The superb relaxed pose is what attracted me to the figure and the potential for an interesting paint job. The casting was very neat and the fit of the parts very good indeed.

The figure presented a challenge as it had to be painted as sub assemblies then constructed. This needed some planning as, for instance, the sword and the figures back and sides really needed to be painted and fitted before the cape, and the cape had to be fitted before the head. The standard has the hands cast on and there are separate arms. The fit of the standard to the arms, and the arms to the body, is very precise and easy to mess up.

After several dry runs I decided to glue the left arm to the body for painting and the right arm to the standard. Everything was painted and then the standard (and arm) offered up as the last job. Fortunately all went well. Maybe I'm all thumbs but it was a real fiddly model. I offer these tips for anybody thinking about painting this figure.

I painted the figure with artists' acrylics except for the chequerboard pattern where I used Andrea acrylics because of their high opacity. The base is made from Milliput with static grass and various bits of dried flower for effect.

Celt Standard Bearer