Balian of Ibelin: A 1/10 Bust

[Deleted member 6559]

Ever since watching Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven I've wanted to paint one of the characters, and having Young Miniatures Teutonic knight in the stash, I decided to have a go at depicting Balian of Ebelin. Balian was played by Orlando Bloom in the film, and although there are busts and figures available of him in the role, I wanted to try for a non-Hollywood look.

The film sticks relatively close to the truth, though Balian was actually a Frankish noble from a family long established in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and not a poor blacksmith adopted by a crusading knight, as the film would have it. He is famous for organising the defence of Jerusalem with Queen Sybilla during Saladin's siege of 1187.



The bust is a simple three-parter and lends itself to being painted in any scheme that takes one's fancy. I'll probably try for the costume worn by Orlando above.

I've got a lot of the head done:



The hair just has a base coat at the moment, and there is still some refining to do to the face.

 

[KarlW]

Cracking start, not only am I in awe of your skills but also your high workrate, admit it, you really have a sweatshop going somewhere.......

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Karl - I've got a team of elves - one does noses, another paints eyes etc etc.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

A stonking start ,Peter, and not a bad film too

 

[JR]

Peter.
Just paid for the other build seat, Steve said it would be over a week, now this, can use the previous ticket please.

 

[Lee Drennen]

John. I think Peter needs the cash for all the supplies he’s burning though with these builds. I’ve got you covered John

Peter. Two front row seats please with social distancing I see John has forgotten his Social distancing hat

 

[scottie3158]

I'm in as always. Your off to a great start.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

John - You're OK, it works as a season ticket.

Lee - Take a seat, 2m away from John. The dog will keep you all apart.

Scottie. Cheers mate.

 

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

Another super head and looks like a cracking figure to work on today too.

Not too much chain-mail either, though it should play nicer than Hector's coat of plate metal didn't!

Late start today as I finished scribing and washing the refugees for the Road.

I can't leave off painting for much longer!

The weather should keep the poisonous maize at bay for a little longer before we hit another brief warm spell next week, hopefully

Storm Eduardo on its way too!!

Have a good day with the paints

Regards

Steve H

 

[Jack L]

One of my favourite films, I'll watch this one with particular interest.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Steve - Woke up with zero mojo today, so it remains to be seen if I get any painting done. I'm going for colour with this one, but haven't quite decided what. Heavy rain all night has kept the pollen down, thank God. Get those brushed moving!

Jack - Yes seen it several times and read several books on the subject - all the main characters actually existed though Guy de Lusignan was actually quite nice in reality, and Reynald de Chatillon was if anything even worse - one of the only people Saladin executed personally.

 

[Deleted member 4539]

Looking Good Peter.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Yay, Ralph! Great to have you back.

 

[Wouter]

One of my favourite timeframes. I quite liked the film, although some things - as usual - too much Hollywooderized or something like that . I did like the look and feel of the film though. Nice to see you paint a knight from that period. Balian's looking slick alright ^^

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Hi Wouter. Yes, very Hollywood, but it looked good.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Peter. Nice update

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Cheers Lee.

The next part went surprisingly quickly:



I decided against putting crosses on the surcoat, as I think they would interfere too much with the effect of the drapery. The shield, which is next, will be white with a black cross:

 

[outrunner]

Lovely work Peter, do you ever stop painting figures? I reckon you must have a huge storehouse for them all.


Andy.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Hi Andy. It's part of my daily existence - I'd die without it. I have about 100 on display, about the same in storage or put aside for recycling, and have binned more than I care to think about over the years. It's mostly about the drive to improve.

 

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

Great progress and love the purple cloak, super colour contrast.

I will aways be a willing recipient of your less than acceptable work, it is all so good, even if you don't see it!

The weather is absolutely awful up here!

I guess you aren't fairing any better down there either!

Thanks for the push, I needed it, though it will be slow progress, hopefully some priming today, if I can swim to the garage!

Time to tidy up my work desk and switch to painting rather than building maybe some work too LOL!

Hopefully you will get some good light to finish the shield and figure, though its so dull and grey under the storm clouds

Have a good and colourful day

Regards

Steve H