This statuesque lass represents two things – firstly, my own participation for Morikun’s Competition celebrating the 1,000,000th visit to The Temple of Morikun blog. As well as (obviously) another Jewel of July for my own painting challenge. Now I’m not usually one for painting competitions these days. I have actually won a couple in the (distant) past, but the quality of competition these days is through the roof – and I’m rather pragmatic about painting competitions. If I don’t think I have a chance of winning, I don’t bother entering. I’m also realistic. I ain’t winning no Golden Demon or Crystal Brush. And so I don’t enter competitions. And I’m perfectly okay with all of that.
Morikun’s one is a little different, in that there are roughly one billion prizes, so rather than feeling like it’s unpossible, it is actually quite possible to win some small thing. And with that, it feels more relaxed, more like a painting challenge – and as any reader of this blog knows, I’m definitely up for a painting challenge. There are other very cool challenges and competitions out there right now, with some bloody amazing work towards them, but I don’t feel that I have the time for complex kitbashes and conversions right now or anytime soon, so my participation in those is limited to just enjoying the posts and photos that they’re composed of.
A bit annoying that the highlights and shading on the red of the cape haven’t turned out fully in the photos, but such is life. Anyway, the theme of Morikun’s competition is that of Ms. Morikun, represented by a feminine figure. I can get behind that, though I’d personally be dedicating my own model more towards Marouda, but like is like. Anyway, the best figures I could find for my oan aesthetic were some of my unpainted metal Adepta Sororitas, or a Shieldmaiden/Valkyrie. I went through my stash of Norsewomen, and decided to go big, picking out this model, Valkyrie – Heidi Sigrsdotter from Heresy Miniatures that I picked up with my last order to Andy.
The colour scheme was something that developed pretty much organically, with no planning – I just went entirely by “feel” on this one. My only real concern was to ensure that the colours were in keeping with my actual viking models. The very “Thor” colour scheme was simply how it all turned out, which I noticed about 3/4 of the way through the model. Given the nature of the model, this was fine by me.
One small painted change from the intent of the original sculpt I (sort of) made, was the upper chest. I genuinely thought that the breastplate continued up to under the model’s neck, where the cloak’s neck chain is. It wasn’t until partway through painting when I realised that it was meant to be a kind of comic book superheroine cleavage. So naturally I left it in the metallic colours I’d painted it in to represent armour. She doesn’t need a spear under the collarbone!
So here we are – my submission to the Temple of Morikun and also another Jewel of July. July ends in a few hours, but the next couple of posts will be the remaining figures I finished over the final weekend in July, plus anything I manage to complete tonight before midnight.
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Odin’s beard, she is a mighty Shieldmaiden! Cracking job mate – that cloak is particularly lovely, and the Thor-esque colour scheme is just perfect on her. Love it!
Oh, and thanks for the ping-back mate 😉
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Thank you Alex. She’s a lovely model indeed! Not sure how I’ll use her yet in any miniatures games, but she should certainly work as a player character type model for some of the board games out there.
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Very nice, I have got that mini somewhere intended for a never-started project. I may have to dig it out. Great job!
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Thanks Warburton! What was your project? As I noted to Alex, I’m not sure what to use her for aside from a nice display model.
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Norse themed chaos marauders with a lot of female Valkyrie type models mixed in… A project I still may do at some point.
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That sounds very cool – where did you get your other Valkyries?
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Wargames Foundry, Eureka Miniatures (I wasn’t overly impressed with those ones though), I think a few from Celtos (Brigade Games)… I’ll have to dig them all out now!
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Wow, that’s a Jewel! Great work and an amazing mini. I like it all, flesh, leather, metals, fur. I’m really amazed how you did the feathers on her helm though. Just a hint of shading to pick out the feathers. Going that light and having it still turn out, is pretty amazing.
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Thank you Faust – yeah the feather effect is actually pretty easy and managed to retain them being white rather than grey. Just a couple of layers of thinned blue-grey paint into a paint wash. One for the overall texture and then a second on the main “edge outline” areas like between the two layers of feathers. Then just pick out the feather edges again carefully in white and you’re done!
There’s two colour types I typically use for something like this, Blue-greys as I’ve done here for a “clean” look, or with a cream/light sand combo for a warmer “natural” tone. Thinking about it for a moment, there’s no reason you couldn’t do the same with any colour you wanted to use really, though they’d look a bit less natural.
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Yep, as Warburton says, very nice! That colour scheme really does work well!
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Thanks, mate! 👍
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Proper armour FTW! I’ve done similar things in a few cases where I could get away with it, painting what was intended to be exposed skin as cloth or armour. Really helps the look, in my opinion.
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Yeah, I tend to do that with figures at times – especially where a bodysuit or armour will just look better and far less silly than exposed skin. Here being such an example! 🤔
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Very nice. Seeing miniatures like this makes me want to get out my old school collection of lead and get painting. I just may do that actually. Cheers for the link back. You have a while so maybe you might get stuck in. Could I twist your arm? 😋
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Thanks mate. I won’t promise anything, but I’ll try to try. If it were a matter of just painting something I already has assembled, it wouldn’t be a problem, but needing to assemble something interesting – and with the bar already so high, it’s quite a daunting (and potentially time-consuming) task!
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She’s definitely a jewel man. Very nice
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Cheers, IRO. I’ve really got to finish some of the batch of Vikings I’ve got out so I can get onto some Shieldmaidens.
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I bloody love your Viking work
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Man, Azazel you make me want to paint better. Love these babes.
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Thanks Mark, very kind of you to say that. 🙂
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Good job ! 🙂
It’s really nice to see you and Marouda have entered the competition. I have the same approach – I know I can’t win but here I can get a result… and its a deadline and it makes me go outside my comfort zone et become a better painter.
Cheers!
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