Caught somewhere in time - Iron Maiden's Eddie

Let's start with a little music shall we ? If you didn't have the song playing in your head when seeing the model, it's only normal I make you listen to it ! ^^

Now here's a real special one today. I've told you people on many occasions that the hobby blends with music and comics in my heart and imagination because I've discovered most at the same time. Well here's a model that combines a lot of awesome elements. I think many of you will have already recognised Eddie the head, Iron Maiden's mascott which you can see on all their album covers.

Well this mascott has known many incarnations and this one comes right from their album "Somewhere in time" released in 1986.

Album cover by Derek Riggs, just don't try to find all the easter eggs in that cover, it's absolutely mental...

I won't bore you with how much of a fan I was (and still am when it comes to the old albums) but this album as been the soundtrack of many Cyberpunk games and many books I've read. It's a time machine and I simply love getting on that laser cybertrain to melancholia.

The model is a bit peculiar in scale and size, it won't fit with old citadel stuff but this is a model of Eddie that is pretty accurate to the original concept (bar a few details) and which is amazingly well sculpted. You can tell the sculptor (Lux Tanthor I've been told) really used the elements he could find in the pictures of Eddie and that he tried to be as faithful as he could be to the concept.

I'm so olschool that meant I had to work using a physical copy of the picture ;)

That's the reason why I also tried to stick as closely to the concept with my painting. I know some people will do a lot better but I wanted to have a go rapidly to avoid being intimidated by much brilliant works and by the fact others would have painted him in the "official" colours.

I've used drybrushing on the flesh instead of glazes (which could have been a better way to proceed) because I wanted to get this harsh contrast in the skin and a real feel of texture. The flesh is not only visible because of the lack of skin, it's also sore and full of nerves and blood veins so I wanted something rough (and I'm lazy too).

I 've tried to find a good yellow that looked like in the cover and I think I got close enough.

Here's a quick shot with proper old lead just to give you a sense of scale :

Is the model in the right scale and style ? Probably not.
Do I care much about that ? Not really.
Is the model a good one ? Definitely.
Did I enjoy painting it and will I enjoy it having it in games ? Most certainly !

Oh and just because I'm a moron, here's what happened when I took the model out of the paintpot I use to hold my models while I'm painting them...

All in all I'm super happy to have got this one done is so little time (couple of nights), I'm working a some cool stuff at the moment and I'm eager to have your opinion on all that ! ;)