He's looking really good Ian. For your first metal figure you are doing a bang up job. Careful, they are addictive.
You did a really good job on the leather scales. You could have gotten away with metal though. Bronze was used by the celts throughout europe. Excavations of Halstatt graves dating from roughly 1000 BC near Possou Bavaria and which are assoicated with Urnfield Celt culture yielded beautiful bronze helmets and very decorative bronze breastplates with elaborate repousse work. La Tene period celts also used bronze and iron elements in their armoring techniques. Artefacts found in ceremonial burials/sacrafices in the shallow and marsh areas of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerand yielded several decorative bronze layered shields as well as bronze breastplates and bronze and iron armor pieces.
It is theorized that this bronze armor was influenced by early greek cultures like the Mycanaens. In fact the Romans credit the celts with the development and use of ring armor or mail (mecula) as we know it and a common implement of the roman army.
Since the celts were spread across Europe, into Asia Minor and were even mercenaries in Egypt it is likely they behaved like any other army and equipped themselves as such. Xenophon, Levy, Maurice, all give contemporary descriptions of the military prowess of the celts and in some cases describe their tactics and armor. While the more sensational stories survive of the celts running naked into battle, hair lyed to make them scary looking, painted with wode or wearing only simple wollen or leather armor, archaeological evidence also supports that like other armies they could be equipped similarly with the materials at hand. They are a culture of master smiths and miners and their craft was a commodity that secured trade with other cultures throughout the known world at that period. Just like every medieval soldier was not wearing full white harness in the 14thc. with soldiers donning everything from mail, to leather hauberks to quilted jacks or nothing more than the clothes they were wearing at the time so was there several versions of celtic armor and acoutrement reflecting trends, associative cultures or campaign requirements.
Once he's done, I think yo need to mount him on a nice base to really show off your work and to frame this little art piece. It will be fun to look back on your work later and see how far you progressed from this first.
Eyes are tough and no one has an easy time of doing eyes. A good trick is to paint the right eye first and then the left. This way you don't cross the brush in front of the eye you just painted and they are easier to line up. After you lay in your base coat, paint your eyes as pop eyed as you want and then with a fine brush fill in your eye lids and it will be much easier. Then do your shading and highlights as you see fit.
Good luck.
Mike
"Imagination is the dye that colors our lives"
Marcus Aurellius
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
