Leonidas, King of Sparta at the Hot Gates

[Biggus Dickus]

After considerable damage from 3 falls from my desk....a broken drill bit (from drilling into granite) i decided to do it properly and start again. It was clear that i wasn't going to be able to drill into the granite so decided to mold a replacement in green stuff using my "instant mold" it is perfect for this sort of job....and repinned his leg.

pink one on right is in fact a primed piece of granite.

Instant mold with original Rock.

Very pleased with the results, though the Cybershot reveals more detail than my normal Olympus u700.
The flesh tones are more evident in these pictures....but in real life, with the human eye the effect is for nicely toned skin..the camera lens gets in too close!!! I always paint my flesh tones like this on but they have never really come out in such detail before...although like i say it isn't how it actually to my eye.
My faovourite bitis the Shield and i guess his helmet..i wanted the effect of the Shields from the movie "300" and I think i achieved this...it took 3 attempts to get it how i wanted though!!!!

Next up will be his body guard......maybe next week before they are finished.

[Cubster]

I like the movie version I must admit, lovely imagery, and lots of fun.

Very nice, I must get some of that instant mould stuff one day.

[carvel2]

The shield looks great...very rich. Love the rock too...especially seeing how much effort went into making it.
Have you weighted the base?
The cloak is lovely too

[mikeland]

Excellent, good use of the instant mould stuff. He looks very dynamic, rich tones. And the shield is excellent! I wonder if warlord could be persuaded to do a set of embossed spartan shields! Excellent dramatic centre piece to your army!

[Big Al]

Good job, that, BD! I like that rock and the shield is really nice.

[Stuart]

That's a really fantastic figure BD and the shield is great, I dunno if I missed it somewhere but where is the figure from?

[grant]

Terrific stuff - I think the instant mold looks very handy!

[Centurion Dan]

That really is a superb model! A nice shade of red for the cloak and the armour looks battle worn.
I would be tempted to do a larger display base for him when you are not using Leonidas in battle. Maybe a plinth with a few dead persians and immortals scattered around.

[Biggus Dickus]

Thank you again everyone!
The instant mold stuff comes in very handy for things like bases, it is most useful in replicating something as a press on mold......as for a basic two part mold...well I guess that depends what you're trying to replicate...in the video the guy does make a replacement sword...in practice it takes a few goes sometimes but of course you just pop it into hot water to use it again so it doesn't matter if it goes wrong a couple of times. Great for replicating the odd componant that might have broken etc, though i can't say i have ever used it for that purpose, but very useful stuff...especially for my Rock!
I have weighted the base, still not happy with it....i may have to take radical steps, he is still delicate in balance!

I'm glad you all like the shield!!! it would be really good if Warlord produced a range of embossed shields for their Greek range certainly starting with some lovely battered Spartan ones....that way it would be very easy to have different city States represented from the basic box of Greek Hoplites for those that wish to do that.........Athens comes to mind too....it would be much easier to tell the units apart then.....especially the less popular ones Like Argos orThebes! i'm not sure many are actually known but for the few that are,it would be useful...like the Romans they were always fighting each other, so shield blazons are quite important...............it might take a seperate thread to get noticed but it think it would be of great value to Greek Range from a basic conversion stand point.

The cloak was GW Scab red base coat, then several mixes with blood red then all the way up to orange for highlights it doesn't really come across to well in the photo.

Stuart...the figure is by "Tale of War" he is supposed to be 32mm scale, his pose makes him look shorter and he fits in nicely with Crocodile games Spartans (which are 28mm) I cut off his original shield as it was a little on the small side...and added an extra Crocodile games version so he matched all of his men. (I was lucky enough to find a spare in my set)

Anyway, hope it gives you some food for thought on your own greek army.....

[Correus]

Awesome.....