Boer Commando
Here are a couple of photos of my Boer Commando bust. I haven't finished anything in about 4-5 years and the earliest reference I have to starting this bust dates from 2009! As such, I am glad it is finished. There are lots of areas to improve, but it feels good to have finally finished a piece. You can find more images here on my blog:- https://militarymodelling.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/boer-commando-finished/
Ross
Beautifully, done, sir...was always in awe of someone who had a talent for figure painting (unlike myself). Welcome to the forum.
Thank you, Craig.
Skillful work Ross - excellent result!
Thank you, David.
First time that I see a bust/figure of Boer "guerilla fighter" from the Anglo-Boer War / South African War 1899 - 1902. This ugly colonial conflict fought by the mighty British Empire against the Independent ZAR and OFS Republics had a true international flavour as it saw men and women from Australia, Russia, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Irish Americans, Dutch, French and Germans fight on either Boer or British side. Boers were tenacious fighters who were descendants from Dutch, French Hugenots and German/Scandanavian stock. Early in the war they defeated the British in a number of key battles and besieged some key towns in the British controlled Cape Colony and Natal Colony. The British in the end resorted to a scorched earth policy whereby farms were pillaged, burned to the ground, livestock killed and boer families incarcerated in concentration camps in which 26 000 boer women and children died. The number of African farm labourers that were also put in concentration camps suffered far more deaths. Estimates go as high as 78 000. The war was prolonged till 1902 due to large numbers of "bitterenders" fighting a guerilla war against the British. Winston Churchill was captured by the boers whilst serving as a war correspondent in Natal. He eventually escaped but struck a life-long friendship with boer General Jan Christiaan Smuts, who served on Churchill's WW II war cabinet. This bust is an excellent representation of the typical Boer Commando or Bitterender. Deneys Reitz and Christiaan de Wet being the best commando leaders of the war. The creation of the British Commando force during WW II was influenced by the behind enemy lines tactics of the Boer Commandos.