OK folks, I have been slow in posting anything lately because I have been on this project for quite some time. I think I ended up with right around 40 hours in this one, I just hope it looks it!

This is the Rhineland La Tene Celt bust from United Empire Miniatures. What a beauty this bust is! Can't say enough good things about the clean cast and superb sculpt. I was attracted to this piece because of the unique linothorax armor and his proud pose. It just stared back at me and said......Jay, go ahead and paint some kinda crazy patterns on me! So I did! Inspired from research I did on period La Tene Celts, I came up with these zoomorphic designs of wild boars for his armor based on a helmet adornment I saw from the period. The back piece is just the head of a boar and is of my own design. I took a little artistic lisence with the patterns, so I made my own design to fit the shape of the back armor. I first sketched the designs on paper. After refining them, I simply rubbed soft lead pencil to the back of the tracing paper and traced them onto the surface using a sharp pencil. the soft lead on the reverse side easily rubs off where you draw to leave the outline of the imge of the boars ready to paint. In my reading I also understand that with some objects they would cover nearly every square centimeter with designs. What the heck, I put period paterning everywhere it would logically and artistically fit! It was a hoot! BTW, all of the scratches I added to the armor are painted on and none are/were scratched or carved on beforehand. I had fun playing with the lighting to try and make them look appropriate. I wanted a not so new, somewhat worn look to the patterning as well, so the patterns are applied with very thin paints and in some areas I let the background color show through to indicate wear.

This guy is a Celt, so I just couldn't resist a bit of tartan, so his shirt got a nice simple, monochromatic plaid to further emphasize his "celt-ness". I almost forgot....I also added the ties at the bottom of the front on the armor with lead foil. Hope you guys like him. Any and all comments are as always appreciated! Thanks for looking,

Jay H.
OKC

Jay, this is excellent!. I love the bore pattern on the jerkin(?).

As my jaw drops down to the floor..........................I can only say WOW Jay. The work you have put into this really shows. Incredible work on his armor and especially the back Boar design.

Jay, extremely well painted, fantastic work.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Roc.

John, Guy,
thanks for the kudos! Guy careful with the jaw, don't break it before Atlanta, we'll do a lot of "jawin'" on the way. It could be a long trip in silence. :lol:

John, the United Empire website refers to his armor as "a uniquely celtic linothorax". It appears to be a design closely resembling that of Greek and Roman designs of earlier periods. They described it as leather in this case. I could find little or no specific information on this particular piece of the bust, but since the box art shows some period designs on it I took that as license to go nuts with the boar pattern. Glad you like it!

Jay H.
OKC

Rocco,
you are too kind! Are you going to Atlanta? I hope to meet some other Planeteers and you are on my list! Thanks again,

Jay H.
OKC

Very good painting once again Jay!
best regards
christos

Absolutely great job my friend !!!!
I really really like this one !!!!

Excellent job Jay !


Cheers
Marcin

Jay, magnificent painting and also beautifully photographed. You must be very pleased with this one.

Roger.

Hi Jay

this bust is much good.
I love the decor of wild boar.

Compliments

Saluti MAB

Hi Jay
Great piece of work my friend the boars design is so realistic and thanks for sharing how you did it
I will file this idea away for another day!
Simple tartan but effective
Cheers

John

Beautiful work Jay. I really like the patterns both on linothorax and his shirt. The eyes are extremely well done too. Way to go my friend.

Xenofon

It is hard to add anything here, a truthly magnificent piece!
Looks great in all aspects.

regards,

Luka

Woow, absolutely fantastic

That's really nice Jay. That pattern looks awesome

Stephen Mallia

Great work Jay. I hadn`t seen this bust before. The eyes are beautiful and the textures so real.
Juan

Hi Jay,

he is looking very nice.. You did a marcellous job on it.

My very best wishes

Bart

magnificent Jay,
Awesome painting.
It is a pleasure for the eye.

Marc

Marc, Patrick, Bart, Juan, Stephen, Luka, Xenofon, John, Mauritzio, Roger, Costas, Christos, Marcin,
I hope I didn't miss anyone! Thanks all for the kind comments! I really got into this piece, doing the patterns was a labor of love for sure! I also appreciate the comments on the eyes, I really worked to try and get them right this time.

Jay H.
OKC