very nice sculpt and paintjob, great face! bill

Pinsel you can be quite a bore sometimes have you ever heard of the saying "if you have nothing positive to say dont say it?" ?

dont attack Marc, and your historical evaluation of every release as this forums self appointed history expert also bores me, your opinions are often not presented as "your humble opinion"

this is just my humble opinion

In my humble opinion this is simply OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!

The sculpting is fantastic as is the painting!!!

Well done Young my friend, another fine addition to the Young Miniatures range!!!!

Carl

What Carl said......x3! Dare I say.......OUTSTANDING!

Jim Patrick

Top marks again on a cracking sculpt and paint, love the facial features

Stu

Exactly.

Agreed.

Einion

Hi
Just want to say I like it .... Well done Young
another outstanding sculpt

Frank

To see an open box review of this kit click here

Very nice, and in my opinion I would like to see what real feathers looked like in this bust.

Let's get this ,did they or didn't they have wings on their helmets sorted.Can anybody disprove that they didn't wear wings,if not then it's up to personal taste as unfortunately i don't think anybody is going to find evidence wether they did or not .
Brian

Was the argument that the wings on the helm were only ceremonial?

If ceremonial, it is still plausible to depict the subject with or without the wings.

Just as if we were to depict a modern US marine in dress blues or field uniform, BOTH would be right, right ?

In my humble opinion; this is a very nicely sculpted piece and painted very nicely. Young is one of the best bust sculptors and painters around--that is in my Humble Opinion of course.

You can certainly prove whether they did, but not the reverse. It can't be proven what didn't exist, because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

As far as I'm aware there is no evidence that Vendel- and Viking-era Scandinavians had winged helmets; and we do know that the image of the winged and horned helmets comes from European woodcuts and engravings, culminating in 19th century illustrations that have become nearly cultural icons the imagery is so ubiquitous.

Einion

This figure is based on an illustration by Angus McBride. He in turn appears to have used the Gundestrup cauldron as a source of inspiration (as does everyone else attempting to reconstruct this period - given that there's almost no other iconographical evidence). This is a cauldron in repousse silver that is dated around the 1st century BC. It is thought to portray various scenes to do with Celtic mythology or ritual. On one of the panels, apparently portraying some kind of warrior initiation ceremony, there is a horseman with what looks like a pair of wings on his helmet. Other warriors on the cauldron have what look like animal figures or antlers:

[Clickable thumbnail]


There's also a famous Celtic helmet from Satu Mare county in modern Romania, dated to the 4th century BC, that has an entire bronze bird complete with hinged flapping sheet bronze wings as a crest. Several of the men on the Gundestrup cauldron wear helmets almost identical to this.

So, given that these peoples very evidently liked animal totems on their helmets, I don't "in my humble oppinion" regard a pair of wings like this, either in natural feathers or - possibly more likely - executed in sheet bronze, as absolutely and totally impossible for a high-ranking Halstatt or Celtic warrior. Given the paucity of the evidence you can't really get any more definite that this.

Einion, this figure is supposed to be from the Halstatt culture of central Europe, so many centuries earlier and removed from the Vendel culture. I'd agree with you in the case of "Vendels" and Vikings, that wings on a helmet are strictly Victorian fantasy.

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