Take me to your leader - Contest

right, here's mine (lossely fitted into the criteria)

It's a converted plastic figure, and the subject is (was) certainly a character. And, I suppose he's a "leader". (This bad pun may or may not become clear as you read on)

I finished a unit of my ACW army recently, and my wife commented that one of the figures (holding the horses of the dismounted cavalrymen) looked like my late grandfather.

Ned was a horseman and wrangler all his life, working first down the pit with ponies, then on farms with all manner of working horses from those of his aristocratic employer's hunt to the draft behemoths they call shire horses, with a bit of race horse training thrown in for good measure. Ned had an uncanny ability with animals akin to the horse whisperer, and I remember as a young lad watching him calm a runaway stallion that was about to throw off the daughter of "the major", who had decided to ride this beast. Noone else could get anywhere near, but Granda Ned walked up and put put his hand on its neck and said "How man! Calm doon ya big bugger!", at which point the horse, against all odds, did just that, and the young girl climbed down. Ned saves the day again. Ned was known for most of his life by the name "Danny", which is a North Eastern term for a hard working horse.

Anyway, this is a pic of the man himself, I guess taken sometime in the 40s or 50s;



I decided to make a model of him to send home to my Nana, and used a pack of 20mm 50's railway workers as a basis;



I started off with the figure with the shovel in the bottom right hand corner, and removed the right arm. The figure at bottom left provided the new donor arm, which required the hand to be cut off and repositioned. If you look at the figure directly aboe Mr Shovel, you'll see he has a gaping hole in his chest. All these figures are pretty badly cast, and my donor had a similar gaping hole in his back. So puttied up the hole and gaps ensuing from the limb transplant, then made a few minor alterations to the cap, jacket and face.

This is the end result primed, ready to paint;



I'm still looking for something to use as a base, I'm thinking about one of those small oval picture frames you get. I think it's obvious from the photo, the two figures aren't glued together or anything, just stuck on the cork for the photo. I'll be painting them seperately then basing. (The pony is a soft plastic 20mm From Hat's "Spanish Cavalry" - not the best horse model around, but I didn't want to use any of my acw ones. The tail in particular is particularly bad, but I'm sure cataracht and glaucoma ridden Nana won't mind too much)

Nice idea Pityak! Just one comment though...I can't tell if it's the photo angle or what but the arm resting on the horse's back looks a little too long compared to the other arm by his side...? Could be the photo though.

That sounds the like the sort of thing I'm after Aaron; I had a look in the $2 shop cos they normally have lots of crap novelties that would do the trick, but they seem to have sold out for some reason.

True Stu I hadn't noticed that, although I think it is just down to the photo and a trick of perspective / foreshortening. To be honest I hadn't paid it much attention, just removed the arm from the other figure which is presumably in scale. Then again if you look at the donor figure still on the sprue, his waving arm does look longer than his other arm, but that could be down to the pic too. Who knows, I'm going to play the glaucoma / everything grandson does is wonderful card. again.

Right,Ill be doing a howling banshee exarch then.
And um.....how do you post your pic on the sight?

OK thanks a lot

wow i am impressed and out of the contest in terms of painting!!