Surus

[kilsh]

Hi All

Just finished this.

Surus is believed to have been the lead elephant of the 37 which Hannibal crossed the alps with. Little is known of him apart from he had 1 tusk, the other was probably damaged and he probably wore red cloth and armour as the other elephants supposedly did. It is unsure whether he was a large Asian or an Africa elephant, although a coin of the time shows him as African his name may mean the Syrian which would point to him being Asian. Hannibal rode him after he lost his eye to get a better view of the battlefield and he was the longest living animal of the 37.

Given how many RP Carthaginian elephants seem to be in process at the moment I wanted to try and do something a little different with mine so I have built him as Surus, and depicted him as being African.

This is great kit, well sculpted and engineered and highly original, it was a pleasure to work on. Apart from cutting the tusk I replaced the spear shafts with brass and put a wire insert into the goad. I replaced the medallion with a scratchbuilt one and made the lamellar armour.

Richard at Oakwood kindly made me a bespoke base and the nameplate is from Name it. All in acrylics apart from the Mahouts flesh which is oil over acrylic.

I’m going to drop him off at FOTM also.

Hope you like him!

Happy New Year!

Neil

 

[MoboSchreuder]

Beautiful work

Mobo

 

[Viking Bob]

Excellent.

 

[Cannonball]

Fantastic.

 

[DaddyO]

Lovely bit of brushwork and I enjoyed the background story. Always interesting to get a personal insight into a figure and it also provides that extra bit of something . . .
Congrats
Paul

 

[custer760]

Brilliant,very very nice.
Regards
Pete

 

[Gooner Mike]

excellent work

 

[John Bowery]

Excellent variation and well worth the effort.
Cheers
John

 

[KenBoyle]

Beautiful work on a truly imaginative figure.

Well done,
Ken

 

[oierlings]

Fantastic Work and interesting mounting. I'm afraid to drill mine for a base mount socket, so this might be a good alternativ.
Cheers
Eric

 

[Henk]

Beautiful work, and great to see something different. The eyes are superb, you can sense the simultaneous fear and fury of the elephant..

 

[kilsh]

Cheers Eric

If you do a similar mount to mine just check and re check your angles before drilling.

Regards

Neil

 

[oierlings]

Thanks Neil for your advice. Getting the angles right is quiet challenging to me with this pice.
I'll try my best.
Regards
Eric

 

[kilsh]

Eric

Just remember it’s up and to the left side and I’m sure you will be ok.

 

[Tubby-Nuts2]

As others have said. Great background story, and very well painted and presented. Very well done, it’s impressive.

Mark.

 

[kilsh]

Thanks for your kind comments Mobo, Bob, Paul, Cannonball, Pete, John, Mike, Pete, Mark and Ken

Thanks Henk

The eyes weren’t too tricky to paint as they are so big, the main issue I had was, how do elephants eyes work, I posted on PF and got some help which was great ie, how they move in the head. Not something you really think about I suppose until they are staring you in the face and you have a paintbrush in your hand!

He is on the Figure of the month page too.

Cheers

Neil

 

[Barrie Harris]

Great workmanship , out standing painting .
All round winner, love it
FAB is the word , well done. Pat on the back

Barrie(Newbee).

 

[Oda]

Absolutely stunning!

Oda.

 

[HansDig]

Superb!

 

[Nap]

Hi Neil

Happy new year mate

WOW !! That's a different take as well as a history lesson ...great stuff

Like the changes you have made , the armour is a nice touch ..how did you do this ?

The eyes are very nicely done as well ...shows real fear and terror

Cracking base from Richard Whatton at Oakwood as well ......what's the size of that ?

Good luck in FOTM

Thanks for sharing

Nap