Tuesday 7 October 2014

Vlka Fenryka - Hjarkor Rödmoon, called Lord Hjar, Jarl


The first moment of truth. Lord of the Wulfen. A hundred subtle shades of Grey. Eyes of burning black mercury prey from a sun-starved skin of scar tissue and a ten millennia of winter.

Very very hard to photograph the grey hues, and to get the wide range of gloss effect, from the sparkle of the metal, to the sheen of the frosted areas, to the matt of the wolf pelt and armor, to the glow of the runes (which fails the most, and show I need to go back, add oomph and apply a thin ink glade for satin reflectivity)




Saga of the Rödmoon

“The flutist made a beautiful sound in the depth of the Kaernas forest. It was snowing. Käelma the native Hakkae called it. Hakkae had 27 different words for particular types of snow fall. Käelma was the 26th, a steel rain of black crystals that froze on your skin and caused instant frostbite with the cold winds. After that came what translated only as death, and Sgt. Borros did not intend to find out why. 

27th Roslak Rovers, sheltered under the thick protective foliage of the massive Kaernas trees. Huddled around the flutist. The music was their shield, their comfort, their memory on this grey night before another battle. It was a song only a month old. A song of death and duty, of a hero and a daemon. The memory of it still left the men shaken, some weeping, but all of them focused. It was a story of the Emperor in the sun and his executioners in the night.

A month ago the Rovers were getting annihilated, outnumbered and out fought by the black crusade. Legions of the damned, supported by traitor Marines and daemons of the warp. The imperial lines were going to collapse and another planet would be consumed by the despoiler. The dark sorceries opened a rift between realms. Death visited Kaernas.  

Borros had prayed, prayed like the elders thought him. Prayed for Sun Emperor’s deliverance. 

A giant in grey armor, clad in pelts, and adorned with steel imagery and burning red runes of warding launched from the rift. Sprung on the traitor, daemon and damned alike. He cleaved them in half with massive sweeps of his frosted axe, flayed left and right with a massive claw dripping gore and sent explosive shells from his wrist cannon at the backs of all who tried and failed to escape the carnage. The lord of Grey flowed through the front line, propelled by a jet of blood.  Even the enemy Defiler was left in pieces, it’s daemon hart ripped from it’s carcass. 


It was over so shockingly fast. Defied comprehension. A dozen battered Rovers stood frozen like statues and stared in the black mercury eyes of the wolf.” 












17 comments:

  1. You sexy beast !!! Great conversion!!! I love the tones and the limited palette!! Truly inspiring !! Any chances of a close-up shot of the face?

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    1. Thanks! I should do some close ups with a "proper camera". These are from iPhone 6, which has a shockingly good camera actually :)

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  2. Wonderful!
    The eyes are really haunting :)

    Eve.

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    1. Thanks. It's always a pickle, whether to try show off pupils and tiny reflections or go for impact. I will paint the eyes of my wolves with this brilliant black metal paint. Regular wolves have golden eyes in Prospero Burns, I like the metallic description, and given the Altansar Eldar also have black eyes, this feels like a very fitting direction.

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  3. Less is definitely more in this case :D

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    1. Sometimes more is more, but the base model is already so busy with amazing detail, that keeping the paint job in check definitely was the right idea here.

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  4. Wow. Just... wow. He's absolutely stunning

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    1. Thanks you. Plenty of more stuff to come. I can hardly wait before I get to share the next one...

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  5. My good man! You have set a very high standard for a long time.

    But what you are venturing into now - as seen on this brilliant first take on Vlka Fenryka - elevates your work to a completely new level!

    This is sensuous, simple (and yet extremely complex) and deeply characterful at the same time.

    It is simply beautiful! Congrats man :)

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    1. Thank you my friend. Means a lot to me after pouring so much into this new project!! It really is in many ways a culmination of everything I've done before, with many new techniques, a lot of depth, but also constraints and focus.

      He is an interesting starting point. There is very little flat armor to show off how well I can maybe weather and add interest to it. This will obviously be sorted with many of the following models. The wulfen things will have nice opportunities to do bestial skin and fur to contrast too. I am also excited about the basing.

      And yes, really need to post some comparison shots of his size!

      Thanks again!

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  6. Absolutely stunning... I kept coming back to the post and just staring agog at this piece... I think overall the skintone captured me, just.... Just... No... lost for words...

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    1. Thank you so much!

      I have to give a shout out to these amazing paints that worked absolute wonders for the skin hues!: http://www.scale75.com

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