About the doll

Helia was originally a brown-eyed brunette... so the first thing I did to her was give her a complete reroot with gorgeous sunlight nylon hair. This hair is just like spun gold! Then it was braided into many tiny braids and styled into an elegant Greek ponytail.

Next Helia's original facial screening was completely removed, and then carefully repainted with artist quality acrylics. She now has vibrant green eyes.

Her makeup & shading was done with thin washes to give her a natural, realistic appearance.

The accessories

Ok... I went even crazier on the accessories *grin*

Helia's gladius was created out of hard steel that was hammered, grinded, filed, and filed and filed, then sanded and sanded, and then a few more hours spent polishing. It has a full tang blade which is covered with a brass plate, carved wood & bone beads to make up the hand guard, handle & pommel.

The scabbard was also made from hand painted sheepskin, with strips of brass wrapped around. The baldric is made up of thin strips of leather & tiny rings, and more tiny nail heads.

The scutum (shield)design was based off of a popular Roman Legion shield, with the exception of the background being green instead of the customary red. The design was carefully tooled onto tooling leather, and then hand painted and a coat of wax applied to protect it. The leather was then backed with vertical strips of thin maple, and a horizontal strip of brass to make up the handle. A thin strip of brass was also used to frame the entire shield. A brass sun stamping was used as the boss.