GD UK skaven

automaton

New member
hello everyone!

I finally made it back from my trip around the world hehe, wow it was so amazing, all the incredible sights and meeting many of the great painters at last! It was a dream, and now it\'s all a blur haha. I will put together a big report of the trip with lots of photos soon, I\'ll probably post it as a report on my site. :)


ok, it\'s time for the pics - the skaven this time, huzzah! haha. :D I decided the split up the minis into different threads, just to try to make it a little better for those with slower connections...to many photos as it is, and if I had them all on the one page I think some people\'s computer may blow up (I know my own comp. would never recover haha).

I have already posted these photos on a couple of forums around the place, but I thought I might as well post them here on CMON too; sorry if some of you are already sick of seeing them!



This mini is based on an Adrian Smith artwork, that was in the old warhammer \'Battle Bestiary\' from the warhammer box set in the early 1990s - the one with the plastic high elves and goblins in it haha, which were the first minis I ever got! :p I have always loved the artwork, and always dreamed of making it into a miniature one day, so when I was trying to think of projects for Uk GD I decided it might be time to give it a go.

As you can see from the sculpting pics, I based it very closely on the illustration at first, with the spear/halberd weapon and the round spikey shield. But when I started painting, there were problems: the mini seemed unbalanced and strange looking from some angles. So in the end, after a lot of agonising over the decision, I bit the bullet and swapped the weapon and shield to something else. And I think it was a big improvement composition-wise, so I am glad that I changed it, even though it was a shame to deviate from the artwork. But at least it was fun to add something quirky with the hanging zombie head censer haha ;)

This mini was my main entry for Europe, and I spent about 5 weeks on it: all of July, and a bit of June and August. It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it...I learned a lot from trying something ambitious with the sculpting, and although I think there are lots of big problems with the sculpt, I think it\'s still a step forward. Plus, after all the kind words I have received about it, I feel a lot more confident about going on with more sculpting now.

Well, I hope you guys like it!



here\'s the CMON bit: http://www.coolminiornot.com/172884


and here are the pics! (at last!) :D


first the artwork - I probably shouldn\'t post this, with copyright and everything, but I\'ll just leave it up and risk it for a little while at least so you guys can see it:


skaven_artwork.jpg



skaven_WIP1.jpg



skaven_WIP2.jpg



skaven_WIP_heads.jpg



skaven_WIP3.jpg



skaven_forum-1.jpg
 

Bill

New member
I\'ve said it before and I\'ll say it again, you\'re a genius! lol The sculptwork on this is the best I\'ve seen from you so far, I think. - and the painting is superb. A really nice rich palette, perfect colour choices and blends. I really can\'t fault anything about the mini at all. Perfect.
 

Roger Bunting

New member
Well, as a skaven fan, all I can say is, superb job. This is going in my favourites.

I bought that battle bestiary box set. They were the white plastic models weren\'t they?
 
S

sg2009

Guest
I\'m not a big fan about skaven.I dont like some of the minis but this is amazing :eek:
congrats on the demon :drunk:


sam
 

atacam

New member
Excellent job, as always. If I may say though, why change the shield and swap the halberd. In my humble personal opinion, they looked far better than the final choice.
 

Ritual

New member
Beautiful mini, Sebastian! Seeing this in hand was truly inspirational and also seeing these WIP shots of the sculpting is great! Thanks for sharing those!
 
SUBERB, consistent execution of a very atmospheric Miniature, I have to congratulate you on this one...:)... You do so nice things, It makes me really happy... very inspiring (I am doing it very similar, Concept process, execution...)... You sculpt way better then me...:)... I have to practice...

10 Points for this...
 

mud duck

New member
Originally posted by atacam
Excellent job, as always. If I may say though, why change the shield and swap the halberd. In my humble personal opinion, they looked far better than the final choice.

Yes,yes!
Where you shooting for more of a Plague Priest then a Warlord?
Other then that Wow, Nicely Done!
 

OrkBoy

New member
Jaw-droppingly awesome work!:eek: I just love this piece, my favourite of the competition! As for swapping the halberd and shield- I think you made exactly the right decision. The \'head censer\' gives the piece a sort of \'delicacy\' and a smooth flowingness that makes this model so beautiful, whereas the halberd did indeed make the model look a bit stiff.

Congrats on the award and I look forwards to seeing what other amazing stuff you do next! :)

Cheers,
Tom
 

Micha

Member
Amazing piece of work, what you have done by far surpasses every skaven I have ever seen, you should know that I hate them, but you made a skaven look awesome; painting-wise I think the warpstone whord handle is the most interesting part, it instantly draws your eyes towards the figure. I sincerely thank you for sharing the creation of this masterpiece with us. You perfectly deseved the honors you recieved for this and your other work.

Micha
 

AinuLainour

New member
Absolutely my favourite mini from reports of GD Uk 07. It\'s got everything a high quality fantasy figure should have - insane amounts of detail, flawless paintwork, and top notch sculpting. I had thought it was at most an extensive conversion until I saw the pics on spanish-team!
 

automaton

New member
Thank you all so much for the VERY nice comments everyone, it really means a lot to me to hear that you like the mini! It was a lot of work and a bit of a risk to make this one for UK - it was the first time I have really tried hard to scratchbuild something, and I was worried that I would fail miserably, and in the process waste a lot of the limited time I had for my entries. So it is very good to hear that you like it, and even though, as I said before, there are lots of problems with the sculpting, I think it can now provide a more solid point for me to go forward (hopefully haha). So hearing that you enjoyed it gives me a lot of confidence to go on - thank you! :D

atacam and mad duck - yes I know, it was such a shame to change the weapons from the original...but as I was trying to explain in the first post, they just didn\'t work properly with the miniature. It is hard to explain, because the photos don\'t really show the problems - but in real life, there was something seriously wrong with the balance of the miniature. Parts I wanted to be seen were being obscured, and the front of the mini was much more \'closed\' - I wanted the front of the mini to be much more open. So as I said, it was a real shame to deviate from the artwork, but I am sure that I made the right decision in the end. Plus, it gave me a chance to add something a little bit quirky and fun with the hanging zombie head censer haha ;)


Thanks again everyone!
 

Baz

Member
This has to be one of the finest fantasy mini\'s I\'ve seen in years. The weathering work in particular is perfect.
 

OrkyDave

New member
A truly stunning piece, and the ammount of work put into it with the WIP\'s is truly impressive.

Well done!
 

DaN

New member
Aye, very nice of you to include a thorough amount of WIP photos, but it\'s a shame they were all submitted at once rather than allowing us to follow the progress :p lol

Once day I will sculpt that well.
And win a demon.
And also an olympic gold.
 

rosac

New member
so whens the sculpting tute apearing eh, nudge nudge wink wink.

ok joking aside, I do love the mini and if i were allowed a favourites, i would put this at the top of my list. well done, and may you paint for many more seasons.

rosac
 

laurence

Brushlover
So c00l!

I\'ve been patiently waiting to see some better pics of this mini! This is well worth the wait! What is there to say that hasn\'t already been said? You\'re really pushing the boundaries with your freakishly extraordinary talents with miniature art! Truly great!!!

Thanks Sebastian! You da man!!
 
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