The figure is from scratch, the horse is converted from a Poste Militaire casting. I really enjoyed the first "Highlander" movie, in which we meet this character the "Kurgan". This was a fun project.

Nicely Done

Bill, I like the figure. It must be fun to do something different for a change.~Gary

That's a really neat figure. I like it a lot. Well Done Bill.
Rob

I really like that one. I loved Highlander , ant that figure has got the feeling

Nice

Costas

Stunning piece! Did you paint the horse in oils? Any shadows and highlights you painted seem very subtle in the photo. Was that your intent?

Ahhh.....another Highlander fan........looks great Bill

Thanks everyone for the input. Steve, in answer to your question about intent, this figure was a real challange to paint. Everything is black, and painting black is not my strong point. This was the first figure that I painted for photography. My friend Dave Harper does a lot of photography and back in the 1990's when I did this figure, he showed me some real effective techniques using Photoshop and lighting to get the desired effects you want in a photograph of the piece.

So basically you let the real lights do your shadow and highlights to the desired level and the photo/image becomes the finished piece. Works great for books or magazine articles.

Dave builds all of his armor models with that in mind, "Build for photography" technique.

Thanks everyone for the input. Steve, in answer to your question about intent, this figure was a real challange to paint. Everything is black, and painting black is not my strong point. This was the first figure that I painted for photography. My friend Dave Harper does a lot of photography and back in the 1990's when I did this figure, he showed me some real effective techniques using Photoshop and lighting to get the desired effects you want in a photograph of the piece.

So basically you let the real lights do your shadow and highlights to the desired level and the photo/image becomes the finished piece. Works great for books or magazine articles.

Dave builds all of his armor models with that in mind, "Build for photography" technique.

Bill

Interesting, that you can paint specifically for photography. I suspected that could be done. When I first saw Bob Letterman's dioramas at VLS in St. Louis I was a bit disappointed, because they looked so much better in photographs. (That's not a slam on BL, just an observation by one much less ambitious and talented!)

So does your horse not have any shadows and highlights? Are you happy with the way it appears in person?

I did paint some subtle hi-lights and shadows, but this is a very tricky and difficult when dealing with soooo much black. In person the piece looks rather dull, but I like the final image.