Hi all,

I have been working on this for the last two weeks. The spear, right hand, the sleeve and shield are all scratch built - This is the first time I have sculpted a hand or drapery (the professionals make it look so easy - its bloody not!!!).
I can see some things are not quite right with the hand such as the index knuckle being too big and the little finger being too small...other than that.....

I have adjusted how his helmet sits on his head by dropping it down further at the front.

The painted shield is a design that I found on-line. I think it is from an original, 10th century (but I'm no expert but I am sure some one out there will be) - it is of two dragons fighting. The texture on the shield is achieved with spray mount, as always, painted with Vallejo acrylics.

The silver mount is from El Greco miniatures and cost £7....I like it a lot and definitely recommend it.

Let me know your thoughts, thanks for looking.

Sam B

Great paint!!!

Excellent results Sam!

Looks very nice, Sam!
Love the choosen shield pattern!
Eddy

Great job!!

Ed

That worked out very well Sam. Nice one.

Ron

Brave work taking on a conversion of a bust like this Sam! Turned out really well, bravo.

I like the painting on the face, very naturalistic. It's the best part of it IMO which is saying something since faces are what a lot of painters struggle with most. The yellow in the hair could maybe be taken down a notch

I'm not sure why you textured the shield face because they're likely to have been very smooth (particularly at scale), being painted or stained rawhide, leather or linen. The pattern looks fine to me; being done in flat colours for a sort of stencilled look is probably dead on, and it's likely as complex as they ever got in this period.

Some historical notes on Viking shields for the next time you're doing a Viking or anyone thinking of doing a similar conversion:

Diameter looks a little small; although sizes varied most of the evidence is for them to be large and round.

It should be much much thinner than this. Most of the shields done in commercial miniatures can't be used as reference; as well as being wrong in other details they're invariably way too thick, partly to help them cast well and reliably (on busts it could be that they're reproducing what we're used to in the hobby). The wooden planks of shields could be only 10mm, sometimes even less, in the centre, thinning towards the edge to make them more flexible, and lighter. There's very little evidence for metal channelling to reinforce the edge but if present it would be extremely thin. So the shield edge might only be a bit over 7mm (0.28"), which at 1/9 scale is only .8 of a millimetre (0.03").

Einion

very good paintwork Sam.
I like what you have done.

Marc

Very nice work on the conversion and painting Sam.


Cheers David

Stunning conversion Sam, well done!!!

Sam,
Well done and excellent colours.
Cheers
John

Hi all thanks for taking the time to look and post comments , I'm glad you like him .

Thanks Einion for your comments and help much appreciated .

Sam

It´s a very original conversion.Great quality painting. I love it.

http://www.mininet.tv/egminiatures.html

They're the scratch and the painting which are Great, Sam.
Indeed the body with an arm is lively motion-like.
Your TRY is successful perfectly.
Thank you for showing me a wonderful bust model.
And I congratulate completion.

Mitsutaka.

sam, very nice! he has "that look"! bill

Bill ,Mitsutaka and Eduardo thanks for you comments, Im glad you like him .
Sam