The use of gas in WWI always makes me think of a Wilfred Owen poem They become a perfect icon of the extreme form of mass-mobilised inhumanity which industrialised warfare had brought to the world. There’s something about the facelessness of the figures with their empty, glass goggles dehumanises them, turns them into nightmarish wraiths, staggering out of the poisoned air with blank faces. Whichever type was used, to be gassed was a truly horrible experience.īeing the only set that I know of which depicts troops in gas masks, I think Strelets have done a good job, though I know their sculpting is not to everyone’s tastes. I’ve never forgotten that and maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve steered clear of 20th century conflicts in my work: they’re a little too close to home. He was a victim of gas attack in the war and, although he survived and was invalided home, it seems that both his physical and mental health were broken by his experiences and he tragically ended his days in an asylum. My great-grandfather, Private Harry Bennett, Leicestershire Regt, 1914-18 war. Another reason relates to my own Great Grandfather on my mother’s side Harry Bennett, who enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment. Firstly, it’s the centenary of the beginning of that terrible conflict. In seemed timely to begin these sets for a number of reasons. In particular these are the sets featuring most of the primary combatants in gas masks. One of my little projects on the go is the painting of some WWI Strelets sets.
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