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Scythian King

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by DaddyO, Oct 13, 2020.

  1. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Evening all - hope you are all keeping safe and well :)

    Whilst drawing to the close on another figure (which I'll post later when it's all finished) I started to browse the grey army for something else . . .

    I came across the 54mm Art Girona Scythian King which I bought at the last BMSS show. I've picked it up a few times, but not really made any effort to get started on it. Nicely cast, but there's no horse!

    The Scythians were one of the first great 'Horse nations' so putting a figure of one of their most famous kings on a base without one was a big no no IMO:D
    The figure is dressed in armour which appears reconstructed from the finds at the royal barrow of Tolstaya Moglia and there's a great illustration by Angus McBride of the same costume (although without the helmet) in the Osprey book 'The Scythians'

    For those who don't know already the Scythian 'empire' lasted around 400 years from 700 - 300 BC, but such was the influence that a thousand years later the area which they came from (around the northern area of the Black Sea region) was still known as 'Greater Scythia'. They eventually came to dominate large areas of what used to be the Soviet Union
    The size of the empire was very difficult to pin down since the whole of the adult population, which included a large number of women, fought on campaign. King Ariantes ordered every Scythian to bring an arrowhead and so many were collected that a bronze vessel was cast which apparently contained 600 amphorae and the walls were 6 fingers thick (so quite a few!);)

    The Scythians defeated all their contemporaries including Assyria, Babylonia, Media and Persia.

    Having wetted your appetite it's on to the figure
    'Our' King wears beautiful gold chased decorations on his armour made by the finest Greek metalworkers to Scythian design and his horse will definitely need a bit of bling too. I decided to concentrate on the horse to start with which will be based on a Historex steed, but modified to come closer to the type of horse of the period so it's out with the razor saw and putty to do a 'Dr Frankinstein'
    Here's a couple of photo's showing the standard kit and a few references
    Cheers for now
    Paul
    Atheas Scythian King.jpg Scythians refernce.jpg
  2. KenBoyle PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-States
    Very nice idea Paul! I look forward to your progress. (y)

    Cheers,
    Ken
    DaddyO likes this.
  3. clrsgt A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Great idea. You are going to have your hands full creating all the horse furniture. Will be following
    DaddyO likes this.
  4. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Thank you gents :)
    KenBoyle likes this.
  5. DEL A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Nice one. Reminds me of the way Bill Ottimger would take a standing figure and rework a horse to take the piece to a whole new level.
    Really interested to see how things progress (y)
    Cheers
    Derek
    DaddyO likes this.
  6. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Hi Leggy

    That's a change of period for you .....and 6 (SIX!!!!!) legs

    Look forward to the figure painting as always and how you go with the horse .plenty of details to add

    Good background on the period as well

    Following with interest

    Happy benchtime

    Busty
    Oda and DaddyO like this.
  7. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Cheers Busty

    I wondered if that number of legs might scare you away :ROFLMAO:
    Glad you like the historical bit - One of the reasons I enjoy the hobby is finding out all this sort of stuff and motivated by your reviews (which cover a lot of background) I thought I'd add a bit of colour rather than just dive in with the building. (After all the inspiration is the part which keeps me going when things get tricky)

    The whole subject of ancient horses is an area of particular interest to me and I was always inspired by Peter Wilcox's figures when I was first 'into' figures so I guess nothing changes

    Toodlepip
    Leggy
    Nap likes this.
  8. JABERWOCKY Active Member

    hi paul, great subject , there arent that many scythian figures around but , the ones that are ,are very nice.look forward to seeing the finished project, all the best,
    brett
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  9. Airkid A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    That should keep you busy for a day or two! I like the idea and that AG figure is very nice. I think Romeo may do a Scythian too. I will watch progress on this one with interest.
    Is it just me or do most of McBride's horses look like "My Little Pony" ? (not that I had one, you understand:rolleyes:)

    Phil
    DaddyO and Nap like this.
  10. Viking Bob PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    This will keep you busy Paul. Nice change of period too. Looking forward to what you do and take no notice of Nap he can't see legs.
    DaddyO and Nap like this.
  11. grasshopper A Fixture

    Country:
    Canada
    There is a film out produced in the region Tomiris..worth watching as seems well made wrt authenticity
    Nap likes this.
  12. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Thanks guys - looking forward to plugging away at this one. Hope to have some work done on the horse at the weekend.
    Hi Brett - strange that there's not more about. Alive Miniatures have done a few recently which look good, but I prefer slightly less dramatic poses generally (The mounted king is a beaut though and definitely one I'd like)(y)

    Hi Phil. Given my usual habit of having several projects on the go at once you're probably right about that:p There is a Pegaso one for sure (which I think is on special offer at Historex at the moment) I can't remember a Romeo one, but then that's nothing new. I'm sure you would have had lots of fun with a MLP if you had one ;)

    Hi Bob - you know me mate I like to flit about, but I keep coming back to these ancients where there's lots of freedom of interpretation.
    Interesting to notice the similarities between the Scythian culture and the Plains Indians which I've taken an interest in recently. Both great horse nations (albeit the Native Americans horse period was comparatively short) with some similarities in custom, very beautiful artistic artifacts and a mainly oral history.
    (I'm hoping that my dabbling in busts will tempt Kev down the path of legs maybe?):whistle:

    Cheers for now
    Paul
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  13. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    "down the path of legs" .........

    Oh how you wish Oh Leggy Paul and Bob

    Happy painting ...your using more paint up with legs ......LOL

    Busty
    DaddyO likes this.
  14. Viking Bob PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom

    If you want Nap I will send you the extra paint!
    DaddyO and Nap like this.
  15. Oda A Fixture

    I love everything about this.The idea,the subject,the figures involved.Everything!The illustrattion by the late Great Angus has proved to be very inspirational indeed.Adriano Laruccia used it to produce a similar looking figure for Pegaso some years ago and so has Alive History miniatures only too recently.Speaking of Alive History,one of my favorite Russian manufacturers,they have produced a Scythian King-wearing all the accoutrements and carrying all the weapons of the figure you have chosen to paint- mounted on his horse.I attach a picture for reference and I will follow your work with interest.Please post as many pics as you can of the process.

    Oda. _dsc7876s__sized_l.jpg
  16. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Thanks for that Oda - That's exactly the figure I was thinking of in an earlier comment(y)
    Oda and Nap like this.
  17. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Okay so first off the horse - cleaned off mould lines and stuck bits together (I added some scraps of Historex base to 'pad' out the body of the horse) and re-sculpted the neck using Magic Sculpt. All pretty straightforward stuff really:)
    Most of the time has been spent sorting out the head and face. All existing bridle work was scraped off. Then I sharpened the detail on the nose, eyes and ears with a scalpel and added some more detail to the lips and chin area using MS putty. (This was the second head since I managed to mess up the first; good job I had a few spare heads);)

    Toodlepip
    Paul
    Horse face.jpg
    KenBoyle, MattMcK., Blind Pew and 6 others like this.
  18. Oda A Fixture

    Looking good so far.All you modifications and additions are blended smoothly to the existing figure.Very good start.

    Oda.
    Viking Bob and DaddyO like this.
  19. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Hi Oh Leggy one

    You are a little clever fellow ........as Oda says nice putty blending there

    Think I read somewhere about the Historex horses being thin generally

    Carry on young 'un

    Look forward to more ....this is going to be good ...even with the legs ...lol

    Happy benchtime

    Nap
    Oda and DaddyO like this.
  20. Chris Oldfield A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    You've really aced that horse, Paul. I really enjoy seeing some of the conversion work done to Historex (& Airfix) horses, comes from reading Bill Ottinger's book & some of the incredible work Sid Horton did with Airfix horses in his Charge of the Light Brigade series for Airfix Magazine in the 1970s.
    Airkid, DaddyO and Nap like this.

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