Saturday 4 October 2014

Stranger in a strange land - The give-away prize

Please let me suggest you some music to go with the post to come :


You're fine? Good, let's begin then.

You may remember, I organized a little give-away to celebrate my 100th follower?, Well you may also remember that Warlord Paul won it. The little challenge associated with this event was really simple, everyone who felt like participating only had to pick one model amongst those I submitted and give 2 flavours to go along.

And here is the result !





Oh but wait, "what were the model and flavours picked ?" I hear you say ! Very simple, Warlord Paul chose this Gary Morley wizard (released druing the 4th edition of Warhammer if I'm correct) :



And his 2 "flavors" were :

1) time-travelling
2) gunslinger

The very first ideas that came to me were immediately:

This...

How not to think about Stephen King's Dark Tower when reading "Gunslinger"


And this :

How not to think about these films when talking about time travel?

And I have to say there was some potential in it but it didn't please me enough, I was sure I could find better than this...
I loved the Dark Tower books though the end realy left me with a feeling of disappointment (my favourite book was definitely the 4th) and the idea of having a multiverse travelling cow-boy seemed cool, idea KEPT.

Back to the future... I have to say I kinda liked those when I was a child but let's face it nowadays, even the pink stained glasses of nostalgia can make me want to watch them again. Oh and if this is not reason enough for you, let's just say that Huey Lewis and the news is clearly not the soundtrack of my Rogue trader (however oldschool and all it might be). idea REJECTED.

No, let's be serious about it, where else did I get some 80's time travel... think, think...

Oh no, how could I even forget about THAT :



Eddie DOES travel in time and space !

Oh but wait ! when he does, he also looks like one bad-ass gunslinger !



Damn, those Derek Riggs drawings still rock, I love them now as much as I loved them back then ! I can remember the time spent searching for all the little details and easter eggs in the one above ! And how cool was it to have time travel, cyberpunk, bladerunner and some classic Iron Maiden in the same package ! 


For such a character I would normally write a little back story with a name and all but since this is a gift to Warlord Paul, I'm leaving this task to him. He has a real talent for coming up with solid and exciting stories so I won't make him the offense of writing the background for one of his characters !


You can see the elf has a bionic eyes like Eddie in the covers, this is direct reference and it also allowed me to give a more futuristic look to the model.

I am very happy Paul chose this Gary Morley wizard because to be honest, I would never have painted it otherwise and it felt so sad. I tried to keep as much of the original model I could and finally only severed the top of his head to give him a cowboy hat made of greenstuff and an automatic weapon to replace his magic sword. The gun is voluntarily a crude gun rather than a refined eldar shuriken pistol or lasgun, I wanted to show this fellow had to arm himslef with what he had to find. Not using eldar parts also enables me to leave a doubt about wether he is an elf from a distant past who has travelled into the future or a guy from the future going in the past to pick fancy old magic items...
I think the contrast between his cowboy/gunslinger attire (hat and coat) and his elegant elvish clothing works well and doesn't look too messy. To avoid any confusoin, I limited myself to my usual palette of reds and blues with white. the brown of the leather coat and hat being here to give the seoncd side of the coin.

Oh and just as a little detail, the colour of his hair had to be white and the colour of his weapon black, you guess why...

"oh now I get why Ulysses told me to go see Theseus..."

During all his journeys, he will encounter several dangerous threats...

"Damn, I might have gone too far in the past ! Don't worry about me guys !  Just act like I'm not here, gimme 3minutes to recover some mana and I'm out through another time portal, right?" 

And he will meet some fascinating people...


Now all I hope id that the model is to the liking of its future owner. For now I have to get back on my Rogue Trader space Orks and a gang of Squats who received some reinforcement some time ago and should take long to finish now...


24 comments:

  1. I never really liked that model on release...but you've made a wonderful character from those prompts Warlord Paul gave you, JB. For some reason I see him fitting into a Dark Future setting quite nicely!

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    1. To be honest I got the model as a gift from a GM in an old DnD campaign but I never intended to paint it so I'm super glad Paul chose it !
      I agree he could do well in all sorts of settings.

      Thanks Jon !

      Delete
  2. Very well done! And even though I did not win (darn you Warlord Paul!) I am thrilled you chose to go with the Eddie theme that I believe we mentioned in the comments section! Looks great, great inspiration, and I'm totally jealous of the Warlord!

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    1. Aha, I somehow knew the Eddie reference wouldn't go unnoticed with you !, Just a few more followers and I'll do another run, maybe taht will be your chance !

      Thanks a lot !

      Delete
  3. Loads of fun. Objectively the original is a pretty decent model, but the conversion doesn't really look much like anything else out there, which gives it extra points :)

    Nice work.

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    1. The initial model is not bad but it's an elf wizard and has therefore very little appeal to me. I didn't really like the haircut but the addition of a hat solved the problem and helped make him a gunslinger, that's 2 birds in one stone !

      Thanks a lot. I hope he will have many adventures from now on !

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  4. Totally wicked conversion, really creates a characterful mini, I love it. Hats off to you sir!

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    1. Thanks a lot, it's just a weapon swap and the adiition of a hat but it does work well, all those Gary Morley sculpts can find a 2nd life in RT !

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  5. What's with all the elf-hate around here? Don't make me muster my dragon hordes and come teach you some manners...

    I love the execution of this model, the simple yet effective conversion and beautiful paint. Now for Paul's sake please package this one like a faberge egg made of real eggshell contained within a Ming vase wrapped in the Mona Lisa.

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    1. No elf-hatred here, just not a fan of high elves since 4th ed to be honest. I'm a huge eldar fan though see?

      You're right, this one has to be protected in a death proof package if I don't want it to be a poisoned gift. I'll be extra careful. A faberge egg...that's an idea.

      Delete
  6. Crazy hat, elf wizard coat, bionic eye, laser gun Iron Maiden soundtrack and thrown' up the devil horns! What's not to like. Great paint job too.

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    1. Yeah it looks like a shameless mash-up but hey ! as long as all ingredients are good, the mix can't be bad right?

      Thanks a lot.

      Delete
  7. Little else can be added, but I must say I'm also thrilled by the results you got there. Didn't see that coming, truly an axercise of originality and fine work!

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    1. Well listening to Iron Maiden while painting during all my youth finally paid !

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  8. Great job! Using that elf worked really great! And a classic album - one of the first one I ever bought!
    /Hans

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    1. Thanks Hans, All those albums until 7th son (my all time favorite) always were linked to my early modeling, it's good some traces come out years after !

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  9. Very good work, and I like that you have found a typical "morley-esque" hand to graft on.

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    1. Sharp eyes ! This is not Morley's work but Chris Fitzpatrick whose style is of the same period and fits nicely indeed. Thanks a lot !

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  10. Great post mate, really inspiring! I absolutely love the conversion, just shows what a few simple changes to a model can do. You've taken a 100% fantasy model and made a completely convincing futuristic adventurer.

    And as if it couldn't get any better, you've got Iron Maiden in there too! (my all time favourite band!) Up the Irons and rock on brother!

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    1. Cool, nice to read it works ! I find it cool to play out of the borders and RT is just perfect for that, it's such a vast gaming field !
      Getting some Iron Maiden in there felt just right really !

      Thanks a lot !

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  11. This is absolutely brilliant! I'm a High Elf player/collector myself and am now thinking of some very interesting Sci-Fi adaptations for my doubles. Inspirational stuff!

    He also has a touch of Moorcock's eternal champion about him to me, a little Jerry Cornelius maybe?

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    1. There is definitely some Moorcock in there ! I'm really enjoying you commenting the blacklog as it makes me get back to stuff I had forgotten myself !

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