Just finished the Skaven commission I mentioned in the last post - pretty happy with how he came out. I loved the miniature as soon as I saw it - except the banner... To me it totally unbalanced a beautiful sculpt, the figure itself has some of the best animation I've seen on for a long time.
I clipped the banner off the back-plate and built another from brass tube - decorated with elements of the original. I've always liked Japanese style banners for Skaven - and I wanted to give him a banner that looked like it has been around for a while, passed down between warlords - tattered and faded. The cloth is made from lead foil - the sort that you get on old battles of port or sherry. It's really soft and pliable and perfect for banners - I have a small supply that I hoard away for miniatures I really like.
The paint scheme is obviously quite similar to the GW studio version - and that's totally intentional, I really love the way that one's painted, and couldn't see the point of doing him in different colours just to be - well, different... I also think the bright red armour fits well with the slightly Japanese feel.
There's a lot going on with the miniature and banner - strong colours and fine details, so I wanted the base to be quite simple and muted. I didn't want something that fought for your attention with Queek himself. I cut out a small section of tube, lined it with brick patterned plastic card, and built a box round it. It's good to break up the smoothness of the brick pattern by cutting out some of the bricks to make them look like they're loose or broken.
Ali is pretty much done with painting the next Studio McVey release and we should be able to preview it next week - looks good, just talking about names!
cheers
mike
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6 comments:
Very nice. Your banner is a huge improvement over the original. I also really like the green OSL from the gem - it seems more subtle and realistic than the studio version. Some of the details are a bit hard to make out though. is there any chance of bigger pics?
Also, for the lead foil, is that as fragile as it sounds?
Gorgeous model. I for one don't mind the original banner, but yours is very neat as well. The base, too, is a cool addition. However a side effect of the small curvature radius, the height of the sewer, and the muted colors is that the rats at the base of Queek are hidden under almost every angle.
Happy thanksgiving.
Glad you like him!
@David - He's about the size I usually post pictures - he's just a little smaller than some minis! It's always a hard call - knowing how to size for the website - he's going to be a different size on different monitors of course. I'll up the size later today if I get the chance.
Lead foil isn't really 'fragile' - you can bend it to whatever shape you like and it's stays there, even after it's painted. It won't take really rough treatment though - if you bend, and re-bend repeatedly the paint will start to flake in the end.
@mathieu - My first instinct is pretty much always to think how something will look in pictures (that's what comes from painting for publication for 20+ years...), but in this case I wanted to do it anyway. I very much see the rats as part of the base - not the mini. That's why I painted them quite muted like the base, and the figure bright and clean. It's also why the feet of the miniature are level with the sides of the pipe.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too! (I miss Turkey Day now we're back in the UK...)
"I'll up the size later today if I get the chance." Thanks, that would be appreciated.
About the lead foil, do you have any idea where I can get some, short of obtaining old sherry bottles? Or is not knowing where to get more foil your reason for hoarding it? I tried Google, but everything I found was extremely pricy.
What a great model.
I'm not sure this was intentional, but the cut of the banner, and in fact even it's extra detail magnificently mirrors the dynamics of the mini itself. Awesome.
I was just browsing demon winner: check out the winner of the gold demon in warhammer single at GD france 2010 if you haven't already. Look familiar? I guess someone was inspired...
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