The Headless Horseman

"Their heads were not found severed. Their heads were not found at all."

For some reason I've never read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I think it's thanks to doing A-Level English at school, which kind of puts you off reading classics for life. I have, however, seen the 1999 movie with Johnny Depp and really like it, and with Halloween coming up I had to buy this model.

The Horseman is in the classic pose from the story, about to throw a pumpkin at Ichabod Crane. In the movie it just knocks Crane out, but it's actually the end of the short story; Crane's horse is found the next day with no sign of its owner and the reader is left to wonder if he fled Sleepy Hollow in terror or was dragged down to hell by the Horseman.

Somewhat unsurprisingly the horseman and his horse were primed with black spray paint, which meant they were 90% painted in about three minutes. Yay!

I kicked off with the horse first, which was glued to a 40mm base. Using a makeup brush it was lightly overbrushed with German Grey before being highlighted with Dawnstone, Ghost Grey and a small amount of White.

The harnesses and saddle were all given a basecoat of Rhinox Hide and a quick highlight with Chocolate Brown, and then a wash with Agrax Earthshade. The final highlights were added with Mahogany Brown and a touch of Balor Brown.

When it came to the flames on its lower legs I debated just going for basic red/orange/yellow colours but decided on something a bit more other-worldly. I painted over them with a couple of coats of pure White and then began layering on Yellow Green from the legs up, followed by layers of Moot Green and some dabs of Goblin Green at the very tips.

The rider — or the Hessian, as he's referred to in the story — was tacked to a piece of scrap foam with PVA glue to hold him while he was painted. He was highlighted the same way as the horse.

Red seems to be one of my go-to colours to use with black, so I painted the trim on the Hessian's coat Khorne Red and then highlighted it with Mephiston Red and Vermilion. 

The ruffs on the front of his shirt are Ghost Grey and White, and the final bit to be painted was the grinning pumpkin. It was based with Heavy Orange and then painted Wild Rider Red before being highlighted with Fire Dragon Bright and Troll Slayer Orange. The stalk at the top got dabbed with Black Green and some Goblin Green, and once superglued to the horse he was finished.

I wanted to do something a bit autumnal for the base, so after covering it with my usual flock mix I glued down a bunch of red leaves and added some tufts. I kind of wish I'd used brown leaves but the red adds another touch of colour and plays off the red trim on the Hessian's coat.