Sunday, January 7, 2018

'Flight' from Millsy: Castasus Captain on Pegasus


My submission for the Flight Bonus Round is an addition to my Warhammer Fantasy Empire army. As you can see it's a hero mounted on a pegasus, oft times referred to as a "captasus" by the Warhammer community, an odd mash-up of "pegasus" and "captain". Like all the models in my army its a metal Citadel miniature from the early 90s, carefully stripped and reassembled after he was given to me by EvanH, having spent a number or years in his garage.


It would be fair to say I have a love / hate relationship with this model. I knew in advance it would be a trial to paint and it didn't disappoint. I had to paint in three parts as I knew it would be impossible to paint when assembled as it is quite top-heavy and a lot of the detail would be have been obscured or difficult to access.


The pegasus itself was a fun paint. I decided not to paint a grey / white one as you see a lot of these going around and I opted instead for a brown. That gave me the opportunity to use a warm palette for the feathers, starting with the body colour and fading out through a sandy brown to a buff at the win tips.


The seat / saddle is an extravagant piece and I couldn't resist going for a baroque look given the ornate nature and padded seat. It was quite difficult to paint as there's no easy way to hold or mount it so I ended up flipping in back an forth, painting it laying down on a clean plastic lid. The detail required a lot of very fine brushwork to bring out the relief and I'm quite happy with the end result even if it will be obscured by the rider.


When it came to the rider I used the same method for painting it on a plastic lid. He's painted in the colours of the city-state of Carroburg, home of the (in)famous Greatswords I've just finished painting. The banner is from the interwebs, repainted to tie the colours more closely to the rider. The original imagery from Games Workshop never portrayed him with a shield and I'm still tossing up whether to add one.


Assembling the model is where it really started to drive me nuts. The saddle would not sit straight and the super glue leaked out and ran down the sides of the mount, leaving a frosted white effect I had to repaint. It took three efforts to get the saddle safely in place and the rider is still not fixed because I wanted to photograph the seat (and I'd also had enough of super glue disasters for one day!)


In the end I'm happy enough with him and he'll be a constant thorn in the side of my opponent's, flapping about and roughing up opposing heroes, wizards and artillery like a good captasus should do.


Cheers,
Millsy

22 comments:

  1. Your patience and hard work has resulted in a stunning model, Millsy.

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  2. This is a brilliant piece, Millsy! I love what you've done with the Pegasus' feathers. Wonderful.

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  3. Lovely wings! May he be a pain to your foes.

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  4. Great work Millsy - and a classic model to boot! Legendary not only in look, but for what a pain in the ass it was...so cool to see one of these retro beauties finished up!

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    1. I'm crazy about this era of Citadel sculpts. There's hardly a one I don't like, let alone love. This is no exception.

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  5. That is an amazing piece of work. Very Empire, and I absolutely would not add a shield. I'm taking a very Habsburg approach to my own Empire forces, and that means Landsknechts and gendarmes, so no shields.

    I sympathize with pegasi troubles. Games Workshops' sculptors seem to delight in making their pegasi fiddly. I have the Bretonnian pegasus, and I had to scour ebay to find the right rider with the right legs to fit and not be sitting on the reins. No normal Bretonnian will fit!

    What else does Evan have stashed in his garage, and will he share? ;P

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    1. Evan's garage has proven to be quite the goldmine over the years. Some of the contents are already painted, others yet to be. Regardless they are always appreciated! I'm very fortunate to have such a wonderful mate as he never asks for a cent for his finds. Unfortunately the mother load is pretty much mined out now.

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  6. Love or Hate, it looks great! Some amazing detail and I love his wry grin like he is happy to still be in the saddle :-)

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  7. Great stuff, those heavy old metal sculpts could be a right bear at times, but your perseverance has paid off with a wonderful model!

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  8. Love this piece. But I fully understand your pain of the metals associated with it. Have more than my fair share of such pieces and the cursing that goes along with it. Am happy to see more in resin and plastic these days all because of it!
    Great paint though and a worthy leader for an empire force!

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  9. Lovely painting, you can't tell it was a pain once you finished it!
    Best Iain

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  10. Yeah, that's the end of the Oldhammer lode; but it's certainly been given a new lease on life! This is a great rehabilitation of what I can personally attest to have been a difficult model, well done Millsy!

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  11. What a wonderful lump of lead Missly. Well done to soldier on with this beast and wonderful brushwork. Like Curt I'm loving the feathers and the choice of colour for his steed.

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  12. been a busy boy there mate! - lovely job

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  13. Awesome work Millsy. The wings are especially well done

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  14. Gosh, Millsy, that's fantastic! I can only imagine how fiddly that was to put together and paint. Fantastic work, and lovely painting. Great entry!!

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  15. Well, if it's not Baroque....;)
    The chair saddle is brilliant, Millsy! I also like the Pegasus being rendered in that tawny brown! The rainbow of neutral colors on the wings is well done.
    I also like the striped Lance of the noble. A very nice rendition of an old School model. Nice to see others are also refusing the new AoS.
    Seems my old fantasy dwarves will still be able to fight someone in the Old World! ;)

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  16. Lovely, I like the brown Pegasus

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