Life Miniatures release Joachim Peiper bust in 1/10 scale

 Sang-Eon Lee’s new company Life Miniatures has releases a photo-realistic large scale (1/10^th) bust of the controversial figure of Joachim "Jochen" Peiper. SS man and tank commander – the man trialed and convicted for the “Malmédy Massacre”. Well we will cut past these other considerations and show you this bust bare and also with some pictures - l ike the one i found (above), and as a treat we will see the completed bust – painted by Sang-Eon Lee himself…

July/ August release from Life Miniatures

Joachim Peiper 1/10 scale - resin bust, consisting of six parts

A little about the subject of the sculpt..

Joachim "Jochen" Peiper was born in 1915 and lived until1976. From early beginnings as a hard man and early member of the SS organization he rose to the height of SS Lt. Colonel (SS-Standartenführer) in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, and at one time was adjutant to the leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler from April 1938 to August 1941. Peiper was best known for leading the section of “Kampfgrüppe Peiper” which spearheaded the assault in the Ardennes in 1944 - commonly known as “The Battle of the Bulge”

By the end of his military career in 1945, Peiper was the youngest regimental colonel in the Waffen-SS, holding the rank of SS-Standartenführer. An intelligent man and well read – Peiper had many friends in the Nazi party but was never himself a member. Although he doubted the success of the Ardennes plan he led one of the vanguard units in the attack.

During the Attack in the Ardennes one of Peiper’s units murdered some 84 POWs who had surrendered to one of his battle group. Although Peiper himself was not present at the time of the killings no and no one has come forward to say that Peiper ordered the massacre he was at the infamous cross-roads prior to the incident and was hunted by the allies as the man in command of the unit after the war. He was eventually convicted of the Malmédy massacre, but his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence. Years later after release Peiper retired to France. He was killed in 1976 when his home was bombarded by communist party members who set his house on fire with Molotov cocktails. It will never be known if he did command the actions of the massacre – and because of the contradictions of his character he has become an enigma with WWII historians and modellers.

This picture of Peiper actually isn't - although many people associate this with him they were actually these are just members of the 1st SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion from Kampfgrüppe Knittel in a staged photo.

The figure of Joachim Peiper is sculpted by Jun-Sik Ahn and consists of six pieces of resin.  One - the stalk or stand the at the bust sits on, one part of the torso – with a neck socket that the head sits in and makes sure the face and head is in correct alignment. Field glasses and their attachments sit on his chest and a crushed rumpled officer’s cap round out the figure’s almost trademark likeness of the man.

You can see here in the pictures the wrapping around his field glasses just like in this picture – the likeness and skill of sculpting is really impressive.

The figure was painted by Sang-Eon Lee and you can see the potential of the kit in this work by the master. Shades of skin and clothing here are done just right and not over contrasted – this gives a natural feeling and brings out the finesse of the work of the sculptor – excellent work!!

This sculpt is available from the 6th August -  just visit Sang-Eon Lee’s blog http://hecklerkoch.blog.me/  to see the list of Life Miniatures worldwide dealers.