Okay so I tweaked the muscles on the neck and repainted the area again. I've added the rein and some extra feather decorations to this and tied into the base of the tail. The final work on the horse was deciding what painted decorations to add.
For a hunting horse these would be painted by the warriors wife, mother or other female relation. (For war horses the men decorated the horse themselves)
I eventually settled on a sun of happiness which brings good luck and fine weather on the neck, circles of vision around both eyes and a jagged fence around the neck to keep good luck from escaping. Lots of other things which could have been added but I decided that was sufficient apart from the red mark on the right rear leg highlighting an old scar.

So eight legs done and just two more left . . . .

Thanks o busty one

I think you are right about the scar. (There was a scratch in the resin which showed up after painting so I thought I'd take advantage to add a little extra story)
I may lose it all together though since I don't like the way it photographs and folks might think I'd just splashed a bit of paint there by mistake . . .

Toodlepip
Paul

Absolutely super work on both animals Paul, I love the Bison's colouring.

Geoff

Trying to confuse me with those big words eh? I'll have a ponder about what to do with it . . .

Thank you Geoff. I was pleased with the Bison too

Cheers
Paul

That's a fantastic horse you've painted there, Paul. As Nap says above, by opening up the eyes you've really created an impression of speed & incredible stress for the animal, & it looks genuinely frightened by its proximity to the bison.

Thank you Chris - appreciate the comment
(Holding the two animals next to each other you get a really good impression of the size difference and I'd bet my eye's would be pretty wide being near to a bison too)
Cheers for now
Paul

Superb looking horse Paul.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thanks Andrew

Moving on to the last couple of legs.
Not a great picture, but gives you some idea. Both legs were cut behind the knee and swung forward slightly so the rider is better in balance. The resultant gaps were filled with magic sculpt and the fringing along the outside re-made. I carved away the loincloth under the rider and remade it with Duro and then whilst it was still soft pushed him onto the saddle blanket to get a nice fit. The moulded arrows were removed from the quiver and it was hollowed out (I'll make some new ones later with three fletchings rather than the two moulded onto the kit arrows) The moulded quiver strap was also removed and a new one cut from some lead foil.
Some of the muscles needed a bit of work, but look okay after a bit of sanding and I managed to snap off the bottom half of the bow just after I took this photo I'll soon have that re-attached though
Cheers for now
Paul

Getting up early and painting late in the day I've made some progress on this fella.
Still some work to be done on the skin and lots of details, but should give you the idea of how he's shaping up

Cheers for now
Paul

There is a lot of skin there mate, no lace details or buttons.
Very nice painting btw

Cheers mate

I've found with these large areas you just have to take your time. I'll block in the colours with rough highlights and shadows then let it dry overnight. I'll refine it in the next session using similar colours but pushing the contrast a bit and probably have another couple of goes using some glaze medium to slow the drying time down a bit. (I also paint the face as a separate item) It took a long time to get a skin colour I was happy with to start off with - this one is based on the paintings of Frank McCarthy.

Lots of fun painting the beads on the moccasins although I don't think these turned down top style moccasins were used they add a bit of interest so I've left them as cast. I've got some more bead work on the quiver and bow case as well as a knife scabbard on his hip, but other than that it's pretty much skin and hide

Toodlepip
Paul

A continued WOW! from me on your progress with this one Paul - great flesh painting on the hunter.

Thank you Chris and Kev

Washing your hair K. I'll forgive you just this once but I expect you to be watching closely over the next couple of days when I'll be struggling to make arrows form acupuncture needles (At least I can fudge the ones in the quiver since they'll only need to be the feathered ends)

No body art on this fella just plenty of bare skin.
Also I found that it was strange in all the photo's I saw that there was very little facial hair. Digging a little deeper it appears that this lack was down to genetics and that what little hair appeared was usually plucked which included the eyebrows! There's a fabulous picture in one of the Osprey books (I think about East coast tribes) of a warrior with a huge painted (tattooed? moustache) which reminded me of the young hussar recruits having horse hair false moustaches glued on The stuff you find out . . . .

Anyway enough of hairiness I've just started to put together the base for this little lot which I've kept as small as possible so expect hooves to be flying . . .

Toodlepip
Paul

Fabulous work as usual Paul.
I am in awe.

Bill

Well instead of getting on with what I should have been doing (ie work) I've been finishing up this little group. The arrows are made from Acupuncture needles with paper fletchings. The bow string is probably a bit fine but I wanted to try some rigging thread which is elasticated (works very well)
I got rid of the painted 'scar' on the rear of the horse and there were a few other tweaks here and there - I decided that I had to leave it alone before I took it too far . . . .

The wooden base is one of Oakwood's finest which I'd already bought for this group and the groundwork was my usual mix of stuff based on some photo's of the great plains.

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll post some other photo's in the completed thread

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement
Paul

Thats a fantastic finish Paul, superb!