Monday 28 May 2012

Finally got back to painting something other than warhammer this week with a lovely little figure for Malifaux.  Which brough an interesting point up for me.  I'd only ever seen the model online (something that's true of every Malifaux model I've bought except my very first box) and to be honest I thought it was a bit rubbish but I went ahead and bought it because it was in a 25% off sale and the other alternative option wasn't available.  When it arrived I warmed to the figure a little, I still thought the pose was odd but with the model in hand it started to make more sense and not look quite as odd as I'd previously thought.

The figure in particular I'm talking about is the female Desperate Mercenary, the pose is an unsual one where she looks like she's just finished attacking with her sword, but at that angle you'd assume she's either missed and is dodging a blow or must have severed straight through something, so it's dynamic but without the interaction with another model it looks a bit odd.



So this lead me to wondering about the challenges facing a sculptor.  The obvious pose is to just be standing there and wielding weapons for most wargames and this is a pretty standard thing, but then people start to complain that it's not dynamic enough, there's no movement etc etc (you'll have seen it a load online particularly thrown at GW models).  So instead this sculptor has done something that is rather dynamic and when you see the model in front of you it pretty much makes sense, but seeing it in photos online I thought it was utter rubbish and the pose didn't work at all.

So I wonder how much that comes into play, there are regularly models which on release are derided for just not looking 'right' and I imagine unless their rules make them an obvious choice result in some beautiful scuplts being overlooked.  I wonder if there is a way around this, obviously photos from multiple angles help,otherwise we run the danger of models becoming quite samey because everyone goes for poses which are safe rather than something a bit out the ordinary that doesn't photograph well.

In other news I've contined to paint up the O&G army and a few more additions to other armies too. 

Lizardmen - Slann (old edition model)


Skaven - Doomwheel and Warpfire Thrower




O&G






 With that the O&G are starting to come together as an army, still need to do a load more models but I'm starting to get the feel for them with a big unit of gobbos, a couple of war machines and a chariot I think I've got my Orc and Gobbo look sorted out and settled on a consistent feel for things like the wood, fur and similar parts of their attire.