This is a very nice kit. Its cast in 9 resins pieces that are beautifully keyed together. They are broken down as follows: helmet, breastplate, head, stand, shield, feather and 3 straps. The helmet, breastplate and stand all sit right on top of each other and are keyed together very nicely. There is almost no cleanup required with the kit, but you will have to scrape off the usual mold line that runs around the outside of the kit (be very careful around the facial area, you might end up losing some detail here).

The detail on this kit is very nice, especially the face and chain mail. The face has a ton of character to it and was a joy to paint . The rendering of the chain mail was one of the better ones I have seen. The armor looks like it should have a more pronounced break between pieces on the breastplate but this is just a matter of opinion.

The kit came with the typical spartan directions, just one page with no diagrams or pictures. It does list what parts should be what color and is somewhat of a help but you will be using the box art more than anything.

I painted the bust using Windsor & Newton oils paints for the skin tones (this is my first attempt at using oil paints and any comments would be much appreciated) and Gunze-Sangyo Mr. Metal Colors for the armor plate. I used acrylics for everything else.

I first scrubbed all the parts in warm soapy water to get rib of any mould release agent that might have been present, they were then sprayed with Testors White Primer and allowed to dry for 2 days. I painted everything before assembling the kit. I mixed yellow ochre and burnt sienna with a little white and painted this in a heavy coat on the face. This coat was the immediately wiped off with a soft paper towel. This left a slight film of the color over the entire surface with the color heavily concentrated in the crease and shadow areas. I then took a large soft brush and used this to get rid of any brush marks left over by gently brushing from top to bottom across the surface. After this was done I mixed white with a slight bit of yellow ochre and blended this into the highlight areas, gradually building them up. I mixed some cadmium red with the highlight color and blended this into the lower lip and slightly into the cheek area. The eyes were painted the same color as the lower lip and then I blended into the middle of each eye. The head was then set aside to dry.

After the face was dry I went back with raw umber and darkened in some of the extreme shadow areas, mainly around the eyes and ears. The hair was painted using raw umber mixed with burnt sienna.

The armor plate was undercoated with black acrylic paint. After this had dried for a day I brushed on a 50/50 mixture of Iron and Stainless Steel Mr. Metal Color. This was allowed to dry for 3 hours then buffed up using a cloth buffing wheel on a dermal tool set at the lowest speed. This brought the paint to an incredible shine. The armor was then set-aside for 3 days. After 3 days each piece of plate was broadly outlined in Mr. Metal Dark Iron and let stand for 4 hours, this was then buffed using the same method (if you don’t wait the 3 days between colors, when you buff out the dark iron you will end up blending it into the bottom coat and won't see any difference) I also used a very small amount of Mr. Metal Chrome Silver for highlights.

The shield was airbrushed with Brilliant Blue and the white and gold was hand painted. The straps for the shield and helmet were undercoated with Burnt umber Acrylic and painted with cadmium red oil paint along with the leather ties and color on the armor. When everything had dried the kit was glued together. No filler was required, the pieces fit together perfectly.

This is a great kit. Its wonderfully sculpted and cast and went together like a charm. It’s a large kit, standing approx. 6 inches tall if you include the feather and has a ton of character. I would recommend this kit to anyone interested in the period or someone looking for a great piece to practice painting armor, because this kit has a ton of i.

Richard Beauchamp