During a visit to the lovely Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, it struck me while looking at the “The Kingsteignton Figure” that he’d look great as a mini!
He was discovered in 1867 by workmen whilst digging for ball clay at Zitherixon, Kingsteignton, in Devon, England (which is now just behind a large Tesco supermarket!).
In real life, he measures 34 cm tall and is carved from a branch of oak. Radiocarbon dating has revealed that he was made between 426-352 BC, making him one of only a handful of figures ever found from this period in Britain.
To make my version, I started with the head. I glued two pieces of sprue together and gently carved eye sockets. Next, I attached a nose and trimmed the head into shape. For the body, I glued three pieces of sprue together before carving out the rough shape. All the while trying to mirror the original as best I could.
When they found him, the figure had no arms, but there was a large hole in his neck that may have once held detachable ones. So I decided to give him arms based on this fact.
To finish off, and for a bit of fun, I chose to give him his dignity back by covering up his nether regions with a leaf! (But after painting him, the leaf looked ridiculous, so I scraped it off and repainted the area back to the natural wood colour.).
I don’t know what I’ll use him for yet, but I do have some other ideas for further minis based on other prehistoric discoveries.
