Knight of the Plains

Whew!   Am I glad this guy is off the paint table!  My eyes were so blurry from all that painting over the past several days that it was cutting into my cowboy movie viewing!  Now that is something serious!
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I really like this fella.  I'm almost sorry that I didn't make his head more realistically scaled with his body then I could have entered him into some realistic carving categories and maybe stirred up a few ripples on those calm waters.   One thing new on him is the use of horse hair to simulate scalp-locks.  I added two to the shield and hung a couple off the bottom of the bow and arrow case.  I just pinched off a few hanks of hair, wrapped one end with some colored thread and a very small drop of superglue holds it all together.  Oh...I did insert a loop of wire into the middle of each one to give me something to hook on to.  While the ones on the shield are locked into place with a loop of wire the other two swing freely.   All the designs from the vest, shield, leggins and moccasins are taken from research material.  I really like the moccasin design.  For the hawk feathers hanging from the shield I just left the wood natural and painted on the darker stripes.  I fletched the arrows with some very thin aluminum cut from a drink can.  I used my burning pen to cut the small slots on the shafts and then super glued the fletching in place. For the bow string I used a piece of  28 gauge wire .  I gave up on the Tupelo strap across his chest and decided to use a piece of thin leather instead.  It's tight against his body and just looks a lot better than the wood would have.
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Anyway, I sure hope you like him as I really went all out with this one and I look forward to your comments and opinions. Loads of photos in the Gallery.