Talking Dog And Mechanical Rabbits (A Collaboration With Ian Miller)

A few weeks ago I contacted  one of my favourite artist of all time mr. Ian Miller. First I just wanted to tell him, that we have this blog and how its gotten its name from Ratspike and stuff, but then I had this idea to ask if we could do this little project together.

I have always thought, that it would be so cool to transform one of those mystical characters from Ians paintings and drawings into miniature form, but have always dropped the idea, because i don't like the idea to touch someone's art without a permission.

So I just dropped the question "How about if we could do this project together, no money involved just passion. You give me the character, I turn it into a miniature. You get the finished piece, I get COOL blog post. What do you say?"

Ian promised me to talk with the dog and ask from the rabbit about it. In between, we (naturally) talked about fog bells and religious cannon balls.
but the answer came few days after.."Sounds like lot of fun! Let's do it!!!"

I guess this blog was convincing enough then..after all i consider it as my portfolio anyway ;)

We started by choosing the character. Fortunately Ian send me many to choose from! All of the chraracters were brilliant (as anyone who is familiar with his work can surely imagine:) But there was one drawing that really caught my eye. It was a drawing about Rat Soldiers advancing in the streets of crumbled city.

Wow! I get to do a Rat character!!!

Ian told me that the rats were concept studies for some craphic novel, but the rats never made it to the cover of the book. It looked like it was time to give them a new chance to shine!

"I'm happy for you to interpret the chosen character as you see fit" "Have a fun filled free fall adventure"

With these words in my mind I rush forwards! More Will Follow!!!

Rats Under Lucky Stars

I have this feeling, that i should write down some thoughts from my head...Right now, my brain is in the middle of this whirlwind of creativity and hunger to make something big!

Ok...Spiky Rat Pack has been around for a year or so...In that short time me and Kari have created this amazing blog that now has over 100 followers! that's something i am very proud of!

This blog has opened a gateway for us into so many wonderfull things!
No way a thing like this would have happened fifteen years ago...
Sometimes that big bad internet isn't that bad thing at all, don't you think;)

When we started this blog we thought, that we would do lots of different projects together..well it didn't quite happened,,, nowadays be both do pretty much our own stuff. but I think that we get inspired by each others works all the time. And by having this blog, we are infact having this one big collaboration together.
So this blog is about friendship...and kicking each others butts!

Yeah...I will start my own small Mini Company!
It will be very small, something that i will run as a hobby alongside my dayjob, but the goal is to create small line of  alternative miniatures for sale. So many cool ideas in my mind... i promise you, that Spiky Miniatures will be LOUD & CRAZY something that no other mini's company could ever have guts to do,)

This was just me letting out some "steams",  allowing you to have a quick look inside my head=)

I promise you one thing...Things WILL get more and more crazier here in the near future, so keep following the trail of this pack and invite your friends to do the same....We Are Legion!

-okkiW

New Commission Work!

Hi Everybody!

After returning from our amazing trip to UK, i did not rest on my laurels for a long. Very soon I was asked to do this "little" conversion job for my friend Eric.
Eric asked, if I could sculpt a Plague Cart for his Mordheim warband. He gave me this old Carnival of Chaos Plague Cart model and asked if I could transform it into a Slug driven one!

I accepted the commission with a joy! Not only it was great opportunity for me to test my newly learned tricks from GD, but it was also the first time, when someone was actually hiring my skills for money ;)

I started sculpting the Slug-Beast first, Super Sculpey Firm was used for that. After the Slug was finished and baked, I moved into converting the Cart and mounting it into back of the slug. I used Green Stuff for all the converted parts, including the sculpted bait-halfling!

This was such a fun project! I was able to work quite quickly, it only took less than two weeks to finish from start.

I hope you enjoyed this one!


 I accept commissions. If you are interested, please contact me at - okkiw@spikyratpack.com

Masters Of Stars

Just finished another drawing inspired by the 40.000 universe...

Mortis Protectus Legio

Took me couple of evenings to finish him. It's been quite some time since last time I drew with such a pace and passion... Hope you like the outcome, I'm quite pleased by it to tell you the truth ;)

- izeColt

Adeptus Arbites Sketch

I started warming up my drawing zeal this afternoon and ended up sketching Adeptus Arbites Judge. This one is heavily inspired by some baroque and napoleonic paintings I was browsing for one of my incoming projects...

Obeye Lex Imperialis.

"Goblyn b'gone!"

Here's Ulf, the infamous Goblyn Slayer. He's a fearsome sword for hire, not the most expensive one but still sharp enough to do anybody's dirty work - for decent amount of coins, of course...

As I've told in some of my previous Goblyn Slayer post, this project was more than just my entry for this year's UK Golden Demon painting competition. This work was also kind of a tribute to John Blanche and Jes Goodwin, for both of them have been great source of inspiration in my hobby.

There are many references taken from mr. Blanche's Ratspike era art; Warm colour scheme, checkers patterns, stripy pants, bloody brutality and last but not the least, the red ogre face grinning inside the sun.

The miniature itself is from classic Citadel Miniatures range (C01 Fighters), sculpted, of course, by Jes Goodwin. I've always loved Jes' sculpts, especially the way he sculpts faces. For me, his miniatures have always been the most characterful and true representatives of the grimmy Old World. His classic punk wood elves, ferocious human fighters and grumpy ogres from the 80's are perfect examples of this.

This was a great project to carry out. The miniature was awesome to paint, full of the 80's fantasy spirit, just the way I like it. I joked that Ulf, with his blazing red hair and mustache, is like the Old World's own grim and savage version of Tanis from the Dragonlance series.

Ulf is just the first of the many personalities I've planned doing for the Old World milieu. At some point there's going to be a four person adventure group made in the spirit of the 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Ulf's story is a kind of spin-off from their epic adventures...

Don't hold yer breaths though, I've my mind full of other flamboyant ideas from our trip to UK...

Blanchitsu Pays A Visit In The Rat Hatch

The last weekend, during our trip to Nottingham we had a priviledge to have a lunch with John Blanche, the art director of Games Workshop and the pioneer of the visions of both Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k universes. While we were eating some delicious Bugman's burgers, John asked if we'd like to take a couple of shots from his latest miniatures and post 'em on our Blog, Spiky Rat Pack. Oh boy did we!

So, we went outside to the Bugman's sunny autumn terrace, sat down and with the help of Steve's - who had also joined us for a chat - package padding we made a quick, rough set to shoot at. Without further delays, here they are, John Blanche's wonderful Inquisitor and the retinue...

It was marvelous to see these pawns in person, every one of them a true piece of art. By then I knew why some have wrote that you really need to see John's paintings in life to understand how beautiful they are. It's not just the way they look, it's also the way they make you feel...

When talking with John about his painting technique, he told me that he paints his miniatures the same way he paints his paintings. That might be one of the reasons why his miniatures look so unique and, well, painterly. Peculiar techniques and materials are common in John's projects. This combination gives that little special spice on what he does. To be frank, John's attitude towards art and painting has inspired me too to be more adventurous with the techniques in the future.

-izeColt