Daimyo, Mounted Japanese War Lord

[Elia Cid]

Daimyo, Mounted Japanese War Lord

Daimyo, Mounted Japanese War Lord, Azuchi-Momoyama period,
(1568-1600) ,George Papandrea's Private Collection
90mm,from Pegaso Models, painted by Alex Castro

Enjoy
Alex

 

[Robin]

Nice figure this,really makes you wanna paint it when you see it.

Robin

 

[Lou Masses]

Very colorful.

I was tempted by theis figure a few times. I always had a problem with the size of the horse however. When assembled, it looks as though the horse is too small for the rider (no reflection on Alex above, my observations are on the kit). Have you seen this kit "in the flesh?" (Robin).

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the size thing too Alex, since obviously you've painted it.

 

[Guy]

I have the kit Lou and YES........the rider does appear to be rather large for the horse.

guy

 

[Elia Cid]

Hi Lou, Guy,

I hope this will help, what intrigued me was the action in the piece and my friend Mr. Luca Marchtti, Founder and President of Pegaso Models,
Seen to approve of the colors and conversion on the hat as well!

Happy Painting
Alex

 

[Guy]

Thanks for the additional pics Alex. That is the same reason I bought the kit, the stance. I still feel that he is either "One Big Samurai" or either a "Small Horse". What I observed was not enough to deter me from the kit and after the Polish Lancer is done, I shall dive into some of my accumulated Samurai kits.

btw.............absolutely gorgeous figure you have painted. I have saved the images for reference.

guy

 

[Lou Masses]

I love the pose too. Pondered it for about a day at last year's Atlanta show, but when I looked deeply into it and can see from your post, is that the horse's back would roughly be at the rider's waist if he was standing next to it. That bugged me too much to be overcome by the pose.

 

[johnbrewer]

I have too admit the size of the horse has never really been registered in my brian. It is too busy trying to cope with the price tag

 

[Robin]

looking at it now looks too small can't think why it didn't strike me before

still a lovely sculpt

Robin

 

[MSzwarc]

Japanese horses (actually ponies) mostly came from central Asian pony stocks brought to Japan in the third century AD by Koreans, and again in the 13th century AD by the Mongols. Arabian stock wasn't introduced until the 16th century.

These were generally small animals averaging about 13 hands (52 inches/132 cm) high. Compare this to horse breeds typically used by European cavalry which genrerally stood 15-16+ hands high(60-64 in + / 152-163 cm +). Also, ponies have different body proportions than horses typically used for cavalry. A light horse is taller in the shoulder than the body length, and may have a back longer than the head. A pony and a heavy draft horse will have a body longer than the shoulder height, and a back shorter than the head length.

With this in mind, the figure's horse is probably accurate.

 

[pkess]

For the horse to be in scale, the rider would have to be 8ft tall. Not likely in Feudal Japan.

 

[Lou Masses]

Or in modern Japan either

 

[MSzwarc]

For the horse to be in scale, the rider would have to be 8ft tall. Not likely in Feudal Japan.

A bit difficult to do from a computer screen, but scaling the rider and assuming a height of 64", I work the pony out to be 48" or 12 hands high (the pony's height is measured to the shoulder). A little small, but not unduly so. If you assume a height of 8' or 96" for the rider, the horse would scale out to 72", or a whopping 18 hands high! This would be big, even for a Percheron (16.2-17 hh).

The ornament on the kabuto adds about 10" to the apparent height of the rider, and the volume of the armor adds to his apparent bulk. Also, keep in mind that the Japanese saddle (look at the pic of the unmounted pony) raises the rider higher off the back of the horse than a western saddle, giving an added illusion of height.

Check it for yourself: take a piece of paper and hold it against your computer screen. Mark the height of the rider joint by joint from the top of his shoulder to the sole of his foot. Then hold the marked paper against the front of the pony with the foot mark even with the bottom of the pony's front hoof. The rider's shoulder is even with the pony's eye. Compare that to the below images taken from Ultimate Horse by Elwyn Edwards.

 

[Guy]

Thanks Mike for that info........very interesting to!

guy