That is some beautiful work on this female knight! Bravo!  

Thanks TigerII we really appreciate it. 

That Dame looks great. All elements of this figure went together well. The color scheme really makes it pop. Nice job.

A USMC Harrier it is then...

Gamera, the bike will be built between our other builds, when there is down time. Though its neat, they did not provide any decals for anything.... will work on that.

Baron, unfortunately I did not paint them, they were decals. Sure wish I coud do them that clean in around 1/32 scale, but the flag was hard enough.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments, I'll share them with Jarrod.

Ben and Jarrod

Outstanding finish!  Did you paint the fleurs-de-Lys by hand?  They look fantastic!

Fantastic work there Ben and Jarrad!!! Love everything about her, the figure, the horse, the armour, the flag, everything looks great! 

Thanks for sharing with us!!! 

The Harrier sounds cool but I'm really looking forward to the German bike! 

Hey Drums!

 Please keep it in Marine markings. I was one of "Uncle Sam's Misguided Children" and I just loved our birds!, Please?

Hey Drums...you had my attn at Dame. 

Beautiful work, sir. Really nice. Keep that on display in a nice case! 

Thanks Keavdog, Lurch, Tank-Builder, and TigerII much appreciated. Well it appears a near unanimous choice on three different forums, the Harrier wins! FYI, it's the Hobby Boss AV-8B Harrier II. The kit markings are for a U.S. Marines, VMA-211, "Ace of Spades" version. Please let me know if you are aware of other decals or stencils that may be available.

A couple other things.... while waiting for the feedback and direction from all of you I began cleaning up and working on another resin kit, this time in around 1/20 scale. It will be something to work on between other builds. If you remember, it looked like this upon arrival.

NOTE: Yes, I did keep those mold protection boxes and I'm sure they can be useful for racks or stands in future builds.





During removal I found that three of the foot pegs on the cycle were broken along with a missing right rear front fender bracing rod. I was able to repair and replace the items without any major fuss. After several hours of careful removal (well over 100 connection points), and very basic assembly, this is how it currently looks.







This ones is going to be an exercise in painting too as everything came assembled on the figure (other than the arms, head, and rifle) and the the motorcycle was three main parts (main chassis, front forks, and exhaust). The mud on the chassis, tires, and boots was a neat feature as well as the good looking base.

And this is how it should look once together.



The other item garnering a response was that people (including TigerII) asked for more detailed (closer) photos of the knight on horseback.















Thanks once again for enjoying the knight on horse build and up next, the "Harrier".

She looks great. I'd like to see some close ups.

Ben: 

       That'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 "Waltzed' to the "Blue Danube" with another Harrier.

        I wasn't official, just happened to be there!

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

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

Thank you very much Tank-Builder. I'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 (I'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 please....

Ben

Aha!

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

Thanks Gamera, Tank-builder, and JoeSMG. I think we are starting to enjoy painting figures... though I'm not even close to calling my stuff "good" yet. I suppose as long as the end meets the means we will continue working them. And to answer the question.. yes, it's a stallion.

This kit, while looking nice in "grey" 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.









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

Ben and Jarrod

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

Oho!

   Hey guys,That is very definitely a very hairy "Shire Horse". Lots of layers to get him or her right! Did they mold the horse well enough to tell if it's a girl or boy?

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

Looking forward to dame knight!!!! 

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)





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



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)



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



KNIGHT / DAME (shown at the reveal) 

Ben and Jarrod

I don't have any suggestions either. I think it looks fantastic. Great job in my opinion.

I certainly have no suggestions!  What you've done looks good to me. 

Keep it up!

Gary

Looking good guys! I have no advice on the flag since it's better than I could do! 

I'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 isn't that shiny but I've looked at waaayyy too much fantasy artwork and it's always super shiny there. Then I'd have brush painted everything else. 

But since you guys have already started painting I'll just shut up!  Looks good, you guys have a great start here.  

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 far.... any suggestions?











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

DRUMS01

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

Mount looks to be modeled after a "shire" 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.

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:





HORSE





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











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

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 you're having to sort though all the arms to see which ones work with which torso. 

DRUMS01

Believe it or not it she is called a Dame versus Sir for males

Yes, quite.  Comes from German, with Herr & Dame ("DAH meh").
In Spanish, the common usage is Señor y Dama

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

This gets confused with the honorifics applied to 'ninor' 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 Doña.  It's all a muddle after a while.

For a name, there's always Caitríona, the Gaelic form of Catharine, or a person could go with Greek Ekatrenia and it's forms.