Lakota Warrior Mounted
120mm resin & metal
The Lost Battalion Miniatures
Sculpter unknown

Last spring while on the phone to The Lost Battalion I asked if they were ever going to re-release the 120mm mounted Sioux warrior. I was told that durring the acquisition of Imperial Gallery the master had been damaged and the kit would not be able to be cast again. I asked what the damage was and found out that the legs of the horse had been broken several times each. I asked Darla to send it to me and I would try to repair the legs so that they could get a couple of castings made and be able to offer this kit again to the hobby. I was able to repair the legs by drilling up into the remaining horse’s leg and using Magic Sculpt re-form and sculpt the leg back down to the hoof of each leg. I delivered the repaired master to Darla at the Tulsa show last June and she stated she would put it into their production schedule for mold making and casting this fall.

A couple of weeks ago I was told The Lost Battalion was going to make a rubber mold of the kit and was sending me all of the Accessories ahead of time so I could get a head start on painting the box art for the figure. The original box art was no longer available thus the kit needed to be re-painted again for the box art as well as a complete painting guide and instructions made for the kit. I remember doing the figure years ago and all that came with the kit was a photo of the front and back. We decided to do a painting guide and with the addition of this sbs, give the painters some help with this involved kit and figure and its construction.

I was able to find 2 photos, courtesey of Military Modelling Magazine that show this figure at a competition years ago. I do not know who painted this version.





Below are the accessories ( feathers, necklace, quiver, arrows, etc ) that I was sent ahead of time and have layed them out in a work tray , after carefully removing any seam lines with an exacto knife and file,( old wooden cigar box ) for spray painting with white primer.



Now they have been sprayed with white primer and are put into a cabinet to dry.



Yesterday I received the main parts of the Lakota Warrior and layed them out to be sure all parts were present and began cleaning the minor seam lines on the horse. The first step will be to construct the horse by attaching the halves, the head and neck and filling any joints with Magic Sculpt. Afterwards I will carefully sand the joints smooth and prepare the horse for priming.

Horse parts:



Figure parts:



Figure torso:



The original base was lost during shipping from Europe to the USA when Darla purchased the Imperial Gallery from Dreamcatcher so I had to make a new kit base to fit the horse once it was finished.



My first step will be the construction of the horse. The seam lines have been removed and now I will take each horse half and sand it. I have previously attached a 8 X 11 sheet of medium sandpaper to my work bench in the garage and will sand the horse halves by doing a figure 8 movement to get each half as smooth and level as possible for the joint area to be as tight as possible.

More photos to follow showing the assembly of the horse.

All questions and comments are welcome


** This kit is NOT available yet and is planned to be released at the 1st of the year **

Guy,

What a great honnour to make the boxart. And you saved it from the trashbin. Great. That is two time honour.
Well i wait and i'm very sure you gonna do justice to this great piece.

marc

Guy, That's a lot of kit there. Strange that they did not approach anyone about repairing the master. It was good of you to step up and do the work.~Gary

Taking each horse half and sanding the joint ares:



I now drill shallow holes into the joint area to create epoxy pegs once the 2 halves are glued together. This gives the 2 halves added stregnth.



Here it shows both horse halves drilled.



I now drill one oposite hoof on each half for pegging later to the base for painting and eventual permanent mounting on the finished base.



Brass Pegs inserted:



Using 2 part 5-minute epoxy I spread the mixed expoy on each half ensuring the holes are filled and let it set until the epoxy becomes tacky.



Epoxy applied to each half



A wide rubber band is carefully wrapped around both halves and I watch and check to make sure the joints all around the horse body are even and flush. The rubber band is cut off with scissors later. I usually let this set up overnight and will go on to the horse's neck and head assembly.



More to follow

All questions welcomed

Thanks Marc - I did not want to see this figure fade away into a manufacturer's closet.

Gary - It is alot of Kit Gary. Darla mentioned sending it to a source for repair. I opened my big mouth and offered to take a look at it as it may save her time going through someone else. In the original kit, the ears were seperate and I went ahead and fastened them to the head for casting this time.

Guy - This is a nifty post! Looks like a great kit and I'm glad you saved it.

I need to put 2x 120mm plastic horse halves together (a Dragon kit). I'm not sure if it would stand up to drilling and epoxy filling like you did it. How about laying thin strips of MS inside the body on one half, then barely gluing the 2 halves together. I can get inside the 2 halves because the head and back bottom legs are separate, so I can take a long tool and tap down the putty inside until flat, smoothing any that comes thru with lotion. Sound like that would work?

How did you like the "How Many Beaver?" post?

All the best,
Dan

Thanks Dan. Your method sounds like it would work and I have done similar assembly like that before. Sometimes we have to improvise as there is no "concret" method and many methods will work.

I thought I commented on your "Beaver" figure. I like the idea and concept and would like to see both the Indian holding the rifle as well as the Mountain Man he is trying to trade with.

Whilst not being a subject that really appeals to me, I am glad that you've been in a position to save this peice from obscurity.

Looks like a real challenge for anyone brave enough! Large areas of fleshtone are never easy to do...

best of luck with it mate

Thanks Anthony. The large flesh areas are tough to do.

Guy - Actually Kenneth is the one that's considering doing the "How Many Beaver" as a figure, not me. That one is a bit beyond my skills! And I agree a mountain man would complete the scene. Maybe if you have a specific mountain man or trader illustration in mind, you could send a pic or whatever to Kenneth. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

All the best,
Dan

Happy Holidays!

While the main horse body parts were setting up and the epoxy curring I drilled the 2 horse heads much in the same way I did the body halves. I then mixed up 2 part epoxy and applied the mix to each part of the head. After setting for a few minutes I joined them and set the 2 joined parts aside to set and cure overnight.





The work base for the horse was selected and holes were drilled to accomadate the brass pegs from 2 of the hoofs and the horse was set onto the base temporilly. This is the base I will use to paint the horse later after assembly.



I have taken a small glob of Orange Tack and tacked the 3 sub assemblies together to get an overall view of the assembled horse. I will not fasten the head / neck to the main body until each sub assembly has been filled and sanded.



Earlier this morning I gave the white primered feathers a wash of burnt unber and set aside to dry.



This is how I hold small parts while part of them are painted. I will use this small clothespin to hold the feathers while I dry brush them white.



Yonight while I watch television I will sand the seam lines of the indian and start the sub assemblies of the indian tomorrow.



All comments / questions are welcomed.

Guy, Nice sbs on the kit assembly, especially the horse. Who knows it could even help sell a few.~Gary

Thanks for the encouragement Gary. Alot of guys starting out in figures have mentioned to me they are greatly intimidated by a large mounted figure and don't know or have a clue as to how to put one together, especially one with hollow halves as the horse has. I hope this can be a guide as to just one way to approach this type of assembly project, regardless of what large kit they are working on or want to try.

Guy, nice step by step and a good looking figure.
I want one.


Cheers
Roc.

Hey Guy, all the photos you took are almost perfect, all on focus !!!
Have you received a pre-xmas tripod gift ? :lol:

Now seriously, great sbs. Natives are not my preferred subject, but seeing a sbs like that is really interesting, you know, like a children seeing a shop window. Even if the sequence may seem obvious for expert modellers, I really enjoy seeing how other people do it.

Luca

Hi Guy,

thx for this nice sbs !!!!
Only you could do this !!! You have such a big heart to save a nice mini like that.
I've never painted 120mm tall. That's scare me, especially horses and human skins...

Hope you enjoy doing that, thx

JP

Guy, do TLB take pre-orders for this one ? ... I want it !

Is there a US Cavalry of the same period in the range as well ?

Guy, Hopefully this will do away with any reservations they may have.~Gary

Thanks for the feedback guys,

Luca - No tri-pod, but propped in many cases to get a steady image. No room for a tri-pod here unless I physically get up and go to another room.

Now that the epoxy has set overnight I have taken Magic Sculp and rolled out a small long roll to fill in the seams of the joints of the horse and set the horse aside for the Magic Sculpt to cure.



Now I swing over to the Indian and work toward getting the indian towards the primer stage. I have again drilled short holes into each body part and do this for every butt joint when attaching resin to resin. A thin coat of epoxy is applied to each part and I wait until the epoxy just starts to set and get sticky and press and align the parts. Its important that you hold the joint until it is hardened ( 5 minutes ).



The Torso is also readied by drilling holes up into where the arm will locate.



Each arm is fastened and the torso and arms are set aside until the joint epoxy cures.



I decided to leave the moccosins right on the sprue since the sprue is real thin and they should come right off after painting the beadwork. I have fastened each Moccosin onto an old paintbrush holder to help in the ease of painting later after priming.



The legs were attached and kept seperated from the upper torso and will be painted seperately and attached after painting. Here the legs sit astride the horse and the torso with arms attached rests on top of the leg assembly for a test fit.





Here the upper torso is spray primed with floquil gray primer.