Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 For some of you today is already April 22, but for many others, including myself, today is still April 21 - the 88th anniversary of the death of Manfred von Richthofen. In commemoration I am very proud to announce that my Richthofen crash scene, entitled Feeding On The Legend, is now finished, scanned and available for viewing. Many of you may remember several weeks back when I posted some of the figure sketches for this piece here on the forum. well, now you can see them in color. If you would like more details about the image you can visit my site: http://www.russellsmithart.com/Small%20pag...OnTheLegend.htm Cheers Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2006 More details. Pardon the streaking. My new scanner is so darn good it picks up the texture of the brushed on surface primer under the oils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2006 another. that dashingly handsome fellow up front holding the broken Axial propeller blade is actually a self portrait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ypres1418 Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 Looks very good. I like it. Lots of detail. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2006 and another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2006 one more. cheers russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ypres1418 Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 It is more than very good it is so life like it could be a photo. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 21 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2006 Thanks so much for those very kind compliments, Mandy. russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ypres1418 Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 A pleasure. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt_Hazell_Great_Grandson Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 another. that dashingly handsome fellow up front holding the broken Axial propeller blade is actually a self portrait. Russell stick the propeller blade on eBay you will make a mint ! Excellent work and very interesting website. Best wishes , Roland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaymen Posted 21 April , 2006 Share Posted 21 April , 2006 Russ You certainly have a talent Excellent stuff Glyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Good Job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 It's an excellent painting, with marvellous detail. However, if I can just point out something that doesn't seem quite right, I can't help but notice that the troops around the aeroplane, most of whom should be Australians, aren't wearing Australian-pattern tunics with their distinctive buttoned sleeve cuffs, don't have AIF colour patches on their upper tunic sleeves, or the "rising sun" badges on their collars. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 23 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 April , 2006 good to know, Gareth. Obviously I am much more educated in the air war than the ground war. the painting is still on my easel so now would be the time to add them in. could you, or anyone else here, please provide me with information on these patches & badges? images would be most helpful. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Really great picture. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 good to know, Gareth. Obviously I am much more educated in the air war than the ground war. the painting is still on my easel so now would be the time to add them in. could you, or anyone else here, please provide me with information on these patches & badges? images would be most helpful. Russ Russ The AIF wore a tunic that was quite different to that of the British Army, with a buttoned shirt-type cuff, large patch pockets and, sometimes, a sort of inbuilt belt type thing (clothing descriptions aren't my strong-point) and black buttons. The picture below shows men from the 44th Battalion, and will hopefully illustrate what I'm trying to say. I'll attach another picture on this subject. The common AIF badge was the "Rising Sun" shown below, and small badges were worn on the collar. A curved metal badge reading AUSTRALIA was worn at the end of the lapel. Picture to come. The AIF had a sophisticated system of unit colour patches worn on the upper sleeves, and I'll attach a scan of relevant patches. From Franks and Bennett's The Red Baron's Last Flight, it appears that the first officer on the scene of the crash was from the 44th Battalion (white over blue oval). Other troops in the area were from the 30th (black and yellow vertical rectangle), 32nd (white and yellow vertical rectangle), 52nd (white over blue round) and 56th (white and blue vertical rectangle). I hope that this is useful. Regards Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Russ As mentioned, I'll attach another picture of uniforms. Gareth Russ The common AIF badge was the "Rising Sun" shown below, and small badges were worn on the collar. A curved metal badge reading AUSTRALIA was worn at the end of the lapel. Picture to come. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Russ The AIF had a sophisticated system of unit colour patches worn on the upper sleeves, and I'll attach a scan of relevant patches. From Franks and Bennett's The Red Baron's Last Flight, it appears that the first officer on the scene of the crash was from the 44th Battalion (white over blue oval). Other troops in the area were from the 30th (black and yellow vertical rectangle), 32nd (white and yellow vertical rectangle), 52nd (white over blue round) and 56th (white and blue vertical rectangle). Russ For some reason, sometimes I can attach more than one picture, sometimes I can't. Anyway, here's the scan of the patches. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 23 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Thanks Dolphin. I do indeed see the points you mentioned. the deeper pockets won't be too much trouble to add, but changing all of the sleeve cuffs might be a headache. forgive me if I let that one detail slide. the belt-type thingy isn't an issue since all of the figures wear utitly belts and accoutrements that would cover that anyway. i did actually include unit patches, but from what I could tell they were worn on the right sleeve. all but two of my figures are shown in left profile. if you refer to the two detail shots below you'll see that the two that are shown from the right do wear unit patches. the fellow immediately behind the tail of the tripe wears the blue over grey oval of the 41st battalion (although I may change it to white over blue of the 44th), and the fellow on the far right wears the traingular patch of the 3rd AFC which was the salvage unit for that area. As for the collar insignia, I do need to add those. I see where the rising sun goes, but can't make out where the "Australia" should be placed. russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 23 April , 2006 Share Posted 23 April , 2006 Russ Thanks for the message. It looks like wearing unit patches on either one or both sleeves varied even within a battalion, as I've noticed photographs of men with one patch standing next to other men from the same unit with two. The photograph I posted earlier of men from the 44th Bn illustrates this. The curved AUSTRALIA metal badge was worn on the epaulette at the shoulder end; I've attached a photograph of a 10th Bn soldier which does just show it (if you look hard). I think that the badge would be visible as a small dark mark on figures at the scale of those in the painting. Regards Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 24 April , 2006 Share Posted 24 April , 2006 Thanks for sharing the painting Russell, excellent...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 24 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 April , 2006 Dolphin, you'll be glad to know that, in addition to adding the various insignias, i decided to go ahead and change the sleeve cuffs. as much as i didn't want to, I couldn't in good conscience let them go. I doubt I'll rescan the whole painting just to show the changes. they would be barely noticable on screen and most folks wouldn't know the difference, so what you see above is, generally speaking, the finished product. Thanks again for your help! russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Smith Posted 24 April , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 April , 2006 By the way, if anyone is interested in owning a copy of this image, limited edition giclees are now available at my website: http://www.russellsmithart.com/Small%20pag...OnTheLegend.htm and yes, the afore mentioned changes WILL be visible in the print! Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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