Well this is a little delayed. The work is going well but very tedious??
This is where I am at at this time. All photo's do not have the final assembled touch up before display.


The groundwork under the horse has been completed before the blanket is assembled as I felt that the ground would not be able to be accessed easily after assembly and is also in the dark shadow area. I have added the tree stump and added extra roots for effect on the front section.





First coats of colour with acrylics.



Here is the final head and the palette







This was for the head colours.





The shield was a side project and this is the Inside. I think that it will be better to fasten the shield to the arm after the reigns are attached to the shield arm.
I came to this conclusion after Pietrro of Pegaso was kind enough to send me photos of the reigns of their demo model that is not shown in the box art. Thank you Pietro.
I am including the photo's here.




That way it should make it easier to attach the reins followed by the shield and you can make sure they do not interfere with the attachment of the shield.

and the shield.




I have found that the tree stump makes a good handle for painting the horse blanket and I am glad That I added it.




Some times you get lucky. This thing is getting HEAVY





The palette for the reds and the golds and the blue oils work.
The reds and blues are straight tube colours to make things easier for touch ups



The acrylic base coat for all of the gold lions and Fluer-de-lis is from Danilo's book

Polycolor Rich gold with one drop of Vallejo Burnt umber to darken the gold a little and then the highlights as per the pallette colours. Polycolor takes some getting used to as it is a GEL? I added one drop of water for mixing the burnt umber and the brush is quite loaded and if you unload it as usual for painting with acrylics then you will not get very much colour gold at all.
I am now used to it and it was a learning experience




I am now working on the Knight and lions and fluer-de-lis are getting very tedious but I am plugging on as I feel I am in the home stretch ????????



This is dirty after the outlining and the next stage on all photo's is the lightening process.







Stirrups.
On the clean up, be careful as I thought that there was a mold line on the straps. It turns out that the sculpters folded the straps around the attachment point to the stirrup and hence the mold line turned out to be the edges of either strap????? Easily seen after priming. Thankfully I found out in time before I smoothed it all off??


The stirrups will be attached after the rider is glued in the saddle and while the glue is soft, to position the legs evenly so the stirrups will fit both legs as the straps should be to the inside of the leg to appear attached to the saddle. This should make it easier to sit the rider in the saddle.

Please excuse the delay as I have been busy and forget to post as I am working on a deadline.

All comments are gratefully accepted and welcomed as usual.
Cheers
John

Turning out beautiful.It's a gigantic and hence a difficult piece(not to mention the intricate heraldics).Very,very nice indeed.

Oda.

This is going to be very impressive when it's finished John, keep going.

Bejeebers, heraldy scares the pants off me....lovely work John, keep the faith going..
Mark D

Good work indeed on a difficoult piece. I'll follow your sbs.

Nice progress so far on a very ambitious and complex project, the heraldry is looking great and I know how tedious and time consuming this can be. looking forward to seeing the finished piece, well done so far

Cheers
Tommi

Wow. Great base and if I had to paint the heraldry I would

That's a task to hold it and paint at the same time.
Lovely paint job, following with interest.

Cracking work John. The handling of the reds of the leather tack and the blues and reds on caparison is particularly impressive.
Thorougly enjoying the SBS....... this is going to be one stunning model
Cheers
Derek

Like what you are doing so far.
Following this with great interest.

Marc

Good painting John. Particullary impressed (very impressed) with the finished heraldic at the horse. Is stunning the result. Likes me a lot. Thanks for the photos of the palette and to note the name of the paints used. I keep them. I paint with acrylic, but for freehands and heraldic i think is easiest to correct doing them with oils.

WOW! As others have mentioned, a truly beautiful piece. Painstaking work.

Cheers
Chris

This is looking great John, looking forward to seeing it finished!

Cheers

Neil

Very nicely done John. The horse caparison looks very nice and a great base to complement it.
John

Eberyone is calling it spot on here John.

I have to disagree with them all, it's better than that.

Imagine them biceps when you have finished

Paul.

Looks wonderful - I can't really add to what everyone else has said already. Fantastic work
Phil

Sincerely....superb work John...totally gobsmacked....your patience has been well rewarded

Ron

Great stuff really liking this.

A really ambitious project looking great so far

Bob

Very nice work John metal finish in particular
Steve