Work Bench Update!

There you go!

Since my friend izeColt has been posting so many blog posts lately, i'v been feeling little ashamed for not uploading anything here...after all, this is my blog too!!

So here is little something: Just tought i could show what i am working at the moment. It is 90mm tall female figure..She is going to be a space pirate some day!!

I will post more information about this project later (hopefully not much later;)

That's about it! hope you like it!

All In a Day's Work

I'm on fire! This week has been very productive, at least what comes to my hobby. I managed to paint Fimir Bust in just couple of evenings and now I'm on my everlasting Chaos Space Marines project. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a much but when you consider that you need to work, look after your child, do household chores and have quality time with your fiancee, I think I'm doing quite well ;)

I thought to share my practical painting station with you, just for fun.

My portable painting station, which also works as a baking platform. It's very useful to have portable painting station when you've 1,5 years old perisher running around the house pulling everything down that he manages to get his hands on. It'd be damn shame to see him gnawing one of the projects which I just spent couple of day's work.

Part on my current everlasting Emperor's Children project. Good things come slowly.

So that's where the magic happens. Interesting, or maybe not. Still so much to do and so little time...

Finished Fimir Bust

Here it is, finished Fimir bust. Colour scheme is, well, quite monotonic but that was the aim. Base colour gave me headache by being damn repellent.

Now all this needs is a showbase to stand on...

Skinned Fimir

Today was especially interesting day. Helsinki is covered by a small blizzard. It was quite funny to listen Bolt Thrower from iPod and scratch car windows from the frost at the same time the wind is whirling spiky snow flakes, horizontally, straight to your face... Yay!

I finally managed to get my tools out of the closet and start painting. I promised to okkiW to paint this bust of Fimir as soon as possible. Here's the first set of pics from this gig!

Fimir skin is usually painted in greenish or brownish but I thought that I'd try something different in here. We're planning to put this Fimir in winter scheme and there for it'd be a good idea to use somehow cold colours all the way. Well, here I decided to use some browns and yellows together with some purple and bluish colours and I must say, I'm pretty satisfied by the outcome.

What comes to the colour scheme and "old granny" look, I got a lot of inspiration from Roman a.k.a Jarhead's (Massive Voodoo) WIP Schell Bust. I really like the way Roman treats his miniature projects. His style is artistic yet very professional and controlled. This isn't the first time I've taken some ideas from that fellow's works ;)

Hopefully I'll get this done before next weekend's Unofficial Helsinki Figumeeting, where bunch of fellow miniature painters gather together to talk about the hobby and give ideas for future/ongoing projects. So, catch you later!

Nordic Challenge, In Photos

Grhm... And here, finally, some photos taken from Nordic Challenge 2010...

Photobucket Album

Nordic Challenge, The Summary

Hi ya! So, the first Nordic Challenge was, and went. Here's a short summary from the event...

As we both, okkiW and I, live in Helsinki at the moment, we thought that it'd be a good idea to drive Hämeenlinna and back on both days, after all Hämeenlinna is only about 100 kilometers away from Helsinki. On Saturday we thought to just drop in our entries for the competition and socialize the rest of the day. It was a damn shame that we decided to skip the Scale Modeler's Christmas Party. It'd have been nice place to get new contacts and friends from the hobby scene.

On Sunday we even participated on couple of workshops. The first one was kept by Mr. Pekka Nieminen, who's a spectacular Finnish sculptor and modeler. Mr. Nieminen's workshop consisted, surprisingly, sculpting and modeling historical figures. The second workshop was kept by the Norwegian diorama virtuoso Mr. Per Olav Lund. Too bad we missed the third lecture kept by Mr. Adam Wilder from USA.

Anyways, both of the workshops that we were able to participate were excellent and superb. I learned a lot from them, at least what comes to the clothing wrinkles and the metal wearing effects. The "Why didn't I come up with that" effect was imminent :D

Exhibition's Scale Model Contest was very strict as there were so many great models and splendidly painted figures. We did participate on "Fantasy Figures 55mm and larger" competition category with our Chaos Dwarf of Tzeentch project. I also thought to give my Harboth Orc Hero a chance in "Fantasy Figures 54mm and smaller" category.

Well, we didn't win any medals but got Commended for both of the figures. Of course that was a bit of disappointment but considering the overall quality of the competition (there were over 400 models after all), getting Commended was a pretty good achievement. Maybe next time we'll see something more shiny!

So, that's the summary from Nordic Challenge 2010, from our point of view. Sorry for lack of photos, I'll try to unload my camera this evening and put some shots from the event as soon as possible.

Nordic Challenge

Nordic Challenge scale model exhibition is happening this weekend (20.-21.11.) in Hämeenlinna, Finland. Of course me and okkiW decided to participate this rare opportunity to display couple of our models. I must say, we were pretty amazed by the amount of quality models displayed in the event, most of the models representing Finnish scale model hobby's top notch.

We'll upload some photos and a sort of summary tomorrow when we'll have some more time.

Shaping the Monster

I am a big fan of izeColt's drawings. He seems to have this weird talent, to make the images appear just if they have been drawn 30 years ago when (in my opinion) fantasy art was at its best! Influences from Blanche, Miller etc. are visible of course, but in very subtle way. The characters in the drawings still appear very original and they are very inspiring stuff!

I could not have been more happier, when izeColt suddenly e-mailed me this wonderfull sketch for this Fimir character! As soon as i saw the drawing i was convinced that this thing would rock! At first, i had some doubts about how to make the Fimir look mean and sinister without looking somehow ridiculous=) But izeColt really nailed this thing and my doubts just vanished immediately!

Inspired by the drawing, i quickly collected my tools and Sculpted this small bust. I tried to make the sculpt to follow the original drawing as closely as possible. The bust is sculpted with Super Sculpey Firm.

One Eyed Swamp Monster

Now that the blog has been formally started, it's time to heat up the steam engine and move on. Our current project is, surprise surprise, a Fimir, the infamous one eyed monster from the 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles era.

After finishing the previous project, Chaos Dwarf of Tzeentch, we sat down and thought about what should we do next. Last time we did consider of making Fimir, but ended up making Chaos Dwarf. Well, it was quite obvious that the next time it'd be the Fimir's turn.

We found the murky and twisted background of Fimir's to be quite fashinating. Well, Fimir's breeding is, quite frankly, a bit of a moral dilemma when it comes to telling their tale, but I think we can put that in the can besides the "beheads heads", "rotting corpses" and "interesting Slaanesh mutations" and move on... Eh, I've read from somewhere that this particular piece of Fimir's history might be one of the reasons Games Workshop decided to drop the Fimirs off from their future plans (which is, marketing their products to young teenagers rather than adults) along with the fact that the old metal Fimirs weren't that interesting - although I think they are cool.

Anyways, long story short, here's the first concept from the Fimir...

There are couple of things worth noticing; I thought it'd be cool to have Fimir keeping couple of chopped off heads around him, as trophies of worthy enemies. Some of the heads would be very old and barely hanging from the belt rings 'couse their hair is falling of from the rotting skull.

Fimir's posture is still a bit of mystery but I've got couple of wicked ideas. One idea is to have Fimir trying to stand in as proud posture as it is possible with that bodybuild and he would be dangling beheaded head from it's hair and watching it with very arrogant stare. This idea came to me when I thought about Shakespear's Hamlet and his famous frase "to be or not to be". Well, this is still under heavy mindwork...

What comes to armour and other pieces of elaborately crafted metals, we thought to give them a nice touch of Babylonian kind of feeling; Some nice little details along with very strong and ornate trimmings. This concept still lacks that kind of detail but they'll be in the next one! I still need to put my nose in the book and study those ornaments a little bit closer.

The plan is to make this thing in 28 millimeter scale, but as Fimirs are a bit larger than 28 millimeter human characters, this monster's going to be somewhere around 30 to 34 millimeters. I kind of like the way Nick Bibby sculpted his pack of Fimirs and would like to see if okkiW is going to make this in the same size.

Hello!

Firstly, from my behalf, i’d like to welcome everyone of you, to follow this ragged pack of spiky rats!

The idea behind this blog, is not just to be conventional display of craftsmanship and fancy miniature painting..Well that too;), but we also try to go beyond that and create original stories that you could follow and get inspired about!!!

I wish this blog will develop into a form of exiting stories that are visualized with cool miniatures!! Be it a mighty warrior or a twisted wizard from a another multiverse Hold on!, 'cause these rats will bite ya!!!

-okkiW

The Beginning

So this is it, the very first post on our blog! As some of you might already be aware, Spiky Rat Pack is all about arts, craftsmanship, miniature hobby and scene around it.

Early this year, okkiW and I decided to band together and start doing miniature projects together. okkiW is a visionary sculptor and I'm more or less the guy who paints the stuff. We design and sketch our projects together and even create deep background stories behind our characters, just like in roleplaying games. Our previous project, Chaos Dwarf of Tzeentch, Rogan Rygaard, can be found from here.

It has been very easy to do projects together as we share quite similar visions, what comes to the hobby and how the World of Warhammer appears to us. We consider John Blanche as probably one of the most influencing fantasy artist of our time, among with Ian Miller and John Sibbick, who also have had very much to do with the grim and brutal low fantasy feel of the Old World and Rogue Trader era 40.000 universe.

Like a rock band, we play together and have our gigs. But every now and then we go solo and do our own stuff. okkiW is currently sculpting his Lady Gaga inspired Rogue Trader era Space Pirate. I'm trying to find some time to paint couple of my Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines.

So, there we go. This is the beginning of a story about two friends who thought to share their enthusiasm for the hobby with the rest of the scene. I hope that you'll check our blog every now and then and hopefully find it useful and inspiring source of material. So catch you later!