Amplified Death Scream

Here they come!
The original sketch for Screamya was so good, that i didn't want to chanche it too much, so i just repositioned the arms a bit...

"First comes the throbbing noise, harsh and loud, loud enough to crack your skull...
Then falls the dead silence, as your bleeding ears fail to hear... It is then, when we come..like ghosts from your nightmare
Better hold on to your head, 'cause we're here to collect it!"

SoD - Synthia Reworked

Scrheeeeeeeech!

Here comes the re-designed Synthia!

Now the style has taken big step towards more dirtier and more punk than before!
I asked your opinions and ideas and i got many good ones..
Even the Big Boss Rat shared some of his wisdom with me!
Those ideas were then pushed even further...
and here you can see the result - Thanks everyone!




Next i will work on Screamya - The DethSynth Operator. She will also receive similar treatment;)

The Sound of Death

Hello there!

I talked with J.B few days ago through e-mail. Perhaps surprisingly we didn't talked about miniatures that much. Instead we talked about music...electronic music to be specific, as we both are very big fans of that style of music. I been now listening some cool music that John recommended to me...and then i started to think...

I'v had this idea about Vampire babes before..but it didn't sound original enough...but instead, inspired by our conversations and the music i'v been into...i came up with this cool idea...

They are Twins, two hot chicks that kill you with they lethal sound!

I named them Synthia & Screamya

Screamya plays her DethSynth on her sisters back, while Synthia holds the DethAmp and splits some ears!!



Very quickly made rough and gritty sketch....

The idea is to make two individual models that work together but also by themselves.

I will further develope this concept, so this is good place to tell me how you like them or if you have some ideas=)

i'm all ears- okkiW

Rats And Skulls, On Paper...

We don't really want to keep Spikey only place to show you some nasty looking miniatures. No, we want it to be much more than that. We want it to be a place where we can share our visions and tell the stories that flow in our minds. Sometimes it's quite hard to put those thoughts into words (especially into English ones) so I'll try another way this time.

Today I'll share couple of my resent mindless pencil drawings with you. Sometimes I just feel like sitting down on a sofa, relax and draw something that just pops into my mind. This time I thought to scratch something about Spikey.

"Creeping Spiky Rat"

This one was my first attempt to draw our blog's logo for a t-shirt. Yeah, We're planning to have some sort of cool t-shirts to "promo" our crazy blog. My vision was to have two spiky and bony rats climping on a grotesque, fleshy skull.

Too bad I ended up drawing only one rat (D'OH!). Other than that, I'm quite happy with the result. Maybe I'll give this one another shot in the future... adding another rat, of course... and maybe a runoff candle sticking from the skull... and some more SPIKES!

"Rat Jacks"

Now this one's a weird piece. I played with the idea of mixing playing card layout with two Skaven'ish heads, with one chaotic horn each, making the whole thing look a bit like the Ying Yang symbol. This image also symbolizes our co-operation, where we design figures together, the ones which Mikko then sculpts and I finally paint.

Gaga Rulez!

Hello!

Just found out, that one of our readers zhu bajiee has created this wonderfull set of Rules for the Captain Gaga character! Now you can use our Gaga in your WH 40k:RT!


Also check out rest of the zhu's cool blog here

Captain Gaga, B&W Teasers

Hi-lo!

I've been working with the "big" Captain Gaga for couple of evenings now. I thought to share some black & white "teasers" to proof that this project is far from the dead ;) ...

Still need to fix couple of minor things (feather, corset's freehand etc.). After that, I'm off to start building her base, which might include couple of nice twists and "eye catchers". Maybe I'll ever try the water effect for the first time, who knows!

I hope she'll meet the expectations...

"There Can Be Only One"

I decided, that the Fimir, that i am sculpting at the moment will be only fimir that i will ever sculpt....So sorry guys, there will not be any reproducing in the future=/
I gave it a thought, but it felt silly...to take GW's property and start messing around with it...
Very silly & Very risky....In the end i want to be known by my own original work, rather than someone else's.

+ I think that the Old World will suffer enough with this one beast roaming there, decapitating unaware mercenaries as it goes!

(pst!... izeColt has been sending me these small teaser-images about the almost fully painted big Gaga model!!! stay tuned and prepare to loose you jaws!)

okkiW's Cut

Hell'0!

Stylish Blogger eh?
At least this is fine excuse to tell you something about okkiW the Rat...

I too started miniature hobby in the 90's... Very young and sure, that when i would grow older, i would surely quit such a childhis hobby soon...i was going to be a serious adult;)

When i met izeColt, my sleeping miniature hobby took off again and we soon founded Spiky Rat Pack.

I am a huge fan of experimental electronic music,,,It makes my brain work (No acid needed;)

Good Whiskey& Rum....and Beer, they also make my brain work!

Girlfriend...yes i have one...Love you Teija!

Ransu...my dog,,,well, he's the best

Helsinki... the City i live in...(btw. Helsinki was recently nominated as "the best city in the world to live in" by the British Monocle Magazine!)

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10-15 blogs i read?.... i don't even know that many blogs!!!

izeColt listed pretty good one's already,,but i like to pick just one more blog ...

Tears of Envy's Blog

Fantastic blog, that feeds your brains with Cool stuff!
It's not stricktly a miniature blog but every hobbyist should read some blogs that are not miniature-only blogs.
Go check it out now!


+++


Then some additional info:

I now accept commissions, if you have some idea that you want me to create for you, please contact me at: okkiw@spikyratpack.com


& oh! I would like to ask, if mr. J.B & Steve Buddle could contact me too....
You guys helped me so much with Captain Gaga, so i thought that it would be a great honour for me, if i could send you some copies, as soon as they arrive to me=)



-okkiW

Celebrating (Over) Fifty Followers

Wohoo! Spiky has now over 50 followers and the number is rising all the time, sweet! Another milestone is now behind and we're already aiming to the "big" number...

When - obviously ;) - Spiky gets over 100 followers, we have thought about putting up a raffle and draw some sort of a "price" for one lucky registered follower. We already have couple of nasty ideas what the price could be, so please, keep on following us and tell your friends about us too. More the merrier!

+++

One more thing. Stylish Blogger Awards Nomination thingy has been wandering around the miniature blogger scene for some time and now the monster has also bitten Spiky to the ankle. Feralique has given us this respectful nomination for these little rodents and we'd like to thank him for doing so.

This is how it works...

• Thank and link back to the person giving you the award
• Share seven things about yourself
• Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
• Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Now I know what most of you might be thinking about these kind of "chain letters". We, however, think that this is a good way to lift up some of the blogs that you happen to like and give those hard working bloggers some big hand for their efforts. And yes, it's nice to hear what other bloggers think about your blog too ;)

Well, as Spiky has two composervitors, I and okkiW, I'll be sharing to you only things regarding my hobby. So here's couple of things about me:

• I first started my miniature hobby back in the early 90's. I was pretty young back then. Due the fact that there weren't that many hobbyists in our little town in the middle of no-where, my hobby soon faded away...
• ...Until I found it again back in 2005. Now the miniature hobby is flourishing better than ever! I still need to get my first 40k army ready so that I can start the bloody gaming too!
• My first Warhammer Fantasy army - that I tried to collect - was Dwarfs. The funny thing is, back in the mid 90's, when I decided to leave this hobby, I sold my Dwarf remnants to Mikko, who I really didn't know back then. He might still have couple of those uglies that I painted back then somewhere in his darkest closets...
• I've teached miniature painting and kept couple of lectures in three previous RopeCon (Europe's largest independent roleplaying event) events. If you ever happen to be around Helsinki, Finland, during this event, I highly recommend you to join the party!
• I like to read Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels. One of my favourite authors is Alastair Reynolds. His Revelation Space universe is kick ass to read! I also consume comics, especially 2000 AD's! A.B.C. Warriors and Nemesis might be my favourites, to name but the few.
• Games Workshop's Talisman (2nd edition) is one of my favourite boardgames.
• What else, hmm... Oh right! I've a son of two summers old (who is SO going to learn how to paint in the future!) and I'm getting married July 30th.

Now about the blogs. I've planned to share the blogs that I frequently read for a while now, but never found a good spot to do so. So basically this nomination is like hitting two birds with one stone then, eh? Here's my favourite miniature blogs, not 10-15, but 8 this time...

• Spyglass Asylum - Steve Buddle is a veteran sculptor. His insights from the hobby and pondering aspects from sculpting are very instructive and something to learn from. By the way, you can find Steve's online store - Spyglass Miniatures - from here. Kick yourself there and grab a miniature or two from this talented sculptor!
• Massive Voodoo - These guys are already legends amongst the current miniature scene. They are the "pop" for us, so to speak. I've been a fan of Roman a.k.a Jarhead's artwork for a good while now. He always surprises me with his approaches and never leaves any doubt that he could be one of this decade's pioneer in the miniature scene.
• Kings Minis - This blog is kept by an Australian multi-talent miniature hobbyist, Dave King, who also has his own line of miniatures in small production, Bederken Miniatures. You got to love those Marauder-ish Chaos Dwarfs! Dave also seems to be a huge fan of Citadel's old school miniatures, which I happen to be also.
• Ninja Bread - Very interesting oddball amongst miniature hobby blogs, with a hilarious and catchy, every now and then published comic about, well, the hobby.
• Eye of Error - Another worshipper of ruinous powers! LuckyNo.5 has some nice projects under his belt, like those Dark Eldars and Chaos Battle Fleet Gothic fleet. His 40k scenery is also eye-droppingly beautiful.
• Static Painting - Nomic must be one of the most talented Finnish painters that I've stumbled around the Internet. He has this very unique style to play with light and shadow in his miniatures, which makes them look like marvelous comicbook characters. Bad news is that Nomic has decided to withdraw from the hobby and hasn't left any notice when he's coming back. I sure hope he does, 'couse it'd be a true shame to loose such a talent!
• Realm of Lead Addiction - Sometimes it's fairly easy to please me. Just throw in a bunch of vintage miniatures with a great paint coat on them and I'm sold. Realm of Lead Addiction is full of them and much more. They even have charity auctions where they sell fine miniatures for good cause.
• Paint Splats - It's always great to see legendary rockbands to do their comebacks. Same goes with painters from the golden ages of Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures, the 80's. Steve is definitely one superb old school painter from those old times, from times when I was just a little wet eared kid. To me, it's always a priviledge to hear what these "old-timers" have to say from your works and I give them a great deal of value.

So there's my list. I kept it short this time, lazy as I am. This damn weather is killing my thoughts.

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It's 22.45 and the evening weather is hot and sweaty with +25°C. I think I'll go and get myself a cold beer from the refrigirator and sit outside and browse through couple old White Dwarfs...

Black Sunday

The creature moved with deadly speed, leaping trough the cracky ground with ease.
Jester followed, as the beast slaughtered its way trough the mercenary warband like machine of death. To her, it seemed like some daemon from other world.

Then she realized that the beast had spotted her.
Only thing she could see anymore was the singular eye that the creature had...
"Fool! use your magic girl!!!" The Captain had sound of desperation in his voice.
Leap after leap the thing was closer, but Jester couldn't bring any spell in to her mind.

The things started to look very bad...

Copygaga

Hello!

Just a little reminder, that things are developing here, thanks Miika!