I've not painted many things this week, but the main thing that I did paint took a while. Back in White Dwarf 138, there was a unit of Bretonnian knights. Most of them were quite simply painted, but their leader, the Duc de Bordleaux, was converted and had much more complex heraldry.
Being an idiot, I decided to make my own version.
Cutting the horse to rear up was more complex than it ought to have been. Keeping the legs the same length meant that one foot was higher than the other, and I had to raise the model's base with plasticard to keep the horse level (the original model is standing on a tactical rock for the same reason). I then pinned it for stability.
The original GW model has reins made from paper. I always find that paper starts to look tacky very quickly, so I used very thin plastic from a blister pack, twisted into shape.
The only other alteration was the addition of a plastic sword. Somewhere in time, the Duc's (rather small) mace had disappeared. I think that the new sword looks good.
And then I painted him. Ye gods, this was fiddly and slow. I used a brighter blue than GW, to match the rest of my knights, and simplified the paint scheme a little. Otherwise, I tried to stick to the original scheme as much as possible, and it was not easy. I've painted smaller details on the Escher and eldar harlequin models, but all this freehand was tiring, especially since I was trying to duplicate the same images on different parts of the model.
I reached a point where I was just unable to get it any better. I would correct a mistake and, in doing so, make a new one. So this is as good as he's going to get - which isn't bad, to my mind. At the end of the day, I'm pleased with this guy.
Absolutely brilliant work. I do enjoy recreating an old Eavy Metal conversion - brilliant job. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much! This is definitely the most challenging thing I've done for a while. Copying existing work is difficult in itself.
DeleteOh, my, this is brilliant! What a cool conversion, I never dared to do that with the horses, well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks - to be honest, I attempted the conversion work many years ago. I made a pretty iffy job of it back then and now thought that, since the damage was done, I might as well have another try and do it better this time around! It seems Phew!
DeleteBrillaint work and well in keeping with the original!
ReplyDeleteThanks! This was quite a tricky one to make and paint.
DeleteLovely work and impressively y close to the original! Converting a rearing horse from a galloping one is quite tricky but this one works well and fits perfectly with the riders readied strike.
ReplyDeleteThanks! The converting work really should be simple, but it's surprisingly tricky. A lot of pinning was involved. Apparently Renaissance sculptor found making a rearing horse very difficult so that's my excuse!
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