Rodent On The Road

As Mikko told you in his previous entry, our joint project Rogan Rygaard got an invitation to CMON Annual 2010. We needed to send CMON staff some hi-quality photos taken from the dwarf but unfortunately the photos taken previousky for the CMON were, well, not that good quality.

After couple of phone calls we decided to take new photos from Rogan and send them to CMON. But there was a slight problem. Rogan is in Helsinki and me and my SLR are located in Seinäjoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, about 350 kilometers away. So we basically had only couple of options to go with; Mikko could send Rogan via post to me or I could go to Helsinki and we could take the photos at Mikko's place.

Sending such a precious piece via mail didn't really tempt either of us, so guess what, it was time for me to do some road tripping...

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So it was last Friday that I ended up at the door of Mikko's flat in Helsinki with my camera and printed muslin background papers. After cathing up with Mikko we started to discuss about our current projects and what we had been working on with lately. In some point I ended up asking about Mikko's loyalist Space Marine army and how it had been going on. With a grin in his face Mikko came out from his hobby lair and showed me the latest project he had been working with...

Mikko's Imperial Guard, Steel Legion guardsmen...

And here's another group of five guardsmen, WIP.

With a silly look on my face I asked: "What the heck are these??". Mikko answered with an amusing tone in his voice "Well, you know those Space Marines that I told you that I was supposed to be working on with? Well, this is that project"...

Yeah, he got me and this time for good. I was in a belief that Mikko was working on some loyalist Space Marines to counter my Emperor's Children, but he had been pulling me all the way. He even told me some time ago that he had bought the Imperial Guards Codex "just for the amazing artwork and inspiration". Didn't ring any bells by then but now everything is coming in together. That cunning little rat!

To tell you the truth, I was positively surprised with this relevation. Mikko explained that the colour scheme took a major inspiration from the World War I German uniforms. These grunts will become a nice counterforce for my Emperor's Children project, that's for sure!

By the way, Mikko should write some sort of tutorial how he has been working on with these guys, as it looks like he is going to catch me up with a pretty fast pace. Airbrush and carefully thought painting strategy can save you a good while, that's for sure...

Personally I'm really looking forward to see the first squad of these ready!!!

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Back to the main reason for my little trip to the South. Our new shots from Rogan did came out pretty well, now that I knew a little bit better how to handle my camera (mostly with the depth of view and colour tone).

Rogan Rygaard, Chaos Dwarf of Tzeentch.

I never get tired off watching this thing. It's still one of my best paintjob, yet I know there are many things that I could have done better. Well, maybe our next project (Gaga, grhm) will show some progress in that field.

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With our shooting spot up and coffee on the kettle warming up, I decided to check what Mikko's showcase kept inside. I couldn't resist to take couple of photos from one of Mikko's older figures, one of the most eye-cathing beast being Ork Deff Dread with couple of nice mods and ideas.

I really love this can! Those machine guns with their drum clips, rusty and well worn metals and all the wirings make this one of a kind masterpiece.

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The day was turning to evening. You know the saying "time runs when you've a good time". It was time to pack my things and start my trip back to the North. Even though the meeting was brief and the trip was a bit exhausting, it was well worth it! We see each other too seldom, so it was refreshing to chat face to face with my dear hobby brother. Sometimes this hobby just feels like if we're just toiling all by ourselves with too little reward, like Mikko would say. Times like these give you the energy you need to continue your everlasting crafting.

Last but not least, here's a little sneak peak from our next joint project, "The Thing"...

Hmm, what might that be?

Future Rodents

"Spikey" has existed about half an year now...So what's next??

The Mini that started this all, Rogan Rygaard, Chaos Dwarf of Tzeentch
has received invitation from CoolMiniOrNot-site, to take part in the CMON Annual '10
That's a great honour naturally...and for that reason, we want to make sure that it also gets picked into pages, when the new Annual is released.
izeColt is coming to Helsinki to take some new, High resolution photographs of the model.

I received word from Miika Bergdahl too. He begins molding The Captain soon...I will send the Mini to him later this week..so let's see what happens=)


What else??
The Fimir project will start soon, i would also like to do some Pin-Up model, then maybe the Lemmikäinen in 32mm who knows...
Also izeColt has hes small Chaos Space Marine Warband getting bigger all the time!
Many interesting projects coming in the future...Spiky Rat Pack is going stronger than ever now!


Thanks to you all for your support! It is a never-ending source of inspiration!!!

-okkiW

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.

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.

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!