The identity of most of the monthly duelists are hidden, but a tradition has begun in the Mr. X series that Remco aka Dad's Army will supply a unique figure and duel each December. Perhaps December of 2019 will break from this pattern? Who can say.
But for the December 2017 duel, I was supplied with a 28mm white metal drummer. I did not know for certain who my opponent would be, although I had a good idea. I asked Remco to find out anything he could about this figure, but I think he got busy and forgot to write back with an extensive historical study.
Here is the link to the original duel:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=21229
After the duel was over and my entry turned in, I learned that this guy was from North Star Military Figures. He is a 17th Century Dutch Drummer, set number GS05. But before that I had to search through as many images as could be found. In the end, it seemed a black hat with a red jacket would be a likely combination. Then I decided to add the green cuffs and collar to make it a Christmas theme. And for some odd reason I thought it would be fun to give him bright yellow drumsticks.
During the photography process, I dropped the heavy miniature on the ground. I did not notice at the time, since when a plastic figure is dropped, it does not strike with much force. But the paint on his stocking above the shoe is cracked! Luckily the voters did not penalize me to greatly for this problem, and Christmas Drummer was eventually the winner of the duel.
The dueling of 2017 was over, final record six wins, three losses, and three ties. I was excited to reveal my identity to the world, but Remco announced that the 2017 Mr. X would be repeating his duties in 2018, so the world would just have to wait another year for the big reveal.
Speaking of which, I just reread the thread where our forum members tried to guess who was Mr. X in 2017 and 2018. I was extremely flattered to recall that some top notch painters were thrown out as possibilities! One year complete, and it was on to 2018.