1/24 Dame on Horseback (DONE)

So, what do you call a female knight? Is it still Sir, or Mam, or The Lady XXXXX ? Believe it or not it she is called a Dame versus Sir for males. I ask this as I start assembling the resin bagged kit I got from Asia. Jarrod and I figured we can work on this as part of the Figures Group Build (GB) while also starting another more comprehensive kit.

Here is how it arrived, with no box, instructions, or color callouts.

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And this is what it is suppose to look like once assembled

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The cleaning of the resin pour connections were easy for the most part. There were a couple that were in hard to trim areas and as normal with some resin parts, certain parts were skewed or bent evidently during curing or packaging / shipping. The bent parts were easily straightened by immersing the part in very hot water for 5 minute increments and bending to correct shape.

The details seem crisply molded and mostly clean from imperfections. Even without instructions most the parts had a logical assembly process to them. Because of the need for detail painting Jarrod and I are choosing to leave certain parts off until a later point of the build.

The horse assembled from 6 main parts. The right and left halves of the horse(4 parts) had large open seams that needed filled and shaped. In the photos you can still see a seam in the back of the saddle. It looks worse than it is as the profiles have been matched and filled with CA cement. What little may still remain will be hidden by the figure once mounted. The horse once finished will be mounted on a resin base provided with the kit which will greatly increases its stability. I think we will name the horse Perseus or Legend, what do you think?

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The base is a 5 piece affair showing great terrian detail and some remnants of a previous battle. After straightening the base everything went together easily. A test fit of the horse identified certain contact points that needed minor adjustments. Other than that, the base and horse had no issues.

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The figure was nicely molded and shows great detail. She is made of 6 main parts. Her body had similar seam and gap issues found with the horse and were corrected in the same manner. Jarrod and I have chosen to keep the arms off until all detail painting and sealing are completed. During assembly we identified a large gap in the back, between the hips and upper torso, which we filled and contoured with spare resin block from the mold sprue. Hereā€™s few photos of her at this point. Still not locked into a name but Joan or Gwen sound nice, suggestions?

On the horse:
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With her left arm sitting in position:
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Right arm sitting in position, 1 option:
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The figure as shown in the initial photo can be built holding a flag (colors) or a lance with battle streamers. The flag was severely warped and needed repeated attempts to get it fixed. It is a 2 piece affair with the seam directly on the hard crease. Because of both parts warping differently it cause some problems with assembly even after our attempts to straighten them. Jarrod and I found that attaching the two parts in small segments at a time aided our ability to minimize the seam to a more true and smooth connection. So, this is photos of the Colors and lance:

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In the photo the lance looks slightly bent, we will check it.
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Other items such as the horses reins and small parts will be added after painting. So that is where we are at the moment. Without color charts we still need to figure out what the various choices will be for the flag, streamers, horses armor, figure, horse, etc. Any suggestions would be helpfulā€¦ (THANKS)

Thanks for looking, all comments welcome.

Ben and Jarrod

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Yes, quite. Comes from German, with Herr & Dame (ā€œDAH mehā€).
In Spanish, the common usage is SeƱor y Dama

French is a touch odd as Chevalier is both title and rank; with ChevaliĆØre for a knighted woman.

This gets confused with the honorifics applied to ā€˜ninorā€™ feudal titles, at the level of Esquire and Baronet & Compte (with a tonne of hair-splitting of rank between Viscount, Count, and Baronet). Spanish honorific is Don y DoƱa. Itā€™s all a muddle after a while.

For a name, thereā€™s always CaitrĆ­ona, the Gaelic form of Catharine, or a person could go with Greek Ekatrenia and itā€™s forms.

That looks great!

One of the things that do bug me about AliExpress figures is the lack of any instructions. I can generally figure them out though from test fitting stuff and looking at the photo on the webpage. It can get a little tricky with a half dozen figures in a bag though and youā€™re having to sort though all the arms to see which ones work with which torso.

Thanks Cpt-Mac and Gamera. I always appreciate the knowledge here as it definately helps keep me on track, plus I can learn something in the process. Gamera, I know exactly what you mean the process with multiple figures in one bag.

Now comes the challenge to paint the kit in a manner deserving of the figure. Jarrod and I have done numerous 120mm or 1/16 figures over the past few years but we kind of shy from anything under 1/24. This figure is somewhere between 1/35 and 1/24 and female to boot. We hope we can do her justice. First we needed to figure out what colors are available (at home) versus what we may need to obtain. Along with the paint we needed to determine the order of painting too.

What we know already:

ORDER

  • Base, Horse, Figure, Flag and/or Lance

COLORS

  • Dame will be in armor of silver with gold trim
  • Dames ribbon will be yellow and possible (?)
  • Dames cloth cover will be blue
  • Dames hair either blond
  • horse will be brown with black bottom legs and tail
  • horses armor will match the knights armor
  • horses cloaks will be in blue
  • leaning towards a red flag base
  • saddle will be numerous browns with gold and silver trim
  • streamers on lance and flag will be material red and green

Thats about it so far. Here are some images we are using for inspiration and some colors.

FIGURE:

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HORSE

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Here is some base coat work so far (working mostly on the horse and display base)

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Still trying to come up with some ideas for an image for the shield on the base. Also trying to find something to paint on the streamers (Celtic or Latin perhaps). The silver and gold armor was closely followed by a jade green armor with gold trim and a redhead figure. As with most figures we believe the final details will be what matters.

Thanks for looking and comments always welcome.

Ben and Jarrod

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Mount looks to be modeled after a ā€œshireā€ horse. From memory, the olden recommendation was to bulid up the various colors of horse hair from darkest to lightest, as a series of dry brushes, so as to best rend the depth of color on those very shaggy horses.

As a guess, the horse will be more complicated to paint than its armor.

I wish you luck with this project. Iā€™ll keep tabs on this extraordinary piece. I love the look of the finished product and Iā€™m looking forward to your redition of this beautiful Dame.

Thanks everyone, we are still winging this as far as the base colors. Along with the base and horse, we also started on the flag. We are still leaning towards a yellow sash on the knight, silver armor with gold accents. Not quite sure if we will add any fine fabric details within the blue. Jarrod and I still plan on all sorts of detailing and shading. As for the red flag pole, it was easier to paint it all and we will detail the pole, rings, and eyelets later. One of the challenges ahead will be the gradient shading along with the fine pinstripe of red between the flags border stripes. Please remember that none of this had any shading or details done just yet.

This is what we got so farā€¦ any suggestions?

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Once again, thanks for following along and comments always welcome!

DRUMS01

Looking good guys! I have no advice on the flag since itā€™s better than I could do!

Iā€™d have been tempted to just airbrush the lady and her horse with gloss black and then lay down a coat of Alclad Chrome on the armour. Real armour isnā€™t that shiny but Iā€™ve looked at waaayyy too much fantasy artwork and itā€™s always super shiny there. Then Iā€™d have brush painted everything else.

But since you guys have already started painting Iā€™ll just shut up! [:P] Looks good, you guys have a great start here.

I certainly have no suggestions! What youā€™ve done looks good to me. [:D]

Keep it up!

Gary

I donā€™t have any suggestions either. I think it looks fantastic. Great job in my opinion.

And just when you thought this was gone forever we finally have an update. This will most likely be the last update before the reveal. There are still plenty of touch-ups still needed and then some shading and wear, but this is where Jarrod and I are now:

FLAG (need to touch-up the gold and paint the top of the pole)

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LANCE and STREAMERS (red and green have four different colors and some shading. Still need to add wording or widgets to the battle streamers)

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ARMS and REINS (tested a wash on the reins stiching, looks OK to me so I will add it to the rest. Bottom of flag pole needs finished)

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HORSE (getting there, still need to seal the chrome finish and add wear and dirt as well as detail base more)

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KNIGHT / DAME (shown at the reveal)

Ben and Jarrod

Oh wow great work there on the flag, pennents, and horse barding!

Looking forward to dame knight!!!

Oho!

Hey guys,That is very definitely a very hairy ā€œShire Horseā€. Lots of layers to get him or her right! Did they mold the horse well enough to tell if itā€™s a girl or boy?

The horse came out beautifully, love the authentic heavy metallic look you pulled off on its armor.

Thanks Gamera, Tank-builder, and JoeSMG. I think we are starting to enjoy painting figuresā€¦ though Iā€™m not even close to calling my stuff ā€œgoodā€ yet. I suppose as long as the end meets the means we will continue working them. And to answer the questionā€¦ yes, itā€™s a stallion.

This kit, while looking nice in ā€œgreyā€ was a super challenge. much of the dimensions as well as thickness of materials did not match reality in scale. In the end I was trying to make a realistic figure out of a 1/32 fantasy / game piece, and that can only go so far.

We did gain some experience with wet blending of Vallejo acrylic paints on the horses coat, banners, flag, knights flock, and streamers which I hope we can apply on other kits. Here is the completed model, she will eventually find a spot on a wood base.

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Thanks for following along and for those who responded thanks for supporting the build.

Ben and Jarrod

1 Like

Aha!

Now that you two have done an excellent, believable job on this figure dio how about sumpin else? I am waiting!

Thank you very much Tank-Builder. Iā€™ll let Jarrod know your replies as he enjoys me reading them to him very much.

Though I have a 1/32 helicopter on the block, I am still a little mixed on what I should do next, what do you think it should be (Iā€™m thinking someting big again)?

  • 1/32 CH-54 Tarhe
  • 1/18 AV-8 Harrier
  • 1/16 Das Werks SD.KFZ 251 Hanomag
  • 1/16 Nissan R380 (scratch build)

Help me choose pleaseā€¦

Ben

She came out great! What a colorful display. Well done guys.

I think you guys did a fantastic job. The detailing is great.

Ben:

Thatā€™s not fair! You backed me into a corner. The 1/18 Harrier! When the AV-8-B came out there was an airshow in Little Rock,Ar. The pilot gave rides to V.I.P.s, I lucked out in that I represented the company Designing and Building the New V.A.Hospital. that day. So I got a ride.I never looked back either. Imagine being in this machine while the Pilot "Waltzedā€™ to the ā€œBlue Danubeā€ with another Harrier.

I wasnā€™t official, just happened to be there!