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I paint small metal and plastic figures and rarely get to play with them. But that is fine with me.

14 May 2021

Dieppe Chaplain J W Foote




 As I was working on the remaining 10 commandos for my WW2 Dieppe Landing army, I realized I had forgotten one very important piece that had yet to be built, a Canadian Army Chaplain! 

I’m not sure just how many chaplains accompanied the troops during the landing, but I am aware of the most famous Canadian Chaplain who was present, Rev. John Weir Foote, the only Canadian chaplain to date to ever have been awarded the Victoria Cross. He received the medal for his tireless dedication to both the wounded and deceased on the beach, even refusing to evacuate when the beach was obviously lost so he could stay with his charges though he would consequently be kept as a POW until the end of the war.

I couldn’t find an actual British Chaplain figure anywhere online, so had to resort to using spare plastic British infantry body parts that I had left over. From the pics I saw online I knew that chaplains required shoulder boards as they kept officer rank and minister’s dog collar as well as an armband with the Red Cross for their medic duties. I tried to sculpt these pieces from green stuff and so they look a bit blobby up close but from arms length they’ll do. 

Here’s a fuzzy pic of the mini with green stuff added. 

And here’s the finished result. Ingame chaplains “can” have a pistol tho I prefer them as being non-combatants so whilst I added the holstered weapon, I only did so for the option. Saying that, my grandfather was a royal naval chaplain and he was a big fan of the idea of blasting an enemy, so maybe not all chaplains are cut from the same cloth!?


And now back to painting those commandos... have I ever mentioned how much I despise batch painting? 

17 comments:

  1. Brilliant! I know an ex-Canadian Army Chaplain that would enjoy seeing this!

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    1. Thanks Jon! I was thinking the same funnily enough :)

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    2. An ex-Canadian Army Chaplain DID enjoy seeing this!

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  2. Excellent work Dai, with a great bit of history thrown in. I think you've done a wonderful rendition of the person

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    1. Thanks Dave, am glad you enjoyed reading about him.

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  3. Great job on the chaplain. He looks the part.
    Despise batch painting??!! That’s my primary painting method. Hush now. 😀

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    1. Thank you Stew!
      No, batch painting is a work of the devil.

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  4. Great stuff Dai! "...so maybe not all chaplains are cut from the same cloth" 😂 brilliant!!

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  5. Great work on him Dai. I think there was just the 1 chaplain that landed with the lads at Dieppe. Not to worry, for me, batch painting is only done at the priming stage. After that its just 2-4 figures at a time. Hence why you won't see me painting Rank & File....hmm wait a sec, I have several boxes of English Civil War...

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    1. Thanks for the confirmation Terry!

      Glad it’s not just me who isn’t fond of batch painting then :)

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  6. What a great looking figure. Kinda reminds me of private Godfry from Dad's Army.

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    1. Cheers Ray. Now you mention it, he bloody does look like him! Don’t think Rev Foote himself was so old looking on the day tho...

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  7. Great looking conversion and painting on your Padre! I quite like batch painting, I find it soothing!
    Best Iain

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    1. Glad you like him Iain.
      Sounds like you and Stew are the same on that then. I hate it.

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  8. You've done a fantastic job on Padre Foote, Dai, an amazing conversion. I hope to see his exploits on the gaming table! Thanks for a great post that made my day!
    n my last posting, I was an instructor at the Canadian Armed Forces Chaplain School, and his medal ribbons, including the scarlet VC ribbon, were in a display case just outside my office, so I would go and look at them whenever I needed the inspiration!
    The barracks of his regiment, the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, here in ON are named after him.
    As for the holster, it's debatable if he would have carried one (I personally don't think he did) but there is some confusion about whether he was armed. There's a story that when his Colonel told him he couldn't come to Dieppe, he threatened that he would ditch his rank, pick up a Bren gun, and get in a landing craft. That story is sometimes distorted as Foote firing a Bren gun on the beach, when in fact all accounts say that he spent his time under fire getting wounded to safety.
    Cheers,
    Mike

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    1. I'm so happy you liked him Mike!
      And everso glad to learn more about him and that you have personal experience with his legacy as well!

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