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Review Alexander the Great from Linjo Models

Discussion in 'Reviews , Video Reviews and Open Book' started by Nap, Jul 25, 2011.

  1. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Hi Guys ,
    Its always good for the postman to knock on my door as he is delivering models of all description , I received a parcel from Linjo models recently containing several boxes .

    Now I am sure you all know that Linjo's name runs alongside the word quality , would I be dissapointed in this review ...we shall see but firstly whats the subject .....

    Alexander the Great .....probably the most famous commander in Ancient times , he was Alexander III of Macedonia and by the age of 30 had created one of the largest empires from the Ionion sea stretching to the Himalayas .

    It is recorded that he was undefeated in battle born in Pella in 356 BC , schooled by Aristotle in his youth succeeding his father after he was assasinated

    When Alexander was 10 he purchased a horse that refused to be mounted (due to being scared of its own shadow) , he tamed it and called it Bucephalas or "Ox Head" which remained with Alexander till it died aged 30 , in honour he named a city after the horse called Bucephala


    In 334 BC he invaded Asia Minor which was the start of a 10 year campaign , overthrowing the Persian King Darius III at the end of this period the Macedonian Empire had grown from the Adriatic to the Indus.

    In 326 BC he invaded India but was forced back after a mutiny by his own troops .

    3 years later he was dead , dying at Babylon in 323 BC leaving an empire that after his death was torn apart by a series of civil wars


    Why "the Great" , simply as stated he was never defeated despite being outnumbered in many battles , his use of stratagy and terrain , the deployment of his phalanx and cavalry , he was a soldiers leader , inspirational , with his troops being loyal . He mastered the phalanx use of the 6 metre spear known as the sarissa , this is noted by historians at every mention of his name.

    He led from the front being in the thick of the action at all times ,a leader among leaders and whose legacy is still studied by military colleges and historians today.

    He has been the subject of many films and books and studies in the past and no doubt will be in the future

    Continued in next post:

    Nap

    Attached Files:

    pipetrepid likes this.
  2. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Whats in the box I hear you say .........

    Subject Title: Alexander the Great

    Scale : 200mm

    Material : Resin

    Reference Number : LJ 20006

    Sculptor : Chunmei Zhou

    Box Art : Hongwei Qin


    Before opening the box I noticed that Linjo have reworked the packaging , now coming with a really glossy picture on it , with the details in a different layout ..a good improvement making the box even more eyecatching .

    On opening up this review model which is as before packed in a extremely strong cardboard box , a distinctive black with a full colour picture on the front of a painted model , colour representation being very clear and great reference.

    On opening the box up I found that all the box consisted of 7 pieces (cast in a cream resin) which is safely kept in place as normal for Linjo by pieces of foam ....no broken parts to worry about from Linjo .

    The pieces in the box consisting of the torso , the head , the helmet crest , the base and secure in a bag the helmet post and the feathers .

    Continued in next post:

    Nap

    Attached Files:

  3. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Starting out now with the torso:

    This is sculpted very nicely wearing a cape and the cuirass , shoulder pieces are also well sculpted and finely detailsed.

    The cuirass he is wearing is called a linothorax, this linen armor thrived as a form of body protection for nearly 1,000 years, and was used by a wide variety of ancient Mediterranean civilizations.

    Details are 1st class from the sculpt of Medussa on the front to the ties holding the shoulder pieces being of particular note in addition to this the rear neck guard is well represented (this is not a casting plug ..so keep the snips away !!!) .

    Overall the sculpting has been done extremely well as has the casting with only 1 casting plug to remove ..as usual this is easily done , the undersides of the torso are super smooth , there is a female locating area in the base of the neck ready for the head to fit in the correct place ..another good idea from Linjo ..all helping the modeller.

    He has a cloak secured with a round clasp (nice detail on this) , folds are smoothly done .

    Everything about this casting is making me enjoying the review so I look forward to the painting .

    Continued in next post:

    Nap

    Attached Files:

  4. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Looking next at the helmet he is wearing :

    Alexander has the helmet as depicted on the Alexander sarcophagus, in the form of a lion the symbol of Hercules .

    I one word the detailing is SUPERB particularly on the rear deopicting the mane of a lion , the research carried out must have been really exhaustive , he has cheek pieces as part of the helmet , undercuts are well done and well defined , I particularly am impressed by the area where the helmet meets the face .

    In my opinion facial detaisl are again very good indeed , looking through all my references and I am pleased that Linjo has not thought about modern day films in depicting the face . The neck muscles are well sculpted as well , there is a casting plug to remove which runs from the base of the neck up the side and onto the base of the helmet itself ..so be very careful and do not go wild with the snips !!!

    On the top there are 3 locating holes , one for the crest post and the 2 feathers...more in the next post on these .

    Continued in next post:

    Nap

    Attached Files:

  5. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    On now to the final pieces , the crest and post, feathers and the base itself .

    Looking at the crest , in keeping with all my references and spectacular to say the least it is depicted as horse hair , some documents say red others say white ..the choice is yours I feel , the box art shows red ...very striking indeed .

    There is a casting plug which must be very carefully removed from the top of the crest , there might be a little bit of rework with the modelling putty if you are too harsh when doing this so be careful folks .

    Detailing is as expected great finely done with the flowing lower piece looking very natural indeed , at the base of the crest is an area which has some nice decoration on it . supllied in the kit is a post this is designed to be secured underneath this area and then into the pr formed hole in the top of the helmet ...this will providing you are careful be secure but knowing what I am like I suggest replacing this post with a brass rod suitably pinned , making it more secure .

    Once fitted the crest is a wonderful finial to a spectacular helmet and will provide many hours of painting.

    Looking at the feathers now , as these are lighter , I feel that providing you drill out the helmet area this will be more than secure enough . the details that have been sculpted on the feathers are really well done , plenty of chance to dry brush to bring out all the detail ....some might want to actually replace the cast feathers with real scaled ones of course .

    The base provided is the standard pedestal one as with other kits from Linjo , it is more than sufficient but I would change it for a brass rod when its goes in my display cabinet .

    Continued in next post:

    Nap

    Attached Files:

  6. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Hi Guys now my final thoughts:


    Conclusion:
    This is one of the earlier releases from Linjo and even at this stage it shouts QUALITY they are a company which has built up a very respected following both in the areas of presentation and subject matter which is always interesting .

    I have no doubt it might be compared with models from others of this type but IMO this is an excellent version and its good to see the helmet so beautifully done

    There are a couple of area's that you need to be careful in , the crest and removing the casting plugs on the neck but nothing too much I woudl like to see a bigger base as well perhas with some detail on it (imagine a larger pedastal with a cast representation of a coin depicting Alexander)

    This model will challenge the painter in the whites and the metallics and if like me provide hours of fun researching as well as giving you a display model to be proud of .

    Thanks to Linjo for the review model and WELL DONE..another great bust


    Put Linjo in your favourites on your PC

    Highly recommended indeed .

    In the UK it can be got from El Greco of course at a cost of £30 plus shipping

    Note El Greco are the sole distributor in UK

    Phone: +44 (0)1280 840364

    Email: info@elgrecominiatures.co.uk

    Home Page: http://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk


    or direct via the Linjo website at www.linjomodels.com or contact them by e mail at linjomodles@sina.com



    Nap
    DaveCox and Tommi like this.
  7. Tommi A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Thanks for the review Nap, looks a clean cast and well detailed piece, anothe one to add to the ever growing list:p

    Cheers
    Tommi
    kaz6120 likes this.
  8. pmfs A Fixture

    Country:
    Portugal
    Much appreciated!!!

    Thank you Kevin, our community is thankful to guys like you.(y)
    Those Linjo works fascinate me, someday I will paint one for sure.
  9. Archelaos Active Member

    Country:
    Poland
    This bust is definitely great in terms of sculptor's skill, but I have to disagree about research. This is essentially Alexander from the film, and as such it is excellent.

    Though if we would like to compare to the ancient art, we will see that many things are just not right:

    Medusa resembles nothing known from ancient period, especially art style of Medusa depictions from fourth century BC and Hellenistic period.

    Armour for the film, and so of the figure, is based on the Alexander's Mosaic from House of the Faun in Pompeii, but is heavily simplified (for whatever reason, I can't see any), and look more like something made for low-medium level phalanx officer, not a king.

    The helmet - it is again film helmet, not sarcophagus one - especially compare cheek protectors.

    Remember though that above points are strictly from historical accuracy point of view.
    I have to admit that I show film's Alexander to students as typical hollywood work that, for whatever reason, claims to be accurate, but shows a strange manner of people making costumes and decoratins to change details even if they are given direct image to follow (in this case Alexander's Mosaic and Sarcophagus)
  10. pipetrepid Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    another great subject! thanks for the review, kevin. bill

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