Hi to all ,

Films have often been the inspiration to get sculptors going , so it was nice to see what Pyramid Gaming released and now on their website .

I would like to say my apologies to Black Pyramid and the sculptor for being unable to get round to the review till now ...life !!!!

Its time to take a seat in the front row of the cinema, grab the popcorn ....we are going to enjoy ourselves....and be careful where you put that candyfloss

The thread says trio but I decided to do all in one review as they are all from the same film , they are all available individually of course from the website.

The characters are all from the 1975 film

"The man who would be King"

Starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine ably supported by Saeed Jaffrey and Christopher Plummer, the film is based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling, this adventure film follows the exploits of Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) and Danny Dravot (Sean Connery), English military officers stationed in India. Tired of life as soldiers, the two travel to the isolated land of Kafiristan, where they are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. After a series of misunderstandings, the natives come to believe that Dravot is a god, but he and Carnehan can't keep up their deception forever.

Its a feelgood film and a really enjoyable watch ...I had this in my DVD so just had to watch it !!

Kipling himself is an amazing figure to research with many great books to look at here are a couple

I mentioned the sculptor well we all know him from the forum its Steve Leadley aka Valiant , these releases are a follow on from the same series of from Black Pyramid called Tales from the Raj , the first was Mad Carew also based on a book was reviewed here:

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/mad-carew-from-black-pyramid.72421/watch-confirm

Also in the series is a Gunga Din , reviewed here :

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/gunga-din-from-black-pyramid-gaming.71379/watch-confirm

Details of what we will be looking at :

Title: Daniel Dravot, Peachy Carneham, Private Billy Fish

Series: Tales from The Raj

Reference: RAJ002 , RAJ 003, RAJ 004

Scale: 80mm from base to top of head approx 1/12th

Material: Gray Resin

No of pieces: , 5 in first , 2 in the remaining 2

Sculptor : Steve Leadley ( Valiant on PF)

Prep
This applies to all of the pieces , a small bit of sanding on the undersides then fit the base supplied . On Dravot there is also a arm to fit and his sceptre's into the hand.

That's it all very easy and simple to do

We will look at the resin next

Continued in next post

Nap

Now to the resin

Firstly lets look at The King ...played by Sean Connery with style , he is perfect for the role , consisting of 5 pieces , the torso , the right hand , 2 sceptres and a base.

The Torso , this is a skilled depiction of the character and recognisable as Mr C so well done to Steve , he wears his robes together with a necklace with the all seeing eye on it , the folds on his clothing are nicely worked . Facial features are really like the man great mutton chops on his face with the surface work being done in Steve's style.
The crowning glory literally is the crown , well shaped and in keeping with the item used in the film.



Arm , fitting is easy into the underside of the clothing , fingers are well formed , you will need to drill the hand out a little to fit his badges of office ...the 2 sceptres .

There you have it the bust , which fits onto a nice Base worked as stone with a really nice depiction of the eye again....good chance this to get your painting skill working on the design.

Note the base is the same for all 3 busts

On to the 2nd now played by Michael Caine , a man who knows all the tricks , its good casting for this by the director ,our fine fellow is called Peachy Carneham , a vagabond adventurer for sure.

The pieces is a full Torso with Head wearing the uniform of the day the first thing I think of is what an opportunity for conversion it has to any infantry unit of the period .
He wears the red uniform together with the issue hat , the uniform is buttoned up to the neck , nice collar and epaulettes , these are plain , on his right arm we have the rank of Sgt as shown in the film , these stripes are well formed with good spacing between each . The jacket has been worked slightly pulling where the buttons have been done up , nice bit of undercut on the edge as well .

Facial features , again Steve has done a good job and with careful painting Peachy will come to life , again we see good hair texture .

The Service helmet is the 6 panel version and has a pugree round the base , nice folds here , with the panels being separated by clean edge lines. On the review piece there was a tiny bit of edging missing but easily to fix with putty.



The base is the same as before so the same comments apply .

On to the last but not least bust depicting Private Billy Fish ( a Ghurka) played by Saeed Jaffrey very skilfully giving a great supporting role to the 2 main characters, Billy's role is to interpret and guide the other 2 through the journey , being killed in the end by a mob whilst wielding his razor sharp kukri.

Again this is a single casting and again I think conversion potential , wearing a plain native clothing simple in style , no collar , the arms are showing stitching in the form of a X at regular intervals , these are cleanly worked , decoration on the centre of the clothing is nicely done continuing around the neckline.

On his head we see his cap , again well done with a pompom on the top , looking at his face , yes it looks like the actor for sure , he has a rather fetching moustache , the face showing a good chin line , the hair is long and straggly , strands are well worked.


As said we have the same base

Final Thoughts

A interesting set of subjects, conversion potential on 2 of them and well sculpted , , perhaps some painting suggestion might be an idea but most have access to references and a DVD player to look at the film !!!

Its good to see the inspiration again coming from one of our most respected writers , a nice addition to the display cabinet particularly as a set of 3 and lots of fun to paint as well as being very reasonable in price.

For more from them why not go to their website at:

www.blackpyramid.co.uk


Thanks for the review item and to you all for looking in

Nap

Cheers Steve thanks for pointing that out appreciate it

Nap