Here is my latest installment of Willie & Joe from Bill Mauldin’s Army; #10 for me! This one is entitled “Who is it?”
The figures are modified and cobbled together from various Tamiya figures. Willie’s (standing, knocking at the door) coat is made from masking tape, Squadron putty and the coat tails are parted out from one of DML’s 101st Airborne Bastogne figures. The building is scratchbuilt from thin wood covered with plaster, engraved with the brick detail; the rubble is made from scraps of the same thin wood individually covered with plaster (wouldn’t recommend this method [banghead]). The door is balsa with handles and working hinges made from tea light candle metal.
Some other details made from scratch are: propane cook stove (spure, stryrene and wire), trivet (wire), cooking bucket (sprue section) , weapon slings (masking tape), helmet straps (masking tape), Willie’s jeep cap under his helmet (masking tape), Joe’s empty canteen cover (masking tape), canteen cup (half an Italeri canteen with tea light candle metal handle), canteen with cap off, and the two K-ration food cans (sprue tabs) on the ground.
Comments and constructive criticism are more than welcome! Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy this one!
Because of a screw-up in my construction and by the time I caught it, it was too late to fix without starting over, I was not able to get the same angle (viewpoint) [sigh], but you get the idea…I hope. [:I]
Hmm… I’m thinking of how I would have gone about building this to get the same viewpoint as Mauldin and unless you would have put Joe right on the other side of the door… or extended the wall he’s up against and put him about twice as far back into the room… I don’t think it’s doable. Neither way makes much sense, so I think I like your version better!!
Do you use something like character heads made out of resin or do you mold on your own facial featers over-top the existing Tamiya/Dragon figures? One of the things that really makes the story come through is their expression IMHO and I think you nailed it
About the faces, I actually use stock Tamiya figure faces (in other dioramas I have used stock Italeri figure heads or in the case of the “Unlikely Hero” the little boy was from ICM). I sometimes will reshape Willie & Joe’s noses using an X-Acto blade and some fine sand paper.
Both characters (as Mr. Mauldin drew them) had very distinctive features–Willie with strong indian features and a prominent nose, and Joe with a rounded, somewhat upturned nose–and I make sure to modify the nose to match the character I am re-creating.
Other than that, I don’t do anything except paint them and add a cigarette when needed! Thanks again for looking! [:)]
Mauldin went a skosh further on Willie and Joe and their back-stories… Willie was about ten years older than Joe and had a wife and kid, while Joe was single. Also, IIRC, Willie enlisted, Joe was drafted…
Ok, now your startin’ to concern me, Senojrn…[:D]
Nah, kidding… I just gotta hustle a bit more so I don’t “build a Mauldin” that you’re also workin’ on… Wouldn’t be fair to our “readers” now, would it…[;)]
Tell ya what, I’ll PM you a list of my (actual, not planned) Mauldin WIPs (if that’s ok) and we can compare notes as to who’s hot what on the bench so we don’t duplicate work by accident…
I believe you’re right about the history of Willie & Joe, I recall reading that very same information a while back.
I hope you’re not viewing this as competition between you and I on building these Mauldin-based vignettes. Everybody who reads these cartoons seems to read them or view them a little differently and my work is just my interpretation of Mr. Mauldin’s work–not to mention, I find them fun to build! [:)] That being said, it doesn’t bother me at all if we duplicate work; we each have our own interpretation and our individual way of replicating the cartoon!
Please don’t take this next part the wrong way, but there is only a very small contingent of people who know which Mauldin cartoon I am going to build/am building before I bring it to a Show/Contest or post it online. I do this mostly because of my build process, in addition, to prevent a “competition” atmosphere of “who will finish it first?”. For example, I have two that I started almost two years ago, got disgusted with how they were turning out so I put them on the shelf and just last week pulled them back down for a fresh re-start. And, as it turns out one of them is going back on the shelf for a while for the very same reason…again.[sigh] Does that makes sense?
Plus I would hope that “the readers” wouldn’t mind seeing what each of us has brought to the proverbial table–even if they are the same! I mean, how many times have you gone to a model contest and seen 75 Me-109’s or 23 Sherman or Tiger tanks sitting together in one category? Same plane or same tank just different modelers and each one is unique.
Heh! Don’t sweat it you two! We all enjoy the WIPS and subjects and the talent of Bill Mauldin!
senjorn: I agree with an above post about the viewing perspective. But these two guys were such friends and jokers that they easily saw each other and played out a joke for the heck of it.
More incredible work!!! Great detail all around, love the 5 o’clock shadows…brillant! The Mauldin pieces are getting betting all the time…will be awaiting the next. Keep up your fantastic work.[:D]
