Hello guys

As we have seen Altores release some very interesting subjects and one of these is the subject of this session of keyboard tapping

The release was announced late last year as always here and in social media

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/altores-studio.81281/

Cheyenne Warrior

Lets have a little bit of background history , a proud warrior race who came into conflict during the 1850's first with settlers after which there was the massacre at Sand Creek in 1864 where the Indians were encamped under the promised protection of Fort Lyon.

US officers led his 700 troops to Sand Creek and positioned them, along with their four howitzers, around the Indian village. Despite the repeated attempts to surrender, the troops slaughtered more than 150 Native American men, women, and children.

After the brutal massacre, the defensive battles against the encroaching white settlers and the U.S. Army increased.

The Cheyenne people were then forced to move to a reservation in Oklahoma, where another skirmish occurred in the early morning hours of November 27, 1868.

After a number of communication break-downs, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in an attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne. Known as the Battle of Washita River, the Indians were legally encamped on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, when more than 100 Cheyenne were killed, mostly women and children. Though Chief Black Kettle had a white flag flying above his teepee, he was killed in the battle.

In the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, the Cheyenne, along with the Lakota Sioux and a small band of Arapaho, annihilated George Armstrong Custer and his troops near the Little Bighorn River. Known as the greatest Native American victory, 262 soldiers died in the battle, while only an estimated 60 Indian warriors were killed.

Following the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the attempts to force the Cheyenne on to a reservation in Indian Territory intensified. In 1877, almost 1,000 Northern Cheyenne were forced to march to Oklahoma, where they found dire conditions and many became ill and died from malaria.

An Executive Order in 1884 created a reservation for the Northern Cheyenne in southeast Montana.

Today the Cheyenne occupy two reservations, one at Tongue River, Montana where some 6,500 people reside. The other reservation, in southwestern Oklahoma is shared with their long time allies, the Arapaho, and consists of about 11,000 members.

Continued in next post

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Lets move forward

Books are to be found , both in the history of the Cheyenne and in the more familiar series from Osprey publishing




Details of what we are opening up :

Title: Cheyenne Warrior

Reference: F-54-024

Scale: 1/30th (54mm)

Material: Gray Resin

No of parts: 19

Sculptor: A. Deyabin ( Rider figure)

Sculptor: S. Zlobov ( Horse )

Box Art; N/A at time of review

Parts were in the white box with a clear picture of the unpainted version on the top , together with the Yellow text that we recognise Altores by .

Parts consist of the rider , 2 arms , chest plate, waist piece, buffalo headdress , 2 pieces for sides of head piece , shield, feather decoration , beaded piece ,, spear , bow and arrows in casing, 2 halves of a horse the head , tail , horse blanket and finally a base.



A lot of parts , I would like to see a small diagram included where the parts go , although looking at the pictures you can see most ...just a small point to think about there for Altores.

Prep

This is very easy to say ....Minimal on all parts with only very small casting plugs to cut off and sand .

When putting the horse together a small amount of filler is needed

The spear might need slight straightening ..easy to do either between the warmth of fingers or a hairdryer!!

The arms fit very nicely in place with well executed plugs and cut out very hard to see the join!!


I will look at just the main figure plus arms in this part with the remaining ones in the next , followed by some pictures .

Main Figure

This is is the rider sat astride the horse looking slightly to the left , upper torso is unclothed , wearing high leggings held up by a tie leading to the waist , around the neck there is a wide beaded decoration.

There is a front piece and at the back cutouts for a rear one above a cutout for the bow case , on the front of the chest there is a cutout to take the chest protection .

Leggings are very nicely sculpted with many delicate hanging strands all the way up each leg side, together with a lined decoration running up the front , at his feet he wears moccasins , again with nice detail , including stitchwork.

The upper torso is bare as said with nice muscular work , facial features are of a shouting warrior , mouth open exposing teeth, eyes are well defined , a corded strap for the headdress goes round his chin , the top of the head is shaped to take the headdress which it does with ease.

Arms are cut off just below the shoulder , the right being raised....perhaps in defiance of the enemay surrounding him



Arms

These are of course in scale , well shaped and well muscled in keeping with the torso , the right is held high ready to take the spear, the left lower ready for the shield



Continued in next post

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Onto the remaining parts

Headdress

This is the buffalo head skin with the horns protruding into the open , very nice bit of casting here ,, well textured on the outside and inside where the movement shows. , a mass of fur hangs down at the back , at the rear there is a cutout for a hanging decoration

One thing to say is that the fit to the actual head and back of torso itself is really very good indeed., no filler needed.



Spear and Bow and Arrow case

The spear is a nice size with a wicked looking point held in place by a group of ties at its base from this there are 2 small feathers hanging naturally , at the middle a hand in sculpted on very nicely worked on the fingers , thumb raised pushing against the shaft, the other fingers wrapped round .
Fit to the arm is another easy thing to do and no filler should be needed

The Bow/Arrow case is a twin set as in the references , beaded and with hanging decoration , all sitting naturally, fit to the torso is achieved by a small cut to shape piece of resin fitting into the cutout on the torso

I would suggest paint these details and fit when the rest is completed.



Shield

This is a rounded shape with a hide covering around the edges , nicely ruffled , in the centre there is a position to put feathers which are separate, on the front there are some well sculpted feathers the surrounding area being blank to put your own design on , fit again is easy .



Remaining parts

All have good details and textures and well cast

The first picture shows the feathers for the shield together with the 2 side hanging pieces for the headdress



This picture shows the loin piece nicely folded and sitting well into a cutout at the back , the next is the chest protection, as you can see really well sculpted looking exactly as in references , tassels are hanging ( note this is not the right way up to ease picture taking using formers, the 3rd is the decoration for the headdress at the back again good beading work .



Horse Blanket

This is perfectly shaped to fit over the horse when together , buffalo skin or maybe something a little softer, the edges are ragged the front top has the material turned back , all the surfaces show really good texture work which is good to se...a lot of thought has gone into the model.



Horse/Head/Tail

The main body is in 2 pieces ,both fitting well together with minimal filler needed , the casting is good with the inside being hollowed out , the muscle work on the animal is excellent , the pose is of a rearing animal the right front leg pulled slightly in the left reaching out.

It is obvious that the movement of the horse has been correctly researched in every respect as we have the "equipment" of a stallion as well!



The head is a lovely bit of work as expected , fit to the body will need a tiny bit of filler , the head is pulled inwards , mouth open as a result the reins pulling , these are roped in type and look really accurate , the mouth itself has the teeth exposed , nostrils flared eyes wide open , ears erct and proud , the mane flys in response to the movement .

The tail is also a good piece the lower part pulled up and tied with a scarf , well defined and with the hair itself well textured.




Base

A long elongated piece of groundwork with small boulders scattered around and also peeking out from the ground , textured , the base is perfectly suitable for purpose.



Final Thoughts

This is another really good subject to release from Altores , its well sculpted and of course the casting is up to other releases , the quality of resin used is very good indeed taking the detail very well, lots of options both in decoration and horse colour ...a distinctive piece and very impressive when built and painted .


It would be nice to see an opponent perhaps a US Cavalry subject

A pleasure to recommend this and the other mounted subjects from Altores

For more details why not look at the website

www.altores.com

or email altoress@mail.ru

Thanks to Altores for the review piece and to you all for looking in

Happy modelling

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Finally lets have some pictures as promised

First the unpainted version



And now some great artwork by

Vladimir Glushenkov

ENJOY



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Ha Ha ...Dashed it you got in before I finished ..LOL

I agree Sergey does do horses very well

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