Thursday, December 29, 2016

Old Blood and Guts


There he sat, big as life even at that distance. His hair was silver, his face was pink, his collar and shoulders glittered with more stars than I could count, his fingers sparkled with rings, and an incredible mass of ribbons started around desktop level and spread upward in a flood over his chest to the very top of his shoulder, as if preparing to march down his back too. His face was rugged, with an odd, strangely shapeless outline; his eyes were pale, almost colorless, with a choleric bulge. His small, compressed mouth was sharply downturned at the corners, with a lower lip which suggested a pouting child as much as the no-nonsense martinet. It was a welcome, rather human touch. Beside him, lying in a big chair, was Willie, the bull terrier. If ever a dog was suited to his master this one was. Willie had his beloved boss’s expression and lacked only the ribbons and stars. I stood in that door staring into the four meanest eyes I’d ever seen.

– Bill Mauldin

George S. Patton Jr. was a colorful and controversial military figure who was considered a central figure in the development of American armored warfare doctrine during, and between both world wars.

His peers in the North African Campaign included Montgomery and Rommel, but unlike the later two who have likenesses in plastic, metal, and probably resin, you'd be hard pressed to find a figure representing Patton at all.


I only know of one metal 20mm figure from Sgt Major Miniatures in the General Patton set (GUTS).


The figure is wearing a B-3 bomber jacket, and has a pair of Colt SSAs at his hips. The stars on his helmet are overscale, but can be easily removed if so desired.


A 15mm figure in the General George S. Patton set (Flames of War US885) from Battlefront Miniatures also exists, but the set is only useful because it comes with a figure of Willie which is more suitable for 1/72 scale than 15mm.



I increased the size of the figure a bit to bring it in line with Patton's actual height.


Patton had his flaws (some pretty spectacular ones at that), but I think he was a lot more complex than what detractors or conspiracy theorists make him out to be.

Document everything, leave nothing to chance...
because one day, some cockroach will crawl up
out of the latrine and deny all this ever happened.
God damn them!


4 comments:

Hugh Walter said...

That top photo's brilliant! He's got more 'scrambled-egg' on him than mad King Ludwig, but Patton earned his!

H

EY said...

I like that picture too. I always thought the Bill Maudlin quote used at the start of the post contained a lot of hyperbole, but Patton certainly had enough medals to appear as Maudlin described if he wanted to.

Pete. said...

http://store.lancashiregames.com/test-category/gl02-patten-and-aide.html

Another option for 20mm there.

Cheers,

Pete.

EY said...

Thanks for the link Pete.

Their 20mm WW2 line actually covers a lot of armies that are pretty uncommon. I'll have to find out if they're tall enough to use with 1/72 figures.