Author Archives: Azazel

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie – Heidi Sigrsdotter (Jewel of July ’18, The Temple of Morikun Painting Competition)

by

23

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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.

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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.

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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.

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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.

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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!

Heresy Miniatures Valkyrie - Heidi Sigrsdotter

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.

Zombicide Survivor: Red Cap Ben (Jewel of July ’18)

by

14

Zombicide Survivor: Red Cap Ben

Well, how do I followup yesterday’s post? With Zombicide, I guess. I finished this pair yesterday – Red Cap Ben in both his living and Zombvivor forms. Ben comes from the Zombicide Karl Kopinski Special Guest Box that also included Angry Mary, who got painted almost three years ago  …probably not far off when I started on Ben. It’s been awhile…

I wanted to try something a bit different for Ben’s pants. Going for both some splatter as well as bloodstaining. I think it turned out quite well, though the light colour of his trousers helped immeasurably. (If it were August, I could have counted that!)

Ben is… just some guy. We spent a bit of time when we first opened up that box speculating about if he was supposed to “be” somebody, or a reference to something, but nope. He appears to just be some guy who looks slightly backwoodsy and slightly homeless – but appears to be pretty well set for zombie survivalist expeditions. I might have gone for a machete rather than a hatchet (or better yet, both!) but I see the practicality of having an axe in a survivalist setting. Firewood doesn’t chop itself, after all.

Zombicide Survivor: Red Cap Ben

I need some new brush-on varnish, as his jacket and backpack have turned out a bit more shiny in the photos than IRL. I’ll probably need to bring him back in and do that as a touch-up. You know how this stuff really stands out in the photographs when the figure is blown up so much! You can kind of make out the blood trail and the smearing of blood on his base, though until I get a tripod for my phone (sadly, my new camera’s phone is now better than my Canon camera at miniatures photography!) – so I’m taking photos with the phone on the table (mostly) rather than elevated.

Zombicide Survivor: Red Cap Ben

Finally, I thought a comparison shot was in order, using a Space Marine – which is a handy guide for most people (yeah, not everyone!) to give a sense of scale and size for many of these boardgame figures I’ve been working on over the last month. Height-wise they’re much the same (taller even, once the bases are taken into account) but much more realistically proportioned, and what we call “truescale”. Which means annoyingly tiny heads when it comes to eyes and all those other small details. Oh, and I’ve heat-reset the Zombivor’s warped/bent shotgun several times. It just keeps going back…

If you’re planning on submitting a model for the Jewel of July Community Challenge, get them in ASAP – you’ve still got a couple of days to get the model done, and then a couple more to get them photographed and posted. Please ensure your model’s post(s) are linked to the comments in there so I can find them. Trust me, even if I’ve read and commented on your models, I’ll still bloody well forget when I’m sitting here assembling the post. Happened in the June Round-Up, it’s happened before then and it’ll happen again.

The next two days (June 30 and 31) should be Marouda’s and my own entries for the Painting Challenge/Contest of The 1,000,000 Visits to the Temple over at The Temple of Morikun. The deadline to which is the 31st of July.

Following that I have three more (so far) of my own July models to share, as I had a nice productive spurt yesterday morning after a couple of days off, and we’ll see if I can finish anything additional in the final two days. Then my own July Round-Up & my Jewel of July Round-Up, then the Jewel of July Community Round-Up.