Wonder why

[nmroberto]

It seems that most of the pilot figures I see are old and pretty hefty, and have a huge walrus moustash.  But  actual photos of the pilots show that they are young, fit, and clean shaven. 

[rhwinter]

Yeh, you're right, nmroberto, at least that's how I feel too. I think that's because our average image of the soldiers of the time is made of comic-strip memories. Especially when it comes to German officers, they're all the Baron von Zitzewitz-type of guy with Monocle and Pickelhaube, or, when it comes to the rank and file, they all seem to be participants in a Kaiser Wilhelm look-alike contest (moustache). It seems that modeling as the attempt of representing a little bit of a past reality seems to end suddenly, when it comes to modeling people: Then we switch from modellers to caricaturists.

[Nigel Jackson]

Hello nmroberto and rhwinter.

It's an interesting point you raise and I think that there can be a danger of caricature in figure design. Yet.......

This is in no way a scientific survey, but having just flicked through a couple of French books I've just bought dealing with aspects of aviation in the earliest months of the war, most of the photographs do indeed show air crew sporting moustaches. As with any cross-section of male society, not all seemed able to grow 'walrus' moustaches. But at least in the early part of the war and in the French air service, moustaches seem to have been very common. I've not checked out other nations.

Maybe as the war progressed fashions changed and average ages dropped. Perhaps the hefty nature of some of the figures represents the attempts by sculptors to convey a sense of the bulky clothing worn to keep warm?

Best wishes
Nigel

[stefanbuss]

My impression is that most pilot figures seem to show older pilots than those who were out at the front actually. But that is no big issue for me, as those "walrus" moustaches can be removed, if need be. I am happy that there are more figures available now (nevertheless I still wait for those WNW secret figures, announced aeonsyears ago).

At the moment I am working on a SSW DIII, using a walrus-pilot, but telling a story that explains how he fits in.

Stefan

[rhwinter]

Looking foreward to your SSW DIII- story, Stefan!

[David 63]

Just a couple of things to consider: first off, believe it or not, because of the photography of the day people looked a bit older than they actually were (I use as an example a photo I saw of Honus Wagner, the baseball player, sitting on a bat. He's probably about 30 but looks much older). Second, moustaches didn't disappear on the front lines until after the first gas attack at Ypres in 1915 (they had to shave to assure that their gas masks would seal to their faces). I'm not certain that mechanics and pilots at airfields needed to worry about gas attacks so the fashion of the moustache might have stuck around awhile longer.
Dave