Craftee Punic Horse

Here is my first real attempt at making Craftee Miniatures.  Craftees are a figure design that was the brain child of Matt Kirkhart.  The idea is to use craft materials available at local craft stores.  The materials can be anything really.  These horse are made from the following:

1. Horse head and legs Split Wren’s Egg (3)
2. Horse body 5/8″X1/2″ spool
3. Rider body 1/2″X1/2″ spool
4. Rider head 3/8″ plug
5. Mane 9mm chenille pipe cleaner
6. Arms and legs 5mm tile spacer (1)
7. Spear 1/2 of a round toothpick
8. Shield 5/8″ diameter washer and card stock cover
9. Craft paint

The horse was assembled first and then the rider glued on top.  The arms were short lengths of the tile spacer and the remaining part of the spacer was cut in half and glue to either side of the horse to serve as legs.  The arms were glued to either side of the rider.  The spear was then added to the right arm.  The figure was primed gray and then painted.  I completed the shield with a 1/2″ disk of card with a print of a shield design from LBMS shield decals.  The washer was painted red before the disk was added.  I then glued the shield and the mane to the horse.  Here are the results.

First unit.

Flank view.

Rear view.

Right flank.

A second unit of horse. Shields are the only difference.

The figures painted up easy enough.  The paint needed about 3 or more coats before it looked good.  The craft paint just was not strong enough to hold off the gray undercoat.  Next time I will not prime.  Both Dale Hurtt and Matt Kirkhart don’t prime and find that 2 coats of watered down craft paint are usually sufficient to cover the figure without worries of chipping.  Pr-assembly is not a plus.  It would have been easier to assemble the horse, paint it, assemble the torso, arms and head of the rider and paint it and finally add the rider to the horse with spear and legs and paint them.  The shield, of course, should always be finished befor adding.  Speaking of shields, it would also be a good idea to add them last.  The mane needs to be centered and the shield got in the way of adding the mane.  So my first batch of cavalry have the manes slightly tilted to the right.