Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Caparisons - scratch made

No matter how many Strelets medieval cavalry sets I have there´s never enough nags with caparisons to create enough Knights...so....................I´ll create some of my own :-D

Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford. I haven´t found any evidence that he was  at Bannockburn but he fought on Edward´s campaigns so why wouldn´t he have been there? 
The Coat  - of - arms?  Quarterly or and gules in the first a mullet argent all within a bordure indented sable? . Generally the De Vere Coat - of - arms is ; Quarterly or and gules in the first a mullet argent without the  indented border. The bordered Version  turns up in the  roll temp. Ed II



Robert is a conversion from the English Cavalry of Edward I set. (third row , far left the one with the huge axe) Head swop from  the spares box (Zvezda english Knights,) his left arm re-positioned and a mace from Accurate´s   Hundred Years War Knights Of France

How did Robert´s nag get it´s coat? It doesn´t take much, some tissue paper, pair of scissors, craftknife, some PVA and liquid contact glue a pair of scissors and a toothpick.

Simply remove any harness´s, trappings and the Mane. Removing the halter  is fiddly. Cut out three pieces of tissue paper as in the pic. Single ply is best. It´s very thin but with care it won´t tear. The two pieces to the right of the pic go either side of the front of the horse.
Smear any area of the nag that are likely to come into contact with the pieces of tissue paper with watery PVA and attach. This will take a bit of practice but using a toothpick you can move the paper into place. Leave to dry. At this Point don´t try smoothing out any tiny lumps etc. In about half an hour (depending on the thickness of the PVA), it will be possible to do a bit of smoothing but until the glue has set a bit the fibres just tear away.

When the PVA has dried simply drip some liquid plastic cement type glue (I use Revell contacta) onto the tissue..not so that it´s dripping with glue but so that it soaks into all the Areas not covered by the PVA. This may take two coats of glue. When it´s all dried, carefully base paint.