POST 134
134
