The Stillman is here !

Yeah, I know, it's only after 9 months that I manage to do what I was meant to do and finish my entry for the Give-away I organised to celebrate my 200th follower...

Since this was 9 months ago, I'm just going to sum things up a little. Each contestant had to choose a model from a list of neglected models of mine and add 2 "flavours" to it.

Airbornegrove won and he had (with little suprise really) selected a battlemasters Knight :

And added the Nigel Stillman and Frank Frazetta flavours to it.

As far as Nigel Stillman is concerned, the easiest way I found was to give a head looking like Nigel's to the knight :

I honestly just gave a slim head I had (6th ed wardancer I think) and modelled some hair to fit and there I was done.

Yes the angle is voluntary to give more dynamism ;)

The frazetta flavour was a little more tricky really. Tell any sane person "Frazetta knight", this is the picture that should come to mind :

For me the signature is those colours you find in skintones and other places that give depth, look at the red on the horse's skin, the blue on the axe and all that... There's even blue in the shield.

I tried to apply that to the horse and its caparison as well as I could.

To capture the Frazetta vibe, I've painted the horse in deep marine blue and the caparison in black. I've then highlighted them normally with tones of grey and then started glazing them heavily with inks. The pictures show something smooth and subtle but it's far more striking and messy in real. 

 I've tried to keep a nervous style in the process to somehow echo Thomas'. I realise I wouldn't be able to paint model like he does because it requires to know where to place colours correctly and it would result in something looking like shit.
Colin from the Leadpile has that talent too and manages to achieve very nervous paintjobs with striking contrasts because these guys have what I call "painting intelligence". A quick line or dot well placed will often achieve more than a blending noone will ever notice. I'd like to be able to achieve that so that's a bit what I tried here hence the rather different look (though on this one, photos won't reveal a thing).

Working like this felt strange and I clearly have to learn about that but I did enjoy the process, I just hope Thomas won't mind me trying new stuff and getting out of the comfort zone on his model.I also hoe the model is somehow compatible with his models and if it isn't , he already has my blesisng to alter it as he sees fit !

For next timeI should have some more civilians for 40k or something totally different, who knows really ?