the Mast Beast

here you go Brummie, a mast beast - essentially a variant of the Hobby Horse more commonly seen with Morris Dancers and something a little more sinister for the witchhunters to get all wound up about...

essentially a shed load of g/s over a eBob dolly, with an eBob horses skull (GW ones were toooo big by half) and out of sheer laziness, a Warlord plastic ECW foot (actually the foot from the witchhunter himself once he had new boots)... I made the cloth over the body a bit more clingy than it probably would be to emphasise the head and arms of the man inside just incase anyone gets confused and has recently watched Time Bandits...

in the main, I'm very happy with it, there are probably issues with the drapery and movement, and I need to touch up a couple of spots, but it kind of evolved on me from a standing beast to one in the middle of a kind of winding ducking dance... if that makes sense...
 

horse brass appears more traditional with modern beasts, as seen on my main reference here, but I prefer more simple ribbons... I've also assumed real horse hair rather than straw... not sure on what colour to paint it yet, sack cloth looks good, but I can't help but feel that black will make the skull really stand out and look as creepy as hell...

I'm still undecided on Morris Dancers proper, but I do have another very May Pole centric figure in mind...

very big thanks to eBob for the skull - couldn't have done it without it...